body off in a two car garage -- feasible?

[Tom R.]

Re: body off in a two car garage -- feasible?

Ian - I looked into this and ideally I needed an extra 12 inches of ceiling clearance (I have 8.5 ft now) to put my Corvette on it and to put another car under it. If you don't need to stack cars then it will work fine to get your body up above the chassis. If you ever do want to stack cars you can build a recess into your ceiling like framing a big skylight. Your windshield can then go up into this recess. There are some good pictures on the TDB of those who have done this.

Mark

Hey Mark...what's the TDB?

[Tom R.]

Re: body off in a two car garage -- feasible?

Ian:

I'm in a similar situation with a 2-car garage and have thought about one of those PODs...renting it for the period I need until ready to marry body and chassis.

Also comtemplating raising body up and storing on jacks (house) with ability to roll chassis in and out from under body. Obviously, I'm exploring all options.

[Mark P.]

Re: body off in a two car garage -- feasible?

Tom - the TDB is the Technical Discussion Board.

here is the link to the posting that shows a ceiling opening.

https://www.forums.ncrs.org/showthre...rance&uid=4104


Mark

[Thomas N.]

Re: body off in a two car garage -- feasible?

David:
That is a great looking lift for $1800. Who is the mfg? At that price, it is hard to not have one in the shop.

[Troy P.]

Re: body off in a two car garage -- feasible?

The rule of thumb I use is a disassembled car takes up 5 times as much space as one put together. It can be done in a two car garage. My suggestion is to build some floor to ceiling shelves the full depth of the garage to hold everything.

[Ian G.]

Re: body off in a two car garage -- feasible?

Yeah I bought all new shelving units and and they pretty much line all available wall space... Based on the space a 4 post lift will take (I'd have to squeeze around the posts, I'm now thinking of building a dolly to put over the chassis and raise the body up 4 feet -- but I'm still kind of brainstorming.

[Grant M.]

Re: body off in a two car garage -- feasible?

But the four-post lift will be useful for years to come...detailing, repairs, etc and/or storage.

grant

[David P.]

Re: body off in a two car garage -- feasible?

David:
That is a great looking lift for $1800. Who is the mfg? At that price, it is hard to not have one in the shop.

Thomas,
It is a Direct lift. Link below:

http://www.gregsmithequipment.com/Vehicle-4-Post-Lift-s/36.htm

[Ian G.]

Re: body off in a two car garage -- feasible?

Here's what my car looks like with its body off in my two car -- very full -- garage, for anyone who's interested.

It was a lot harder than I thought it would be reading all the posts :P But aside from some stress, it was good times. Thanks to Mark pellowski for helping me out

[Tom R.]

Re: body off in a two car garage -- feasible?

Here's what my car looks like with its body off in my two car -- very full -- garage, for anyone who's interested.

It was a lot harder than I thought it would be reading all the posts :P But aside from some stress, it was good times. Thanks to Mark pellowski for helping me out

Nice work. See you worked out the saw horses...where did you pick up the metal stands for the saw horse

[Stewart A.]

Re: body off in a two car garage -- feasible?

Wow ! Well done Ian and Mark. I bet it feels good to finally be able to see and get at the task at hand.
Ian can you push the chassis out of the garage to work on the chassis outside, weather permitting.
Stewy

[Joe R.]

Re: body off in a two car garage -- feasible?

Ian,

Very, very cool! You have given me hope that I can do a frame off restoration in my very small two car garage (18x18x8). What are the dimensions of your garage? How do you plan to store the body while you work on the frame and vice versa?

Joe

[Steven B.]

Re: body off in a two car garage -- feasible?

Nice work. See you worked out the saw horses...where did you pick up the metal stands for the saw horse

Tom, I saw some like these at our local Home Depot last summer.

Steve

[Ian G.]

Re: body off in a two car garage -- feasible?

NAIL
-----
HEAD

We had a real hard time getting the body oriented correctly. I'd really like to know what is meant by "mounting position for the trunk/rear hatch"? That's supposed to be the rear mounting spot, but Mark and I couldn't figure out where to connect bolts and clips there, aside from hanging it from the hinge itself and that didn't seem like a good idea, so I used the convertible top bracket. This made the car dip in the back, so we ended up using about four 4x4 stacked on top of each other to lift the back balanced on the rear crossmember to get it straightened out enough. We enlisted a couple friends to help, so it was a mixture of lift party/cherry picker method...

[Mark P.]

Re: body off in a two car garage -- feasible?

With hindsight we should have used a strap for the rear and a strap for the front rather than a strap for the driver side and a strap for the passenger side.

We should have also used an engine leveler. We would have then had very good control of the body position.

It was learning experience for sure and satisfying.