Body lift or drop jig

[David H.]

Just wondering if anyone has ever used the pictured type of arrangement to lift or drop a C1 body.
I would like to build me one of these to do mine soon.
Anyone have any of the specifics of how this overhead hanger arrangement is build and put together?
Ever used one like this?

ThanksBody lift and drop jig.jpg

[Wayne W.]

Re: Body lift or drop jig

A bit of over kill for a one time use.

[Art B.]

Re: Body lift or drop jig

Hi David. As a matter of fact we built something like this in 2004 when we lifted the body off my brother's 59. It is probably overkill for most of us but we had the benefit of another brother who has a large fork lift and a machine shop with lots of 2X4 steel tubing, a bandsaw and an industrial welder. Our brother built the fixture out of 2X4 tubing in just a couple of hours. I have attached several photos that show this fixture. The clarity is not very good but it was the best we could get with the camera we had. As you can see it was fairly easy to lift this fixture with the fork lift, although the way it was designed to fit on the forks it would have been difficult to lift with a hoist from a single point. I can tell you that it worked very well and appeared to put minimal stress on the body and windshield. I would be happy to share the blueprints with you but unfortunately we never took the time to write down any of the dimensions and after we were done we cut it up to reclaim the steel. Please feel free to contact me and I will answer any questions I can.
IMG0110.JPGIMG0114.JPGIMG0115.JPG

[David H.]

Re: Body lift or drop jig

I like the looks of this. I would agree that it would put less stress on the body as a whole. I have lifted mine twice now and did some damage the second time. This does not look terribly difficult even with wood. I think I will take some measurements and see what I can come up with. Getting close to putting the body back on.
Thanks for your input.

[David H.]

Re: Body lift or drop jig

.... As you can see it was fairly easy to lift this fixture with the fork lift, although the way it was designed to fit on the forks it would have been difficult to lift with a hoist from a single point. I can tell you that it worked very well ...
[ATTACH=CONFIG]37015[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]37016[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]37017[/ATTACH]

Would a load leveler (used for engine removal) solve the single point lift problem?

[Al E.]

Re: Body lift or drop jig

This looks like it would not be cheap... I thought about buying a 2 post lift for my body lift. It was about $1400 on Ebay. Not a bad price, if you have the space for it. If you pay $400-$500 in fab and materials you are 1/3 of the cost of a 2 post lift. At the end you can reuse that lift for other things.. Maybe it just me... I would spend the extra $1000 bucks for the real deal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSon3gd81uk&feature=g-like&context=G2eaae6eALTyDV2gAKAA