Did you forget anything when you did your body lift?

[Scott M.]

Re: Did you forget anything when you did your body lift?

Wow. So if the rivets give way, then I'm looking at fiberglass repair work on the body in that location? My frame off restore only includes doing the frame itself. Everything on top looks great and I was only planning on doing some refresh work in some areas and keeping everything except the frame/chassis in original condition. I wasn't planning on restoring the whole car.

Roger

If your going to do a body lift and replace the frame, I can only assume that the original frame is in pretty bad shape. If the frame is in such bad shape then you can almost always bet that some parts of the body, particularly the body mount locations and the rest of the birdcage will need some attention as well. Be sure to inspect the extension for the lap belt guide bar that mounts near the outside edge of the seats. The extension is welded to the inside channel of the birdcage. That's why I had to remove the body on my car a second time. The welded nut on mine had come loose due to rust and the only way to replace it was to lift the body back off. I'm just saying it would be best to take care of potential issues while you have the body off.

[Steve L.]

Re: Did you forget anything when you did your body lift?

I agree with Scott, GM has in there wisdom, used very cheap paint on a lot of the underbody reinforcement pieces. There is a piece that has no paint. Check the reinforcement strip under the hinges for hatches. This is a long narrow strip running transverse to the body, under the body. It is a thin cheap sheet metal strip with no paint on it whatsoever coming right out of the factory- can you believe it?? There is probably nothing left of it on yours. Also, I think it is the seat reinforcement plate is only plated with cheap black phosphate. It has almost no corrosion resistance. My seat belt reinforcement plate was nearly all gone.

Check the rocker channels, the inboard side - another spot for rust.

I landed up replacing most of the small reinforcement type of pieces under the body. There is something like 20 or 25 pieces under there. Took a long time, and it takes two people to do the riveting- more than 100 rivets. I tried using the hammer and rivet tool the vendor sell, but quickly realized that was a lost cause. I made my own rivet tool shank for an air hammer copying the vendors tool.


Fiber glass body,,,,, ya with tons of steel reinforcements.