Update
I was able to get the body off the frame! This will allow me to one, fab up all the custom mounts and things I will need, two do any frame reinforcements I decide I need, and three get the entire drivetrain mocked up. Or at least, once it will once I find a bellhousing and transfer case for this, can't find one anywhere near me on craigslist or in any junkyards and may have to turn to advance adapters for a bellhousing (~$400, feels like a ripoff for a bellhousing).
Let's look at what it took to do this in a garage. Note: I wouldn't really recommend doing this, it's kind of a pain in the butt, but if you were to do it it would be MUCH easier to just stick a cherry picker on either end then to do what I did.
There are two bolts that mount the front radiator support part of the body to the frame, however since I cut this out I had already removed these. I did go ahead and undo the bolt on the steering shaft, remove the brake lines (flare nut wrench really helps here) and removed any remaining electrical in the front.
Next was undoing the parking brake which unfortunately requires working under the dash - I hate working under dashes. I found it was easiest to pull some pressure on the back side with vice grips and then and grab a pick to depress the 3 tabs on piece inside the car.
Drivers side footwell, inside
outside
Next was the filler neck, but since this used to be a parts car apparently I had cut the filler tube with a sawzall to replace the neck on the green one, so that was already done for me
. I believe its 4 bolts or so under the fuel door to remove it properly. I'm hoping the gas tank isn't TOO full of bugs and rats, but 1 I have an extra fuel tank if needed and 2 I need to give it a rinse anyways since it will be filled with diesel eventually
(that's fun to say).
As for body bolts they're in the passenger/driver footwells, behind the driver/passenger seats, behind the rear seats underneath the flap in the back, and under the carpet on the very rear. Including the 2 for the rad support this is 10 total body bolts. However, I didn't actually realize this and on my first pass missed the ones behind the rear seats
more on that later.
Driver/passenger footwells
Behind the driver/passenger seats
In the trunk (ignore the mess, I'm keeping all the parts from the front end in here, running out of space in my small garage haha).
NOTE: NOT SHOWN 2 bolts under the rad support and 2 more bolts behind the rear seats. Don't forget any like I did!
I then removed the rear bumper so I could get at the rear easier (bumpers attached to the frame, needed access to rig-up the body). There are two of these brackets I'm holding up in this picture and then 2 license plate light bulbs. NOTE: the bolts on these brackets have serrations similar to a wheel stud, once you get the nut off don't try just prying them out you'll bend the bracket like I did. Instead spin the nut back on a couple threads and hammer these brackets out, they won't come out otherwise (the nut protects the threads for when you reassemble it).
Next I had a bit of a faux pas. I was trying to figure out how to lift BOTH the front and rear at the same time and got the idea to put a shaft in the spot in the back of the car that you use to lower down your rear tire and then jack up on it with the floor jack. So I took an old axle shaft I had laying around and turned down the tip of it on my lathe
Was going to rig it up like follows (ignore that the frames already missing, took this picture after the fact).
However I realized quickly there would be no way to ever get the floor jack high enough so I wouldn't be able to jack up both sides and pull the body off the frame sidways like I had imagined. Instead I'd have to use the cherry picker, pick up the rear and set it on something tall, then pick up the front and roll the frame out from underneath rather then roll the body off the frame by supporting it with a cherry picker and jack. Since I had to pickup the rear with the cherry picker anyways I just rigged up a strap to hook to. NOTE, if you're doing this don't do it how I did, borrow a second cherry picker and pickup each side with a cherry picker and roll the cherry pickers + bodys to get the body off the frame. that would be MUCH easier then having to pick up each side 30 times to progressively stack taller stacks underneath it.
Anyways here's how I rigged the back rather then using the axle shaft (again pardon the time travel, frames already gone in this pic).
and I rigged up the front like this:
I started jacking up the rear with the cherry picker but realized something was wrong when I noticed the rear tires were no longer touching the ground... Impressive little cherry picker! Also, this proves that my rear rigging was plenty strong enough haha. Can't tell in the pic but I could spin the rear tire, it was in the air
(can see me spin the tire in the video at 9:20).
I figured out the issue was that I didn't realize there were the 2 body bolts behind the rear seats, so I needed to pull those. Once I got those out it worked fine!
My basic plan was to pick up the back and set it down on something tall enough that the frame could roll out from underneath, then move the cherry picker to the front and pickup the front. I used a stack of tires on each side plus I took apart the second to top shelf on my pallet racks and used the beam to go from one side of the car to the other (I originally tried using a 2x6 but it deflected way too much). You can see all the cummins parts from this shelf scattered all over the garage after I had to do this haha.
The issue was that I couldn't just pickup the back once, stack 3 tires, and set it down all in one go since the angle of the body was way too harsh and unsafe, it would have slid off. Instead I had to pickup the back, stack a couple tires, set it down, pick the front, raise the jackstand, set it down, then repeat on the rear with more tires and blocks until I finally got it high enough. This took forever and was a wee bit sketchy which is why I recommend just using two cherry pickers, could do it all in one go. Another unforeseen consequence was every time I set the back down the car rolled forward a couple inches so by the end the front was literally sitting on my workbench. Good thing I WAY overbuilt that bench.
Eventually I got it high enough(ish) and was finally able to roll the frame out. At least sort of, I DID have to let all the air out of the front tires and pry with a crowbar a touch to get the front of the frame to finally limbo under the beam.
Apparently I've exceeded the maximum number of attachments... Maybe this is explorerforum telling me I'm being way too verbose xD haha apologies, let me know if this is excessive. Until told otherwise though, continuing the update in the next post!
www.fullsizebronco.com
