Taking the body off the frame

xoxbxfx · May 17, 2004

Well, any suggestions on taking the body off the frame? Do I just cut the welds and and lift off?

Also, do I need to support the body with some crossbracing inside the car so it dosnt lose any shape??

THanks
Tim

1970 slantroof · May 17, 2004

The Mustangs are all unitized construction and there is no "body and frame".
You restore the car without taking it apart. Sometimes individual parts of the unit body need replacing but you do those one at a time to avoid loosing the structural integrity.
Howard

blue66tang · May 17, 2004

The body isnt suposed to come off the frame. Thes are unibody cars. Meaning the body and frame is all one thing. like if you were to take a coupe cut the top off, it would probobly fold in half because the roof is designed to be almost the back bone to our cars. Convertables have other brasing that stiffens the car up, but still are unibody cars.

xoxbxfx · May 17, 2004

its recieving a tube chassis...the body has to come off...

Both front frame rails are pretty rusted and the car will be getting a MII setup... I figured I might as well replace the whole frame with a solid 1 piece tube chassis. No subframe connectors on rusty frames for me....

RacinJason did it on his car, a full backhalf and tube chassis... it can happen

1970 slantroof · May 17, 2004

Of course it can be done. If you had made that clear in the original post it would have been easier. If you can make a tube frame that is safe and works, you will know how to get the body off.
Howard

xoxbxfx · May 17, 2004

1970 slantroof said:
Of course it can be done. If you had made that clear in the original post it would have been easier. If you can make a tube frame that is safe and works, you will know how to get the body off.
Howard

lmao...thanks for the help

This will be my first big project. I was just wondering if there was any suggestions on how do brace teh body and make sure it doesnt collapse or anything. Hell, for all I know I might just be able to cut it off and lift off and have nothing to worry about.

Thanks for all the great insight

fastcoupe68 · May 17, 2004

There is nothing to lift off. If you cut out the front frame sections and remove the rear frame rails thats all the frame you have. Make sure you leave the floor sections where you cut the rails off. I hope a proffessional is doing this, because if you did not know the stangs are a unibody construction and you personally are doing this work I think your over your head. IMO!

paintballtommy · May 17, 2004

do me a favor and go outside and look underneath your car. youll know what to do from there.

RajunCajun · May 17, 2004

Just curious, if your using a tube chasis why use heavy steal panels from the original body? why not just go full fiberlgass mold? hell lot easier to make work

http://www.usbody.com/Pages_Cars/64-Mustang.htm

scroll down

xoxbxfx · May 18, 2004

OMFG...you guys make me out to be a freaking idiot. I know wtf a unibody car is and how the car is held together by the independent frame rails. I have been doing old Mustangs for 3 years. I was just wondering if any racers out there have any insite on taking off the body. If you do old hodrods and chop and channel them, you ALWAYS brace them side to side on the interior to keep the body in its origional shape. The bracing keeps it from warping. Well to all you smartasses that think Im stupid, will the body be effected at all by not being held together by the front and rear frame rails? The front and rear rails are sorta lengthy (mainly the front) and there is a lot of leverage put on the body of teh car to hold it up. Will taking off hte rails effect this??

My plan no thanks to anyone here is the following:

Mount on quick home built subframes (or lack there of) and take the body off. This will keep the frame rails in the spot where they were origionally mounted. The theory is to have a complete frame of a car to copy the new frame off of.

Cut the frame rails out and I should have a stripped body of a car to remove.

Build the new frame out of 2x3 box tubing mimicing the old frame. Only difference will be the rear will be about 6" narrower with a ladderbar or 3 link setup.

The front will be a little different with a boxed in front end and all square tubing for a radiator support etc... The car will also be getting a MustangII front end with full tubular upper and lower control arms, dropped spindles and coilovers.

The motor will be a home built twin turbo 5.4L DOHC Navi motor. This idiot just happens to have Modular Performance backing me up as a sponsor for the motor, they know how dumb I really am.

Trans will be an X2C Motorsports TKO, custom made driveshaft and a Fab9 rear end housing. 4.11 gears, strange axles and 18" wheels.

Rear tires will be 335's or 13" slicks..

I promis there has been a lot of planning, and thought into this. I was just looking for some help on taking the body off without warping anything or letting the body get messed up. Thanks for nothing

Tim

allcarfan · May 18, 2004

Tim,

You only have over 3000 posts!!! You know NOTHING about these cars, you cant take the body off the frame!!!

[/sarcasm]

63_Fairlane · May 18, 2004

Poor use of terminology will get some interesting remarks.

I have seen a good through the floor subframe build up on Corner-carvers.com. This was for a rode racing/street setup but it should work for a drag car as well.

http://home.socal.rr.com/jfearn/sfc.htm

Basically you are replacing the front and rear sub frames with tubing and building your own heavy duty subframe connectors. Add a roll cage on top of it and you should be good to go.

I will try to find some other examples.

65 fastback · May 18, 2004

xo,

There's another guy on CornerCarvers.com, Preston, that did a complete new frame for a '67.

Here's a link to a thread on his car - http://corner-carvers.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=15900

He, also, has a website with a bunch of progress pictures that may help you. It's not the most user friendly site, but it probably has some pictures of what your looking for - http://corner-carvers.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=15900

Hope that helps a little.
Tim

1320stang · May 18, 2004

XO, I'd consider ordering a fully welded chassis from someone like Art Morrison and a cage and go from there. You're not going to want to use the stock floor anyway. You'll need to remove the sheetmetal from the front clip, then basically cut the fron clip off, I'd leave the firewall for now, although you may want to fab up a new one of those later. You'll want to cut the whole floor out from rocker to rocker and remove the wheel tubs and trunk floor. I'd take lots of measurements and diagonal ones too. Art Morrison sells a video on how to back half your car and I think one on building a full tube chassis. Neither is exactly what you're attempting, but much can be learned from watching either. I've got a buddy that owns a drag chassis fabrication shop, so I've seen a LOT of cars being built. RacinJason and I emailed each other back and forth several times during his construction. You ought to come up to Oklahoma City during Memorial Day weekend, I'm putting on a Nostalgia race and car show in Norman and you'd be able to look at some old cars that have had some work done on them to take notes off of.

1320stang · May 18, 2004

Oh, you could build a little 1" square tube frame to weld to the rockers and attach casters to to roll around while you assemble the frame rails. I suggest going to Morrison as their fully welded chassis are done on a jig to ensure squareness and levelness (are those words?) which, although not impossible, would be harder for you to achieve in a home shop.

UNVMATT · May 18, 2004

Overhaulin' show on TLC did a frame for a 67 Slomaro vert last week. They did it complete in 1 week..

Of course, Chip Foose is a bad MOFO!

RogerC62 · May 18, 2004

xoxbxfx,
I'm planning out something similar in that I have a complete frame and cage designed. Mine is geared towards street and maybe some road racing rather than drag. I plan on cutting away the frame rails and floor in stages. 1st stage is to level and support the car before cutting. 2nd is to cut 2" wide along the inside of the rockers. I'll then ad 2X3 tube along rockers and weld in place. I'll probably do the front frame rails next for stage 3 and finally the rear rails for stage 4. The idea being to maintain alignment and support till I have everything tied back together. Once all the pieces of the frame are welded in I'll remove what's left of the floor and create a new one. I still need to take several measurements before I make up my front rails. I'll be installing a MII type IFS and a CWI IRS. The fab shop at work is going to cut my pieces to size for the front rails.

To answer your question about supporting the remainder of the body, I'd make sure the rockers are aligned and tied together. Add temporary bracing from pillars to opposite rockers and across the door openings. All before cutting should keep the body aligned till it is tied in to the new frame.

I have a neighbor who built an early Model A Indy type racer, the kind with the staggered seating. He built his frame rails from flat stock. I learned a lot about fabrication from him. He fabbed the frame, any brackets or accessories needed and body.

63_Fairlane · May 18, 2004

1320 is probably right. You should find a chassis builder, if this is going to be an all out racer with sponsorship.

You can buy wheel tubs and prefabed rear suframes with ladder bars or four-links from either Jegs or summit. I think this would be easier than roling your own from scratch.

xoxbxfx · May 18, 2004

Thanks for the replies guys for Im an idiot

Anyways, I contacted Chassisworks and we are talking $6k for the front and rear suspension setup, blank rear end housing and frame rails not welded + shipping on everything. Im talkin $6500 or more to get it to TX. Im gonna look around locally for a shop to do the stuff, has to be someone in Texas that can build a frame.

My real goal of it all was to have a 90+% home built car. A true enthusiest, not someone with a lot of money who pays everyone to do his gruntwork. I figure as long as my garage floor is level and I measure 3-4 times before I cut, I can build a frame. Its going to basically be box tubing cut in like 2 or 4 places and where the rear part of teh frame rails will taper out.

The car is not going to be a full drag car (it will see the strip though), its going to be a show car / street beast. Im looking to win a couple shows and hopefully get into a magazine. Im not a professional, and Im limited on tools, I want to have the best that one can do in his own garage. The frame is the only complicated part for me, the rest just takes time.

bud4660 · May 18, 2004

Here's a shop that's doing some cool cars.
http://clubs.hemmings.com/clubsites/cowtownmopars/TexasThunder/index.html

Taking the body off the frame

xoxbxfx

1970 slantroof

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xoxbxfx

1970 slantroof

xoxbxfx

fastcoupe68

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paintballtommy

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RajunCajun

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xoxbxfx

allcarfan

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63_Fairlane

65 fastback

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UNVMATT

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63_Fairlane

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bud4660

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