Remove body from town sedan?

J

JayJay

Well-known member
Barners: I am getting ready to remove the body from my 1930 Town Sedan for a full resto. I have an overhead gantry crane, and my first thought to an approach was to remove the doors, then fashion a jig using padded planks through the door openings and lift the body from above (similar to how Ford lowered the bodies onto the frames in the assembly plant). However, I got to thinking that maybe with a wood frame body this might not be such a good idea and that it would be better to somehow jack the body from below, then slide planks between body and frame and lift from below. If I had a forklift this would likely be the way I'd choose, but I don't have a forklift.

Has anyone had experience lifting the wood frame bodies through the door openings, positive or negative, and could offer any comments? Or if you lifted from below, where did you jack? Or am I overthinking things?

Thanks in advance.

JayJay
 
I'd leave the doors on and use the padded planks through the windows. The doors on would help keep the body rigid.
 
JayJay, It may be prudent to verify the condition of the wood in the body before deciding on the lift method. If you decide to lift through the doors make sure the wood in them and the pillar they are fastened to is good. My choice would be to remove the doors and lift from the bottom. Raise the sills just enough to put some boards under it.
I replaced all the body wood in my '30 Briggs TS because of weak or rotten wood. That is not a easy task. Good luck with the project,
 
Be careful in lifting. There are metal panels covering the wood in the top of the door opening, these panels will get damaged with weight of body in them.
 
It's best to fabricate an H frame to use above the body. After removal of all items that hold the body and impede full removal, lift the front enough to put a rail under the cowl and the rear enough for the same. The rail could be heavy wall square tube or a 4×4 as long as they will support the weight. Use straps to connect the H-frame to the rails and it should be ready to lift.

The wood in the doors and above them in the body is too flexible and could do damage during the upper upper body type lift. Keep in mind that the steel body panels are just nailed to the wood inner frame. If there is any rot in the wood, something will give up and will likely do unwanted damage.
 
rotorwrench said:
It's best to fabricate an H frame to use above the body. After removal of all items that hold the body and impede full removal, lift the front enough to put a rail under the cowl and the rear enough for the same. The rail could be heavy wall square tube or a 4×4 as long as they will support the weight. Use straps to connect the H-frame to the rails and it should be ready to lift.

The wood in the doors and above them in the body is too flexible and could do damage during the upper upper body type lift. Keep in mind that the steel body panels are just nailed to the wood inner frame. If there is any rot in the wood, something will give up and will likely do unwanted damage.
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Thanks, Rotorwrench. Upon reflection that's how I'll plan to do it. All the body wood that I've been able to see so far looks to be in pristine condition, but I haven't pulled the roof yet, and for an upper body lift the roof structure would be critical. So I'll play it safe and lift from below.

Thanks everyone for your comments.

JayJay
 
Be very careful hoisting from below! I had my Tudor hoisted from below and came very close to dropping it ! Double 2x6’s front and rear with a spreader bar between and lifting eyes in the middle of the spreader bars. It’s tipsy and it started sliding. I put the 2x6’s through the door windows and through the quarter windows with the spreader bars between, it hung there perfectly stationed. I’ve seen pictures of bodies being lowered on to the frame using door window openings.
 
On the wooden framed cars (which I seem to gravitate to), get them as light as possible.
I usually raise them upwards from the base and get heavy boards underneath. It’s difficult because of shape of steel running gear but try to move backward off frame.
These wooden subrails can be quite tender and many are made from laminated, glued Timbers; not solid timber. Easily can come apart. Then can be lowered to a dolly
I suppose I’m blessed by being set up with high ceilings and apparatus.
 
I have done six bodies this way. Make or borrow a roll a round for the body to sit on and position it close to the area you are going to leave it. Make four saw horses that will stand taller than the tires on the car. Remove all the body bolts and the steering column from the car. Get about four of your friends to come over. Make up two 4x4s the length you will need to sit on the saw horses sitting on either side of the car. With the hood off, one guy can get up and straddle the engine and lift the front of the cowl up high enough to slide one 4x4 under the cowl. Go to the rear and with the fenders off, two guys lift the rear of the car high enough to slide the other 4x4 under the rear of the body in front of the rear wheels. Now the body is sitting on the 4x4s. At the rear, one guy on each end of the 4x4 lifts and two guys slide the saw horses under the 4x4s and let down. Do the same for the front. Now the body is sitting on the saw horses. Carefully roll the chassis out from under the body.
Slide your roll a round in place of the chassis and lift the 4x4s down onto the roll a round. Lift the body in the front and take out the 4x4 and the same from the back. If you do not have friends, your sh...t out of luck!!! I think your body is about 850lbs. but you are not lifting all that weight at once and you are not stressing window and door openings. Good luck!
 
An H-frame or ladder frame can be set up to attach to a hoist in a central adjustable location. The frame legs have to overhang the width of the body on both sides. A person should get by with just two legs forward on each side and two rear legs but more could be used on a ladder type frame. It all depends on the condition of the wood body sills or sub frame. The hoist point may have to be adjusted to get the center of gravity right. You don't want the body to tip too much.

The body could be disassembled if in bad shape and built back up on the frame but it has to come off to do the frame restoration. If we were so equipped, a post lift could be used but most of us are on a more conservative budget.

A Tudor Sedan body can't be compared to a wood body car. Most of the structure is steel and it's likely a good bit lighter than the Fordor wood bodies. It has most of its wood in the roof and body structure above the belt line to tack the top and interior fabric materials to. The two doors are all steel bolted to steel A pillars. These bodies can be restored off the frame if the steel structure is still sound.
 
Great input, folks!. Dale G, thanks for the step-by-step instructions. All my friends are like I, age-wise (well into Social Security years!) so manual lifting is out of the question. But I have sufficient jacks and timbers around so that I think I can get the body onto 4x4s on the frame, then proceed with an overhead lift using an H-frame, slings and a crane to get the body onto the sawhorses as you describe. From there I can get the frame out and on to the dolly I made out of 2"x2" welded tubular steel underneath.

I just have to work out the lengths of slings required to be sure I have everything I need. Meanwhile, continue removing things off the body to lighten it up.

JayJay
 
I used cement blocks to hold the 4X4's (about 20 blocks) when lifting my '28 Fordor body. Used scissor jacks and shims to lift the body a few inches on each corner, put in shims then moved around until the 4X4's would slide under the body with enough clearance for frame to roll out. Brought it back to the frame when body painted and frame painted with running gear installed except for steering column.
 
Hi Jay Jay,
I am finishing up my frame off restoration of my 1930 Town Sedan, which is my first time restoring an old car. My Town Sedan has the bracket on the back for the spare tire. I build a frame out of 4x4's to hang a block and tackle from and used the spare tire bracket to lift the rear of the cab off of the frame. Once I had it high enough, I used 2 2x4's screwed together between the frame and the cab to pick up the front of the cab and set the 2x4's on sawhorses on each side. We had to use concrete blocks on top of the sawhorses to lift the cab higher in order to clear the steering wheel when we rolled the chassis out from under the cab. The cab only weights about 500 lbs, so it wasn't too heavy for 2 of us to lift, with the help of the block and tackle on the back.

I also constructed a cart out of 2x6's and wheels that I bought from Harbor Freight to set the cab onto. This made it very easy to load it onto a trailer and transport it to the sandblaster and then the paint/body guy and move around my shop.

One thing that I would recommend when you go to set the cab back onto the frame is to insert cardboard where the front of the cab sets onto the front fenders. I didn't do this and scratched my new paint.

Also, if your Town Sedan does not have safety glass, consider replacing
all of your glass. I was able to find a local automotive glass guy and took out the old glass, cut new safety glass and installed it when I was ready.

Have fun with your restoration.
 
David from Maine said:
Hi Jay Jay,
I am finishing up my frame off restoration of my 1930 Town Sedan, which is my first time restoring an old car...
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Thanks, David, good suggestions. I've done frame-off restos before but not a Model A since the 1960s. This will be my last one.


JayJay
 
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