To remove the body or not remove the body

[Numberfool]

New to the forum, first bronco. Owned 7 Jeeps.

Been reading on the forum for a while, was a decent search finding my new Bronco. Finally pulled the trigger, stuffed my pockets full of cash, put the trailer behind my truck and my brother-in-law and I made the 20hr round trip drive to bring her home.

1975 Ranger, Hard top, 302, C4 Auto.

I am now in full research mode. Pricing all the major items.

Here is where she sits. Previous owner put a decent chunk of change, didnt take it to the finish.

- 302 with 99,000 miles. Seems to run Ok. Small sounds off the rear (thinks its tranny) when idling at certain speeds.
- Original C4. Shifts fine
- Headers
- Power steering
- Power Brakes
- Disk brake conversion
- Brand new 2.5", 11 leaf lift job from Tom's
- Brand new rims
- Brand new 33" Wrangler M/Ts with 500 miles on them
- New dash
- Seats recovered
- New steering column
- New door hinges, rubber, tailgate rattle kit
- Lots of small things replaced.

Body is near perfect, ready for wetsand, blocking and paint.

Rust condition: Cant really find much. Some surface rust in a few seems, nothing that wont sand out. Floorboards are all clean, except the drivers side that was replaced. He hacked it. Ill cut it out and do it proper.

My goals: I dont want a show rig, dont want a rock crawler. Want to be true to the year, paint her a color / scheme from that era. Bring the interior back to close to original, without going over the top. I have kids and love my wife... she will get the family roll cage. Not planning on running it in the baja 1000. Just want a clean, restored rig. Would love to take her out on trails sometimes, wont beat it up.

My plans: Nice paint job. Replace motor, rebuild trans. Then spend the next year or two finishing her out (yeah I know, it wont stop).

Here is the forum question: (thanks for reading this far). I have a highly referred paint shop. Small shop, I trust his work. Got my quote, happy with the price. I ask the next question "How much more to pull the body off the frame?" It was wayyy lower than I thought.

Should I do it? He stated he can pull it, paint or coat underneath. I can have the frame and drivetrain towed back to my house. I dont want to replace axles and I am happy with the suspension. But, I could sand her down and paint. I guess it would also make engine work pretty easy the 8 weeks he will have the body.

He also said he could steam the underneath and paint it without removing the body.

Opinions?

Lots of pics attached.

http://www.evernote.com/shard/s62/sh/7d491c6c-7d4f-4d0f-b8d2-1d9029f6cc28/fb5aa8dc4ef40fc4741310c89d4c0267

http://www.evernote.com/shard/s62/sh/e2fc7ec2-e6a1-44d4-a2ea-1ca6c0567ff3/4e91640239061431b0cb0ab4cb3bf252


Thanks

Wayne

 

[joshuar6447]

Mine was in good shape as far as rust also. That's why I opted to take the body off. Might as well get the cancer out now and get her good to go now so nothing "pops" up later. If you have the coin now go for it. But also realize once you dive in its almost never ending and prepare yourself for additional cost.

 

[Broncitis]

Having done a few frame offs and a few frame on builds on stockers and custom street rigs and rock crawlers, I can tell you it is often easier with the frame off and does not take much more time to lift the body off.

However, there are two things to be careful of:

1. Properly support the body when removing it and when it is off the frame (door braces in place, do not just put on saw horses at back and front, especially if fenders are removed), etc.

2. When you pull the body, know where you want to stop. It is easy to get what I call the snowball effect rolling fast down the hill with all the "while we're at it's" along the way.

I prefer body off builds, but we usually take ours completely apart and then repair, and do any custom work from there and rebuild them from the ground up.

 

[joshuar6447]

Drew do you ever sleep haha.. and the snow ball is the additional cost I was referring too

 

[Broncitis]

Drew do you ever sleep haha.. and the snow ball is the additional cost I was referring too

;D Usually ~3-4 till 7-8 lately. I've always been a nite owl since I was a little kid.

Yep, the snow ball gets big real quick sometimes!

 

[joshuar6447]

I just got back from the west coast and I have a box of parts waiting for me. I still have to find my check book to get that special decor stripe from your dad.. just another snow ball

 

[Broncitis]

I just got back from the west coast and I have a box of parts waiting for me. I still have to find my check book to get that special decor stripe from your dad.. just another snow ball

Whenever you are ready for it, just let him know!

 

[joshuar6447]

Just got the motor in and done all thats left (for now) is paint the hood and put the lights on. Can he make the stripe 2 inches longer across the hood to compensate for a a bronco design hood

 

[Broncitis]

Just got the motor in and done all thats left (for now) is paint the hood and put the lights on. Can he make the stripe 2 inches longer across the hood to compensate for a a bronco design hood

PM sent so we do not jack the OP's thread any more.....

 

[joshuar6447]

Oh and the rig looks good number..sorry for jacking your thread.

 

[Pipehitter]

Well my opinion is to go with a frame off. I have also restored a 1976 CJ5 and two willys jeeps with a complete frame off. I thought I would do my bronco and leave the body on. Like others mention, its not that much more work to take the body off, and my feelings are I would have been money ahead to pull the body.

 

[Hank_]

Wayne welcome to classicbroncos.com. You will find tons of help here. I also had jeeps and now the bronco. I would say if you can do without having the body for a while might as well let them have it. You can clean up the frame and work on the engine and trans. Replace the body mounts as well (I would put a 1" body lift on). Hope you and your family enjoy the new toy. Please keep pics coming of your progress.

Henry

 

[Rustytruck]

I look at it like this you are your best judge. if you remove the body can you realisticly get the chassis work done in 7 weeks in the winter. If not I wouldn't pull it, if you do then its likely to be down for 2 years and a 50/50 chance you will have to sell it before its done. I dont know you but if you like most this is where most of these projects end up. Thats how you got the rig unfinished. My 30 day refresh paint job ended up with me without driving my rig for 14 months. And that was a freshening up and a few updates not a strip down and rebuild.

 

[lowbush]

I would do the frame off, and clean up the frame while you are at it. Pretty much everything else can be done with the body on, but if you ever decide that you want the frame done, there would have never been a better time to do it than when the body if off, even if it is just knocking off the rust and rattle-can painting the frame.

 

[Justafordguy]

Take the body off the frame. It makes drivetrain, exhaust, brakes, etc much easier to replace/repair.

 

[Numberfool]

Thanks guys... I do appreciate all the feedback.

I think I am going to take the advice here and pull her off.

Some great advice above. I do worry this will creep a bit for me and I will end up replacing more parts than I might have started with, but I can start planning. Solid advice to define my stopping line. It will help that my painter will probably start giving me a hard time if this goes beyond 3 months without going back on.

I will start a thread if anyone wants to follow and post pictures as it goes along.

Thanks again for all the advice.

 

[PeteO]

lifting the tub

anyone lift the whole tub with a say rotary lift? hood on, Doors braced, tailgate on...

any good pointers on lifting said tub off with symetrical rotary???

whos done it?? someone .. speak up.

 

[Broncitis]

anyone lift the whole tub with a say rotary lift? hood on, Doors braced, tailgate on...

any good pointers on lifting said tub off with symetrical rotary???

whos done it?? someone .. speak up.

I've lifted them off with my 2 post shop lifts (Rotary asyemeterircal). I've also done a few with my forklift with a long pole beam attachment (from behind Bronco) and others with an engine hoist, gantry crane with chain fall, by hand, and probably a couple other ways as well.

The Rotary lift is my newest piece of equipment and is how I have preferred to do it for the last 4-5 years when possible, but we still do it other ways at my friends shop.

We have a set of adjustable door braces I made that have two bars with left and right hand rod ends so they can be adjusted in place. The bars connect to three plates which replace the door hinges and striker bolt.

BEFORE you do anything, get an accurate measurement of each door opening at the top between the door and striker posts. Pick two good reference points that you can identify after it is in primer or has new paint (i.e. 1" down 1" back between the flats, or whatever). WRITE THIS DOWN! It may be months, or years until it goes back together.

Remove the doors and install the bracing while it is on the frame. It can be a fancy one like we use, or could be a piece of angle tack welded, or screwed to the body as well.

We also have two braces we made that go between the bed rails with the proper dimension. This is a piece of 1 or 1/14" square tube with angle welded on the ends that have holes to mount to existing holes on the vertical face of the bedrail lip. One between the striker posts, and one between the tailgate posts.

When lifting on a 2 post lift, you can just place the lift arms under the rockers. I prefer to span the front and rear arms with a 2x6 or 2x8 when possible, padded with a towel or carpet when working with finished paint.

When lifting from above, I prefer to use the windshield frame bolts holes in the dash as my forward lifting sling attachment points. For the rear, I have used: body mount points behind the front seats, rear body mount points by tailgate, attached to the above mentioned bed rail brace between striker posts.

Lifting without door bracing can be done *carefully*, but is not my preferred method.

If lifting on your 2 post lift:

Run a ratchet strap from a sold point on the top of the front door posts to the top of the rear door posts (you can hook on the front and back sides respectively) and pre-tension the strap a bit. You can also connect between the windshield bolts on the cowl, to the top rear of the stikers, body mount holes behind the seats or back at the tailgate, etc.

The point being, you want to keep the rear of the tub from sagging when you lift under the rockers.​

If lifting from above with a sling:

Leave the doors in place and latched shut (still get that door opening measurement and write it down BEFORE removing the tub!

When you set the body down, do not just support it on saw horses at the core support and tailgate. The front clip can buckle, especially if the fenders are not installed. Support it at the tailgate and at the firewall/front floor pan if just in two places, or also at the core support if three.

I can not find any recent shots of us lifting a body off, but here are a couple older ones when I lifted Mtfit's body off at my old temporary shop with my forklift, and when we set it on when finished with a 2 post lift at a friends shop after paint.

The other pics are at another friends shop and show the current U14 project on our rotisserie where you can see the door and ded braces and also the custom Bronco specific frame we made for the rotisserie that had ~6-8" standoffs at each body mount so you can get in and around to blast, sand, paint, etc.

 

[PeteO]

thanks for the input Drew!

PM sent.

 

[roan65]

Thanks for a great explanation and pics!!! I will be doing a body swap in the next couple months as well.

Can you leave the fenders and grill on if you are braced well?