Can anybody suggest a way to support the body without the unibody under it. What I am really looking for is a template that I can use to build a dolly so I can roll the body around and keep it at least three feet off of the ground.

My method was really simple. I ran two 4x6's widthwise with 2x4 blocks underneath the rocker panels at the extreme front and rear ends. The 4X6's were mounted on my Car Skates so I could move it around. I got about 2 feet off the ground.

What do you mean "Car Skates", I'm not sure what these are. Are they just casters that you go from the hardware store?

You could go that route, but I would want casters mounted to plates that would bolt to the bottom of the wood.

Car Skates are the 1st gen curved metal plates with 4 casters on each corner that you can place under the cars tires so you can move a non-operating car around. Makes for a much more efficient use of garage space.

Tire Skates

The Car Skates were very useful before I stripped the car down to the body and afterwards before I got it running. The Skates have holes in them on the end that allowed me to attach them to the 4x6's. I see the place I attached has metal frame supports for their skates and single wheel frame suppors that bolt onto frames (or wood supports).

I see what you mean, sounds like I am just going to have to fabricate some kind of a dolly to support the body while I work on the frame. Do you have and suggestions on how to support the inside of the body to keep the car from sinking?

Do you have a convertable? Many people and restoration shops weld or bolt supports in the door frames to prevent issues with 'vert's.

The rocker panels are pretty stout and you should not have saging problems. How stripped out is the unibody going to be? Just the shell or pretty complete?

My method also had the advantage that the 4x6's were down low enough that I could drop and reattach the subframe without the wood supports being in the way.

I do have a convertable. Are supports in the door frames, in addition to the support underneath, all that is usually required for these cars? Sounds adequate to me.

I have, as of yet, not done a complete inspection of the rust damage to the car but the entire floor panel and both rockers are going to have to be replaced, so the the unibody restoration process is more than likely going to be fairly complete.

This, in case you haven't put it together yet, is my first automobile restoration project and I am a little leary of screwing it up before I even get started.

My car is a coupe from California with no rust issues at all. Unfortuately, you can forget my method in your case. If you have rockers that have been weakened, my method might cause your car to fold up.

You are definitely going to want to put supporting frames into the door openings. For both floors AND rocker replacement, I am sorry to say that I have seen the need for professional restoration places to construct a full steel body jig for convertibles to keep everything supported lined up.

Hopefully somebody else here has shared your issue and can chime in.

When we stripped down our car we didnt use bracing between the doors. A totaly stripped down conv. unibody only weighs about 400 lbs. We were careful to keep a 4x4 support under the cowling and the rear frame at all times and if we needed to get in the body we added another under the trans tunnel/rockers. We didnt have to cut or replace any flooring or rockers though. If your going to be cutting large sections of the floor and replacing the rockers, by all means add braces to the door openings like Salmon38 mentions. They can be welded in place and ground off later.

When I put my convert on rotisserie I used braces on the doors. These bolt in where the hinges and latches go. I have these sitting in my barn if you want to borrow them...you can use the rotisserie too if you need it.
I'm in SouthEast PA.

Ray



I didn't have any rust problems on the rockers or the transmission tunnel so I didn't remove them.


Before I put it on the rotisserie I did have it supported on a couple of sawhorses with 4X4s along the rockers...I think that would work as my rockers were solid and I still had the doors on.

I want your barn!

I made up a frame to take place of the subframe. Check my pics on photobucket- pages 1 and 4. I made it out of 2 inch square steel stock. I used all 4 mounting points and bolted it down. The casters are from castercity.com and were 30 each. Not hard to made just a little time consuming. Super easy to move around.
Good Luck
Kyle