Body / Glass: gt hawk body removal

[jif988]

Wondering if anyone has had experience removing the GT Hawk body from the frame, less front clip, trunk lid,etc. Probably doors should be left on for stability (?) Any suggestions or methods to do this safely would be much appreciated...thanks...Lance

[swvalcon]

Joe The way I did mine is with the doors removed and it was striped to just a body shell. No windows , no interior nothing. I hooked a chain to the latch for the trunk lid and lifted the back with my cherry picker until high enough for the rear tires to clear. Then put two long 2x6's though where the body goes up for the rear end and set them on two saw horses out far enough so as to not be in the way of the tires as they rolled past them. Then I put the chain through the two front mount at the firewall to the frame and lifted the front again with the cherry picker and set the front mounts on top of two 2x6s to two saw horses. removed the cherry picker and just rolled the frame out from under the body. Then I set up the rotisserie and mounted it to the body and used the cherry picker again to set my heights where I wanted it. Plan to do the same system in reverse when I put it back on frame. Body shouldn't bend unless its all rusted at the rocker floor area. If that is the case I would still remove the doors and brace the body with angle iron at the door openings.

[Steve Winzar]

Hi Joe- I took my 1961 Hawk body off its frame all by myself years ago. take the doors off- gut the body completely to save weight. Get somebody to help you simply lift it off. You will find rebuilding and cleaning up the chassis one the body is off a real boon- so easy.
Steve

[jif988]

thanks, steve, sounds very do-able. Any guess on the weight of the bare body? Do I need to get Charles Atlas to help?

[swvalcon]

I would guess with everything removed the body may weigh in at around 800 pounds. The back half is light and I can pick it up and I'am old and not that big of a guy. I would say 4 big men with strong backs and weak minds could pick it up and move it if need be. Here's some shots of my replacement shell.

[wdills]

Here is how I lifted the body of my 61 Hawk.



One rope went under the front body horns. A second went through the rear wheel well with a spreader bar above the hove to keep the rope off of the fender mounting flanges.

[sweetolbob]

It depends on what you have in the garage. Somewhat like SW I used a chainfall on the front and cherry picker on the back. Just rolled the frame out from under it after I braced the door openings and body on my 54K. I bridged between the hood bolt holes with a steel bar bolted to them and lifted on it.

Bob

[Alan]

I use a maxjack, just stand back and push a button and it lifts the body up about 5 feet.

[clarkwd]

You'll probably be glad you took the body off as it makes cleaning up the frame so much easier. I have a two by four that goes between the hood hinges. Sometimes I add to it by screwing the lifting plywood it to a piece of plywood bolted to the firewall. For the back, I put a two by four under the hump at the front of the trunk and lift through the back window. I have the bodies painted on a donor frame while I'm building up the chassis.

I built my new shed with a couple of I beams so I can move things in it. I just started work on this wreck and lifted this one from the firewall and the rear body mounts.


Bill

[jif988]

thanks to everyone who responded!

[ralt12]

Two engine hoists will work if'n you're careful..

[skyhawk]

clarkwd, I see from the pictures on rustyrestorations.org that you removed a 54 coupe body and a 55 speedster body. Both turned out very nice. With either did you install any interior temporary braces to prevent twisting or kinking of the body when lifted? I plan to remove the body on my 56 skyhawk. I have received some local club advice that interior braces are important before lifting a hawk body.

[swvalcon]

Skyhawk if the body is not rusted and is solid and you have it striped to just the body shell with no sheet metal or interior. You shouldn't need to brace it if all you are doing is lifting it. If you plan to work on it you need to be very careful or add a couple braces. If you notice on my hawk body picture on the rotisserie there are no braces and it has been fine. But I wasn't climbing in and out of it.

[Mark Plucenik]

we did it with 6 healthy guys, brace the door openings and X brace the interior of the car. Even with that done if your replacing floors or torque boxes double check your openings before you finish welding.

[clarkwd]

Both of these cars were rust buckets. I put these on a rotisserie to weld and clean up the bottoms, so I welded the doors closed and left the rear quarters on. Since I had removed the floors, I did brace across the hump to both door hinge bottoms. Bill