To John Bartell, > Can I run a cable under the roof without damaging anything? In answer to your question,NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A good way to get a kinked roof or spread door frames. One way is to remove the front fenders and etc. then lift the bare body shell with jacks and support the body on some heavy timbers mounted on heavy duty 'sawhorses' outside of the frame and roll the frame out from under. Another method I have heard used is to leave the body attached to the frame but elevated above it. If you remove the body from the frame, the stresses that it takes from the supports that the body sat on while it was off the frame may show up in in a wrinkle or kink in any new sheetmetal when it is bolted back to the frame. One shop I contacted mounts the body to the frame with long (24") spacers and bolts. They have 24" spacers made from heavy wall steel pipe, large diameter washers, a 30" piece of large diameter all-thread (as large as the holes in the frame and body allow) and several nuts for the all-thread. They remove the body mount bolts and rubber bushings and replace them with the spacers with the all thread through them. The washers go on each end of the pipe and under the nuts. The nuts are in the inside of the body and under the body to frame mounts. This raises the body to a convenient working height (makes it look like a monster truck) and allows access to the frame for painting. It also keeps body stresses in the same places that they were when the body was on the frame. The only places that the frame will not get painted is where the washers were. This can be taken care of when the body is first removed or before it is replaced on the frame. Another method is to use a spare frame for the body to sit on while it is being worked on then replace it on the original frame. Larry
|