first time resto.. need some advice

my project that i pulled out of the weeds is a 67 galaxie 500 390 auto, im mainly into drag racing and high performance, and im a skilled mechanic with a good many years experience, but ive never tackled a restoration before and havent done much body work, so this a first time deal for me. the car is solid underneith except for the trunk floor, it will need replaced. the rest of the car is mostly solid too, needs some lower quarter work, some work on the doors, and the rear tail panel. so it should be a good one to start. i have a few questions about where to start with the car. i want to do a full resto on the car by that i mean pulling the body off, havin the frame blasted and all new parts put on, then start on the body and just go from there.. which leads to the question about how to go about pulling the body off. i do not have a lift in my home garage nor do i have a rotisserie, if i have to build one no big deal, im a welder/fabricator by trade. but one thing im concered about is weather or not i need to have the doors on and latched to pull the body, cuz both latches are broke or at least not working on this car, also wondering how to go about actually lifting the body once im at that point. im thinkin that i need to support the rockers front and back and just get it high enough to roll the frame out from underneith? get me in the right direction here guys. thanks  

Unless its a convertible I think you'll be OK with the doors off. If EVERYthing is off the body, as few as five or six guys may be able to lift it safely long enough to get the frame out. But then you gotta have a quick place to set it down. The only frame-off I've been involved with, we put 2x4"s under the rockers and raised the body with a twin-post lift, rolled out the frame, and built a dolly under the body. Setting up a rotisserie is a whole other can o worms that I don't know about. Maybe if you use 2x4s like we did, pressed up against the pinchweld flange, you could raise one side at a time and get jackstands under it high enough to pull out the frame. Thats all the input I've got, just think safety first the whole time!  

thanks for the reply and the car is a 2dr ht so we should be good there. i was wantin the leave the interior and everything in the car till i at least got the frame/rear/engine/trans all done so i didnt have half a million parts layin everywhere.. but that is a good idea though i wasnt sure how heavy it would be for a few guys to lift. but you also had that same idea i had about liftin one side at a time on jackstands.. that might be what i end up having to do.. just not sure how i would get the body onto something to take it to the blaster??  

If its not a convertible as I drive said you wont have to have the doors on, they would be coming off any way. Full resto, you will be taking the glass all out so this would be a good time, get rid of the weight take interior out, GUT the car. Leave the frame for last. Disassemble the car first. Before doing anything get some Zip-lock bags and a good marker, put all small parts, clips, interior screws everything in marked bags which will save time and frustration later. The larger parts use masking tape and marker to name, make sure where you need it to label left or right, some things off look same almost, this to will save frustration, buy plenty of film, take before, during and after photos, many as possible as they are worth gold years down the road for you, family and if selling someday good to have. After all is off and put up somewhere in a space just for this project then unhook all under the car its easy to miss things and once you start lifting off frame you don't want to be under there trying to unhook something you missed. If you don't want to have it set on stands that will roll around pick a place your comfortable with knowing its there for duration of resto and plenty of room to work on and around it. Jacking in the right places so as to not damage anything is important and setting on the right height stands make sure there secure. Sounds like a neat project my friend in school had a 67, white with a dark red interior, nice car for sure. Im not a Ford man buy i always liked that year and a few others. Good luck, keep us posted as how its coming... Ron  
_____________________
I PRAY Old cars will never leave my heart,
AMONG other people and things!!!

Myself just getting alert enough to type as i was up late just read your last post. For what ever reason i didn't see it i thought id better tell you, If i were you i would pick that car up evenly as possible to place on what ever you have in mind.
Taking everything off first is better, Im telling you how i would start this, your call.. Getting to sand blaster is going to be very difficult unless you invest in time making roller stands to run it up and down on flat bed. Im not sure if I would suggest sand blasting I always used paint stripper and lots of sandpaper 40 grit to start with. Sand has a way of getting in places that when your painting can end up in paint. theres other things but to be honest body/paint work is like any other thing, 20 different people will give you 20 different ways to do what  ever. Again Goodluck to you. Ron  
_____________________
I PRAY Old cars will never leave my heart,
AMONG other people and things!!!

thanks ron, maybe i will do like you said and leave frame for last and just disassemble the whole thing first. as far as blasting i was concerned about using sand as well.. thats why i wanted to look into a different media.. theres a big powercoat and blast shop up by me that has every media imaginable i guess, i just found out about it the other day. want to see what they say. i have thought of the paint stripper thing but seems like a big time consuming mess, but the nice thing would be i can do that myself and not have to worry about transport. but another reason i wouldnt want to do that is the underneith of the car will need done and pretty much everywhere that would be a pain to get with stripper. but i got a lil while yet before i start on the car. im sure i will learn as i go.  

ron's got a good idea about bagging & marking every nut & bolt.    i've got a buddy restoring a car & has *** everywhere.    takes more time to find things than do any work.   so frustrating.     anyway i wish ya luck on your build.  i had a 68 galaxie 500, pretty car.  i found peanut shells in the air cleaner, musta been a chipmunk or something living in there. lol.    
made in U.S.A.

speedracer1000:
thanks for the reply and the car is a 2dr ht so we should be good there. i was wantin the leave the interior and everything in the car till i at least got the frame/rear/engine/trans all done so i didnt have half a million parts layin everywhere.. but that is a good idea though i wasnt sure how heavy it would be for a few guys to lift. but you also had that same idea i had about liftin one side at a time on jackstands.. that might be what i end up having to do.. just not sure how i would get the body onto something to take it to the blaster??



+1 large, on bag-n-tag plus photos!

Soda blasting is the way to go, in my opinion. As for getting it to a blaster ...

The cars I've been around were soda blasted on the outside before being taken off the frame. Then the bottom was just sanded normally, but no reason you couldn't use a spot blaster under there. Even if you built a dolly for the body that had rubber tires so it could roll in and out of shops and onto trailers, I doubt anyone will blast underneath it with it only two feet off the ground. The only solution I can imagine is taking it to a facility that has the equipment to lift or put put it on a rotisserie and blast the whole thing. I have seen some serious damage done with a sandblaster in the wrong (but "professional") hands. Careful where you take it.

Bad idea doing any of this with ANY interior in place. Especially don't have it blasted with the instrument cluster installed, soda will find its way in there. Radio, too. EVERYthing needs to come out if you're going to attempt to lift it with people. Doors and decklid off, glass, wiring, everything- off.  

ok, me and my dad talked about it a lil bit tonight and we thought about lifting it off by hand and setting it on something like a set of saw horses or something, then findin a small single axle trailer like maybe a small camper frame or osmething just to set it on and strap it to to transport. either way, we will figure something out. im gonna start on it here within a few weeks probably so we will see how it goes!  

Well good luck with it. You will enjoy it, i still love it, just don't do much of that anymore...Have a Camaro to start, but and ill leave it at that for now.. lol. Just don't know which way to go with this compared to another ive been thinking on. Have fun. Ron  
_____________________
I PRAY Old cars will never leave my heart,
AMONG other people and things!!!

You mentioned that you do not have an auto rotisserie but many of the things you want to do would be alot easier on a rotisserie even taking it the blaster on the rotisserie can be done. I use a Roto 2000 and it works great. There are others out there but here is where I got mine
www.theroto2000.com  

I pulled the body of my 66 Chevelle using eyebolts screwed into the rafters at the 4 corners of the body. attached pullys to the eyebolts, and got 4 crank winches from Harbor Freight. Using a cordless drill instead of the cranks, I worked my way around the car, on each winch, until the roof was about a foot off the ceiling. stripped the frame, and set it aside. Then I built a 2x4 dolly to set the body on to roll out to sand blast. works great.  

How you doing Ron?

I told REDNECK JOE you said hi.  
Have a good one bud hope your doing well!.....
Bob  

Take lot of pictures. So you got proof of all the work done and when you forget, over the months you will forget, how something went together or looked. If you don't care about having factory bolts, tractor supply, you can get grade 5 or 8looked bolts by the pound. Under 5 bucks for either.
I've lifted my 64 impala off the frame. Solid concrete blocks on the bottom with 2x4 under the rockers. Just make sure to center/level the body when you lift it off the body. I liftedthe whole car, removed the front clip, put the blocks under the rockers and dropped the frame from the body. Make sure the bolts aren't rusted and can come apart before taking the two apart.
than plan out what you want done and cost.