And now for something a little different. Due to the Covid Pandemic the USA/Canadian border is closed. As a result I will not be spending the winter in Arizona. So I have started a restoration on a 1976 Chevrolet El Camino. I will be posting my progress from time to time on this Blog. I hope you enjoy this little sideline to my repair blog.

Onto The Hoist: The Separation Begins

There were 10 bolts holding the body to the frame. There was a large amount of rust so a lot of loosening oil was sprayed. In the end 7 out of 10 were removed and 3 broke off. Everything was disconnected, ready to lift off the body

Separation – The Rise Of The 44 Year Old Body

I lowered the car on the hoist until the tires touched the floor. Using a hydraulic floor jack I jacked up the body from the rear and the body separated about 6″ above the frame. I then did the same on the front but it would not separate. I had to used a 5 foot pry bar and a little muscle to get the front to separate. I re-positioned the hoist and lifted the body clear of the frame. I rolled the frame out from under the body and moved the rotisserie into place

The Rotisserie – The Easiest Way For An Old Guy To Work On A Car Body

The rotisserie is a framework that bolts to the body and allows you to turn the body 360 degrees. This allows you to position the body so that is easy to work on. Us old guys like to do as much work as we can seated and comfortable. Now we move onto sanding, grinding, and sandblasting to remove all paint and filler down to bare metal. This will expose the rusted areas and let us do the needed repairs.

Oh No CANCER – Rust The Enemy Of The Car Restoration Project

As I sandblast and inspect the car the rust is exposed and we see where we will need to do some repair. The last body guy to work on this took the easy way out and left a mess to clean up.