Body Lift/Hoist System

[jmcarson3]

I have a 99 LS427 kit that I'm assembling and I need to devise a multi-point lift system for easily removing the body from the chassis. Has anyone built a ceiling-mounted lift system, and can you point me to any online resources? I can engineer something but figured I'd hunt on this forum for lessons learned. Thanks for any suggestions.

[Luce]

I made just such a contraption, then when I finished my cobra, sold it to another cobra builder. If you search for my build thread on Ultimate's site, you may find a pic. I used a 12V horrible fright winch, and restrung it so there were 2 leads. On went straight down, and the other 7' down a 2x4 the winch was mounted on to a pulley, then down. I laced a rope around the roll bar holes for one lead, then ran a 2x4 through the side vent holes and a bridle to the other lead. Then with th epush of a button, I could raise or lower the body off of the frame, and roll the frame out.

[Luce]

I found an old pic

[jmcarson3]

Thanks Luce! This looks incredible. Several questions...

Did you have the engine installed when you were putting the 2X4 through the side-vent holes?

In your picture, you also appear to have a rope around the read wheel wells. Did you do any damage to the fiberglass edge?

Finally, Looks like you had the doors installed. Did you have any longitudinal flexing of the body? I have my doors installed too, which makes the mid-section less rigid than when the original fiberglass walls were still there.

[Luce]

My body was extremely thick and stout. I considered the possibility of the rope cutting into the body, but it is a soft, thick cheap home depot rope and didn't harm anything. I laced the rope in and out of the roll bar hoops and fender wells, so each point was only getting 50 lbs or so of lift. By the time I had the engine in, I was lacing ropes through the vents then under the edge of the body. The 2x4 passes through where the engine would be.

The front lift point is really close to the CG of the front half of the body, and the rear lift point, the rear half CG, so I didn't have much flex it the middle after cutting the door hole filler piece out. And the interior tub adds a LOT of structure to the body most other cobras lack.

Hope my idea helps. It worked so well for me that I ended up making another lift for a more recent kit car project.

[Tommy]

I lifted the body off and on my Everett-Morrison car many years ago using a similar system in my garage. I probably puts towels between the lifting straps and the body. I estimate the body weighed about 300 pounds. I too was concerned about the body flexing at the doors, so I reinforced the structure with two 4' long 7/16" threaded rods, one for each side. Each rod passed through holes near the top of the firewall and rear bulkhead, and were secured with nuts and fender washers on both sides of each hole.

[Bernica]

There is something out there called a Shop Crane. Pretty cool!

[ame=http://www.getlinkyoutube.com/watch?v=x923rWdNPwM]Download video: Installing Your Garage Crane[/ame]

[Luce]

Now that Tommy mentions it, Early on I also had a piece of 3/8" all tread in a piece of 1/2" emt from the top of the rear firewall to near the top of the dash in the flat piece that would be covered by the dash. Later I decided it wasn't necessary.

[jmcarson3]

Everyone, thanks for all of the ideas! I think the LS body with the doors, windshield and cowl bar will also be around 300 lbs. I'm thinking that as a first test of a lift that I could just put a 2X4 between the top of the rear firewall and the top of the dash to give some extra longitudinal strength. I seem to recall someone posting about doing that when he moved the body after cutting out the door filler piece. I'm also thinking that I could make some spacers out of 2X4's that sit up in the tops of the wheel wells to distribute the lift load and to also keep the ropes for making any point contact with the fender edges... thoughts churning. Thanks again.

[Luce]

One other idea I pondered was making 4 circular clips out of plywood that would cradle 6" or so of the top of the fender openings, but considering how little they flexed with just the rope, I didn't bother.

The car was still in gel coat, so if there was a little damage, I wasn't too worried. At that point, it's easily fixed.

[jmcarson3]

Thanks everyone for valuable ideas. I completed my home-built hoist system, and it works really well. I added some additional static lines and cross-members that I insert as a safety system after hoisting the body off the car.

[Tommy]

Very good. I love it when folks come back to finish up the conversation in a thread. Thanks.

[mikeinatlanta]

A little late, but I built a overhead hoist for my single car stall. Designed for a 1,500lb limit and proofed to 2,000. Now on my list of "never be without one again" tools.
Rails are heavy duty barn door rails mounted to every rafter.

[jmcarson3]

Nicely done. That's the cadillac of hoist systems

I spread my load over 7 rafters, and the safety lines are over two different rafter sets. The body is only ~300 lbs, so the design is definitely conservative.

[FrankR105]

Late to the party, but maybe someone could use it in the future.
Only have a one car garage, needed to remove body off the chassis, built a movable wooden frame on wheels, lifted body up to it, was then able to roll body/frame out of garage at will for access to everything else underneath (didn't work when there was snow on the ground outside!). The body work and paint was done before I got the kit, so protecting all that while doing all this was quite a challenge! The covering is thick soft-foam shelving paper (could only find it at Wal-Mart), note the pillows and blankets used for cushioning protection from the wooden frame. Also used cheap pillows between the contacts points and the body to spread out the load. Mission was successful.