Bodywork - Sequence of disassembly

[redvx1]

Hey all,

General question for you about my upcoming project. I plan on having body/paint done as well as going through the front and rear ends of the car completely. I have no experience with a car restoration and wondered what the preferred sequence is…better to take the roller to the shop, get paint/body done then bring it home and pull the front/rear then, or rebuild suspension first off the car, and have the unibody alone taken to the shop?

Thanks,
Curt

[MikeY]

Depends how far down the rabbit hole you want to go. Talk to the shop doing the work. But generally build a dolly to mount the stripped shell on. I like to do the job on a rotisserie. Then the bottom is as nice as the top. And if there is lots of rust repair its easier to get at. If your sandblasting the shell it's almost nesissary. It's nice to have the suspension off the car and rebuilt and painted, all ready to go when the shell is ready. It can get overwhelming. And expensive and time consuming. Small bites as they say.

[redvx1]

Yeah, I figure I’ll have the body media blasted, then I guess mount up the new running gear on the newly painted body. Guess I’m just a bit wary about putting the unibody on a dolly and then on a trailer bringing it home that way, but I guess that’s common.

[MikeY]

The suspension is only mounted in a few spots just use them to mount it on a dolly. I mount it on a rotisserie using the bumper mounts. Seem fine. But I wouldnt cut the car up too much mounted like that. When I cut a quater panel off or similar work I rest it on the crossmember mounting spots.

[ostaylor]

My new project car is a suspensionless roller. Looks like 4x4's mounted to the subframe with roller wheels. If the placement of these are helpful to you, I can take pictures and post. I am in the process of planning the paint and body work and trying to determine if I am better to partially assemble it before paint so that I protect it from potential damage as I try to fit everything.

[redvx1]

I didn't think about using the suspension mounting points for my dolly. That's far better than my dimwitted idea to just set the body on "pads" on top of the dolly. Obviously having it bolted to the dolly is far more secure.

[ostaylor]

Here's a couple of pictures of mine... works pretty well. Not as convenient as a rotisserie but pretty good once the car is cleaned up.

Under Car Roller 1 small.jpg (152.65 KiB) Viewed 1148 times

Under Car Roller 2 small.jpg (125.46 KiB) Viewed 1148 times