Well I tried to lift the body off tonight after work.

I had 8 guys who were supposed to show up.. only 5 did.. one of whom was very late. (we'll see what happens next time they ask me a favor)

but it was kinda pointless anyway.. that damn thing was still pretty heavy. I pulled a muscle in my back and on my ribcage.

only one of us was linebacker material and it isnt me.

and when we did all finally get the body up.. the rocker channel on drivers side disenegrated...

so we sat it back down and im going to use daveb's method with door striker and door hinge locations.

so ill be borrowing, buying, or building an A-frame.

I went ahead and pulled the deck lid, top and frame, dash (all sections), and the doors..

looks like I finally found a piece of the car in decent shape. There is some surface rust but it appears structurally sound. who ever makes por-15 is gonna love me.. I should buy some stock now.. the wiring harness looks remarkably good too.

The body is very light now.. but theres just nothing structurally sound under the drivers door to lift on.

anyway.. while i had it up.. i found a rusted through spot on the passenger side of the frame..

good thing the frame im picking up saturday is in good shape..

Sorry to hear about the rocker channel Ben. Hopefully the rust has not traveled up the hinge and latch pillars and all you need are the channels. I really think that any of these sharks that have any kind of rust issues have rocker channels that are on borrowed time. They are a pain to remove, but the replacements are not too tough to install providing you are a good welder.

That sucks. Hope the new frame works out.

I'm dreading that my rocker panels are like that too, but am too chicken to look at them.

I've been there, done that. Good luck with it.

Ahh, the best laid plans of mice and men,these are the times that try mens souls,and the exact time when MURPHY steps in with another of his stupid laws.just keep trying different things,the meek shall prevail and seperate part A from part B,they went together, they will come apart hopefully with out any more damage

Big Fish said: Sorry to hear about the rocker channel Ben. Hopefully the rust has not traveled up the hinge and latch pillars and all you need are the channels. I really think that any of these sharks that have any kind of rust issues have rocker channels that are on borrowed time. They are a pain to remove, but the replacements are not too tough to install providing you are a good welder.

Man, I really hate to hear that!, I'll pull my rig out tonight or tomorrow and send you some pics of it.
With that much rust, The fish ahs a very good point, I'd suggest lifting very slowly at first just to be sure the hinge pillars and jamb re-inforcement are sound.
My car was relatively rust free and gave no problems with this method, however the guy I borrowed the rig from used the hood latch mount bolts and door strikes. On our first attempt pulling the body, the hood latch pulled right out of the cowl and the body dropped about 2 inches. That was when we decided to use the door hinge, we just hooked the strap to the hinges, at the strike, we took the strike bolt out and bolted a bracket in the hole to hook our lift straps to.
The straps are basically the same arrangement that truckers use to tie down loads.

Ben,

Sorry to hear about your setback. If I ever meet this Murphy guy, I'm going to hand his arse to him.

If you're going to remove the doors, you might want to take the time to put a brace in there for support. This will eliminate your concern about the body folding in half on you, because without that rocker channel there, it probably will.

Before I pulled my body off, I just fabricated a piece of straight angle iron long enough to fit from the door striker hole to the top door hinge mounting holes on the body. Just get a piece of flat stock for the ends, and bolt, or weld them together. Bolt them in place, and your strength is restored on the body, unfortunately, not your muscles and ribs, though.

Good luck, and please keep us posted.

Alan