glad i found this site, hope i can get some advice. the number 3 bodymount on the passenger side is rotted out. i should say the steel in the bird cage is gone where the body mount bolt passes through. it is apparent i need to remove the body. what am i in for?

 

Welcome to CF!
You're in a good place to find out what cha need to do. I personally, have not done a "body off", but there are those here that have. Hang with us and you'll get your answer.
Again, Welcome to CF. Got any pics of your '70?

 

Hi halfast64, That's quite an undertaking, I've heard that you can change one side then the other with out a full body off, but never tried it, As far as the bird cage, I hope you know how to weld or have a generious budget. PG.

 

Is it half-assed or halfast? sorry, couldn't pass that one up. For the bird-cage repair I used a wire-feed welder and a new reproduction section from Paragon Reproductions, it was tricky and extremely labor intensive but well worth the time and effort. I removed the splash panel in front of the rear wheel to gain access to the bird-cage in that area. I did not remove the body but did remove all eight of the main body bolts and jacked up the body enough to replace all of the rubber cushions and bolts. I also had to reinforce the rear mounts that had severe decay, here again the wire-feed welder was the ticket. If your good with the smoke wrench (cutting torch) and gentle with the impact wrench you can heat and loosen each bolt. I might also add that I had the interior completely gutted out to gain access to the mounts. I'm tired of the hunt-n-peck posting now, thats all I have to say about that.

 

A couple buddies, a couple twelve-packs, some Blue Oyster Cult or Kansas on the 8-track in the garage, and you are home free. Fibreglass cars aren't that hard to swap in/out body panels if you have the elbow grease and patience. Be prepared with new body bushings and fender washers/spacers. Also helps if you have a lift, can put it up on jackstands, and/or have some good ceiling joists and webstrap hoists for the bigger jobs... but a couple strong buddies can do wonders without all the expensive trappings.

bill.

 

Hot wrench? Carefull, fibergalss burns. Remain focused with your flame. Ina lot ofcases, a "Saws All" works just fine.

 

That's how I did a set of body mount bushings on a CJ7 - one side at a time. Of course, I didn't have any metal work to do either.

Even if you do have to do some metal work, you might still be able to do it with the other side of the body still on the frame. Just remember to loosen ALL body mounts on the (other) non-working side. Loosen them all pretty loose - some of the other non-working side mounts will open further, since it's not a perfect 'straight-line hinge' effect. Watch steering linkage binding too, and tranny linkage, andthe other peripherals...