Easiest way to lift body off frame - 72 Blazer
 

I have alread searched this forum and found some different ideas on how to jack to body off the frame. But my question is a little different. The 72 Blazer I have has very good body, paint and interior from some work the previous owner did, however, the frame,chassis and driveline could use some work. I am toying with the idea of lifting the body off so that I can do a proper restoration on the frame and chassis. My question is how easy is it to remove the body with out damaging the paint job? Should the doors and tailgate be left on or removed? Can the interior be left in? Basically I want to know what is the least amount of parts removal that has to be done to do this with no damage to the body and paint. Only have experience with vettes, never done a blazer before so need all the help I can get. Also, is there any good books showing how to remove the body. Thanks in advance for any help. So far this forum has been amazing.

Re: Easiest way to lift body off frame - 72 Blazer
 

[QUOTE= I am toying with the idea of lifting the body off so that I can do a proper restoration on the frame and chassis. My question is how easy is it to remove the body with out damaging the paint job? Should the doors and tailgate be left on or removed? Can the interior be left in?


Im surprised nobody chimed in. So heres my experience.... These sre very flexible convertibles. If you want to remove the body, you will need to remove the front clip, doors, top and interior etc.. Once that is done, we used a group of six to lift the body and place it on a cart. There is no 'quick and easy' way to do this. Time and labor...
That being said. I knew some boys from Utah that did a frame AND body resto on a 72 4X4 Blazer WITHOUT removing the body (they just layed underneath it). It was amazing to see the results. They won the belt buckle for Sweepstakes and best in class several times at the old Golden State Pickup Parts Chevy GMC Nationals (back in the early 90's). So there goes...

Re: Easiest way to lift body off frame - 72 Blazer
 

I bought a body lift from http://www.accessiblesystems.com/.
Was about $250 iirc. worked well except due to my space restrictions I had to lift from the back and my cherry picker wanted to tip a bit, a chubby redneck standin on it did the trick though.

Re: Easiest way to lift body off frame - 72 Blazer
 

I have a beam in my garage that I used a come along andd a chain bolted to the furtherest back body mounts. Then a cherry picker and a chain bolted to the most inner seat holes.

Once in place lift alittle in the front and alittle in the back until I could roll the chassis out from under it..

It was a bare tub before I started also...

Re: Easiest way to lift body off frame - 72 Blazer
 

My "guess" would be you could just unbolt the body mount bolts and lift it up. Of course the front clip would need to come off but that's easy enough. Shouldn't be a problem to leave the doors and gate on. But I would remove them just so they are out of the way and not scratched by accident. Or if you twist the body a little during removal it could damage the doors or gate. All this is a "guess" on my part though.

Re: Easiest way to lift body off frame - 72 Blazer
 

I'd use(have used) an engine hoist; remove frt clip, remove body bolts(tack-welded from factory), raise from frame enough to insert long bolts and big THICK washers through body mount holes, sling 4 corners to hoist and be nervous for 45 mins. I might think about removing the dash pad and welding braces from the dash to somewhere behind the seats or bolting to the floor.

Re: Easiest way to lift body off frame - 72 Blazer
 

Engine hoist through one of the door openings and wheel dollies under the tires.

I ended up using a floor jack under each axle but if you have them, wheel dollies will be way easier.

After finding the center point, lift the tub, roll the chassis out from under it sideways...set it down on what ever it is you've built to accept the tub.