Here's what's been happening: I got the car back from Donnie's with the new crossmember and decided to tackle the frame. This involves removing the body, and I don't have any special equipment to do this. I tried to envision a way of using the engine "cherry picker" to help, but the plan devolved into bicycle hangers and tie down straps. Don't try this at home kids! You want to talk about nervous.....
I unbolted the body and got it stuck about 3 feet above the frame. The middle body mounts were narrower than the diagonal bar on the roll cage, and it was trapped. The bars get closer together towards the front of the car, but the roll bar prevents me from moving the body forward. Here's a picture of the crisis in progress.
Since I was a one man workforce, I enlisted the help of my brother (who hasn't learned from his past favors) and he came over and we figured out that the body could be removed by lifting it up to absurd heights and we could roll the chassis around enough to remove it. At this point, just saying "we got it" really bypasses the nervous tension that we were going through watching 2 of the 6 bicycle hooks bend, seeing the body swing around, and the general violent bounces that the body took when trying to manipulate it around with tie down straps. Through some miracle, no damage was experienced.... how, I'll never know.
We got the body off and now it was time to go to work. I severely underestimated a few things. Sure, the time and effort this would take are obvious, but some other factors came into play. As I sat and looked at the 40 years of grime, holes, and buildup on the frame, I suddenly found myself wanting to make the frame better. I am a victim of the bubble gum tech shows that come on weekends where they install all kinds of add-ons and test performance parts (shows like Horsepower TV and Musclecar, etc). I hate to admit watching those extended commercials for the sponsors, but it is a good way to start the weekend while the coffee kicks in. It's amazing how "Bob'll just tighten these bolts up while you watching the commercials" and they come back and everything has just fallen into place. Anyway, on one of the shows, they welded up all the little mystery holes in the frame and generally dressed it up before they painted it. Hmmmm, good idea I thought. This should be clue #1 why it's November and I'm not posting pictures of a gigantic smokey burnout.
So, yes, I sat and welded up all the little holes in the frame to make it all purdy. I even slicked it up with bondo so it was really smooth. I spent about a month doing this on the parts of the frame that will never be seen. No one said that I was smart. At least I can ride down the road knowing that underneath is a slick frame.
After removing every nut, bolt, and tab from the frame, I also took a crash course in painting. I have owned a spray gun for about 8 years now, and I finally put it to use. I discovered that painting the frame with the roll cage presented quite the challenge with all of the different angles (not to mention that I drug the air hose over fresh paint a couple of times and was constantly banging stuff with the paint gun). The neighbors still talk to me because of the attenuation properties of the face mask breather doohickey. I painted the back 75% of the frame with the intention of sitting the body back on and finishing the front part later. I wanted to pay attention to the front part due to the fact that it showed. (The frame is painted and the body is still off at the moment, so the plan was a bust).
The front end went a little smoother, but I even spent a week wet sanding and blending the bondo in. This is the point where I realized that I am not, nor ever will be, a professional body person. All my efforts seemed to be in vain when I painted it. All those blends and smooth areas really showed me that they weren't up to par after I sprayed them. I was horrified, but thankfully I am using epoxy primer and it's not that shiny. In other words, it looks better dry. Maybe this is stuff that only I'll notice anyway. After all, the goal isn't some shiny billet showcar here, it's a fast, nasty, make babies cry, loud, and fast ol' hot rod.
In between the frame bondo rounds, I spent lots of time on the interior of the body. I bravely sandblasted, wire brushed, welded gussets, removed wheel wells, and painted the inner panels. Let me tell you that since the car was originally hot rodded back in the 60's that all manner of adhesive was used to put carpet all over. I finally got the inner body lower parts all sealed up in epoxy primer and it actually looks good. Only 2 small pencil sized holes. The wheel wells were originally used as shock mounts!!! The results were spectacularly predictable... and I had to remove the disastered metal to hide the shame of the "Hey, I've got an idea" Budweiser engineering that went into it.
So now the frame is painted and in my mind, this is the point where all the parts are going to fly on in a matter of days. Wrong again. I spent days agonizing component location. I realized that a lot of things needed the body to be in place. In a word, I was overwhelmed. (I realize that I should have said "in a phrase", but let's move on). First was the front end. I had discovered that the spring mount center hole (where the top spring locating nipple goes in) was originally created with a blow torch. Even worse was the bondo that made it look like a round hole. This needed to be fixed for sure. I decided to weld up the hole and carefully measure the center of the plate and drill a new hole. No problem (other than the fact that my welding has only marginally improved, much due to the $50 auto darkening helmet from Northern that works excellently. If you are thinking about buying one, do it. Get the cheap ass solar powered one and start striking some arcs. After a good pressure washing, the front end was rolled over to the frame. While hooking up the 4 bars, there was simply too much thread showing on the rod ends to be ignored. My centered hole was wrong. I had to move it again. Dammit!
This time I got more smarter about it. I cut a piece of steel rod and made a plug to weld in. This worked like a charm and the front end was on and the rod ends were safely at 1.5 times the thread diameter into the tubes.
Finally, stuff started to progress. The rear end was assembled. Man, there's something about a 35 splined monster with a nodular 3.70 geared locker Ford 9 inch that is just wicked. I now have the brake lines plumbed - with the exception of the connection to the rear calipers. See, that's another delay. The folks at Moser sent me the "pro street" rear brake kit with the parking brake, which is actually a drum inside the rotor. Well, this simply didn't fit. It hit the screw in studs on the axles. So I called them and got the "Oh yeah, that combination doesn't work". Nice to know that no one told me about this during the 3 calls it took to get enough measurements to order it in the first place. They are great folks, but you really get differing opinions depending on who you talk to there. I got 3 different opinions on the locker vs. spool decision I was trying to make when I originally called. Their solution was to machine the heads on the screw in studs or send them the axles to get press in studs. (The press in studs are fine, but I have dual patterns drilled into the rear axles for wheel options). I finally sent the brakes back and got the disc only setup. Got it this Saturday. So now I am only 2 fittings away from having the brake system completely ready to test. Progress! It's SOOOO good to be able to say that I am done with the brakes. One little bend took me 6 hours to get right! (Okay, there was a re-weld involved there too when my bracket was only tacked to the frame and I put pressure on it). I will never weld anything structural, I promise!
Today I finally got around to installing the fuel pump and filter and now it's looking like I am pretty much at a point where the body has to go back on. There's still lots to do (Floors, all of the electrical, put the engine back in, create a steering system, etc). 
In this last picture you can see the mounted pedal/master cylinder assembly and the rear brake line. I'm expecting my brake line fittings and front shocks this week and that'll mean that the body should be going on really soon. Since it looks cool, and really lends some creedance to the whole hot rod image, my magneto was sent off to Joe Hunt magetos to have an advance installed. I'll be buzzing radios all around Atlanta before you know it!
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