Dan -
I am in the final stages of a frame off on my 1970 TR6. I bought it new
- it was our first new car after we got married. Rare in these days, I still
have both (wife and car) after 30+ years.
Started taking the car apart in '94 and I am weeks away from completion with
only the soft trim left. As usual you get stuck in the time/money conundrum.
When you have the time - you have no money. When you have the money - you
have no time
I am trying to restore the car to like new condition and then use it as
often as practical.
When I pulled the body, I used a rusted out frame (totally stripped of
components) as a dolly. I mounted heavy-duty dolly wheels to some 2x4s and
used those pliable metal hanger straps used to frame a roof to attach them
to the frame. I used 3 unsuspecting neighbors to help me lift the body onto
the slave frame supplying beer AFTER the task was done. It was great to be
able to roll the body around and I delivered it to the shop that did the
sand blasting and then to the body shop for preliminary prep. To keep the
body rigid when I removed it from the frame, I first removed the doors and
windscreen. I then used angle bars like those you hang a garage door opener
with and ran them from the convertible top mounting holes to the windshield
mounting holes. This helped maintain the rigidity necessary so the car did
not fold up on the rusted floors when we lifted. We used the slave frame to
align the new floors and had no problem - don't know if I was just lucky or
any body will fit any frame.
As far as special tools, I rented an engine hoist to pull the
engine/transmission and bought an inexpensive engine stand and jammed a 2x4
between the oil pan and bottom bracket of the stand as they are normally not
designed to support a straight six. A friend supplied the special gauges
when we did the engine rebuild - the rest was stuff out of my toolbox.
Feel free to contact me if you have any basic questions and I will share my
experiences.
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