Well, it was getting about time to pull the body off. Always a momentous occasion, you work real hard to get to that point and when it happens, you reveal if the chassis will require just a little bit of welding or if you have a piece-o-crap on your hands. I had gone over the car several times to make sure all the cables and hoses and bolts and stuff that keep the body in place had been removed.
The Europa body is fairly light. Two robust males can usually grunt it up and maneuver it about. I pulled up on the back end and it creaked and moaned a bit but eventually gave up it's 32 years old position. I plopped it back down and tried the front. This was a little more stubborn so I employed a hydraulic jack with a big wood plank across the bottom side of the nose. I jacked it up and it made all sorts of creaking noises but finally started to come loose just as the front tires were about to leave the ground. It didn't sound right so I double-checked everywhere to make sure I hadn't left some bolts in place. Everything looked ok so I wedged a two by four between the chassis and the body. I went back to the back and lifted there. It took some balancing finesse to lift the car body, hold it up with a knee whilst I placed a couple two by fours between the chassis and body at the back. I went back to the front and tried to jack up the body some more but it started making some "The fiberglass is tearing somewhere" noises. I found that the steering column was wedged between the rack and the body so I pulled that out. Still the body was protesting.
After searching around, I found that inside the body, behind the heater core, was a pivot arm for the parking brake. I had unbolted the arm but had neglected to unhook it from the parking brake cable. The pivot arm was still attached and therefore was slicing it's way trough the very thin fiberglass that makes up the interior hump. It had wedged itself pretty good so it took a hit of smacking with proper leverage tools (BFH and a BFS) to release the pivot arm and unhook the cable. Once this was done the front part of the body then moved freely. I started again at the rear to lift and add more two by fours. My intent here was to make sure the body was up high enough and absolutely clear before I got some help with moving the body to a rolling stand. Experience has shown me that if you just get a bunch of guys to help you lift the body and something is still holding the body in place, several things may/will happen. A. Everyone hurts their hacks trying to lift the body with the chassis and engine still attached. B. Whatever was still holding the body on will either rip, tear or bend. C. Everyone will reach down, count to three and stand up holding bits of fiberglass in their hands that they have ripped off all four corners. D. All of the above. Didn't want that to happen as this Europa body was pretty good, not (yet) needing any fiberglass work.
I found that Rich had made up some nice Aeroquip hoses to go to the nice aluminum gas tanks on each side of the body. That hose was keeping the back end from going any further. I placed drain pans under each tank and unbolted the lines from the tanks. Only a little slosh of gas left in each, but it was enough to leave that lovely perfume smell that gasoline has all over my hands and arms. Later that night, even after lots of Go-Jo hand cleaner and a good shower, when I wrapped my arms around my lovely wife in bed she would remark to me in her tender, loving way: "What the Hell is that smell on you"?
Everything was clear now. I had wedged in enough two by fours so the body was up about 8 inches off the chassis. My buddy Paul was limping around with a back brace on, the result of a long weekend in the small back jump seat of a pick-up truck (and yes, alcohol was involved) so I didn't bother him. I rolled out a suitable cart and called my son John and wife Sue to help with the official move. John and I lifted and Sue made sure the cart was in position. A couple of grunts and a bit of repositioning and it was Miller time!
Paul came by later with some of his back medicine (Old-Styles) and we celebrated the first milestone in this restoration. I got out my clip board where I had been tracking my hours and counted up all the ½ hour, 3/4 hour, 2 hr, 2 ½ hr entries over the past 6 months. Because the medicine Paul shared with me was starting to kick in, it took a while to add up the numbers and fractions of numbers. It had been a pretty busy summer, so from April 4th when I first got the car through October 10th, I had logged only 55 total hours. This was to completely strip out the interior and exterior of the body and lift it off the chassis. Is this a lot or a little? It doesn't matter since I don't expect to he charging by the hour. But maybe, just maybe if the car turns out really nice I can get 10 cents an hour...
Next - Europa Euphoria, Part 7
