Pulling the Pan

I didn't feel safe going all the way up in one go because I didn't know how stable the thing would be. Or how heavy. In retrospect, it would have been easier to go all the way up to start with.
On day two here I had to raise the frame higher on the a-frames so the engine would clear. It would have been easier if I was planning to pull the pan out from the rear, but I needed it out the front for storage.

But a long story short, we lifted the frame up higher on cinderblocks. It wasn't too awful heavy. Me and my brother were able to lift each end and feed a 2x4 through. That's the cool thing about cinderblocks.

After that, the pan is so light a ten year old boy could pull it out.


On that last picture, you can see in the driveway next door that I inspired the Jones's to keep up.



And in the next picture you can see the 2x4 holding the frame up through the blocks. Hey, whatever works.



And that's it for the pan.


Leaving the frame hanging by itself.


So we lifted it down to the ground.
First the back (heavy)


And then the front (light)




And then some 2x4's under the metal.


It was good to know that after all of that, the thing is still drivable.

Pulling the Frame

After disconnecting the seatbelts from the pan I was ready to pull the frame. The steering wheel wasn't that hard to undo. Or at least it wouldn't have been if the Germans knew how to make a bolt that a half inch wrench could fit on. That's the reason I have to buy wrenches and sockets in sizes such as 21/32
It must suck being German. It could be worse though. It could be French. I bet it's hard to be a Frenchman. Think about if you went to the store and asked for some cheese. In the states, all they ask you is if you want it sliced. In France you would have to know which kind out of some 147 thousand types of cheese you want. And if you messed up, you might end up with something resembling spoiled milk with cow stomach juice mixed in. I wonder what the wife would say THEN. It would be the old "Don't you know the difference between salted and unsalted butter" thing but only with varying degrees of decomposed milk products inserted. No wonder the French drink so much.

Anyhow, I yanked the frame. I started by building a couple of light a-frames out of left over 2x4's and some sawhorse brackets. Then I jacked up the front end as high as I could


then I put it on cinder blocks. Do you know any rednecks who don't own cinder blocks?


With both front wheels on blocks, I stacked up and jacked the whole end up again.


After that I hung a chain over the a-frame and bolted it onto the bumper brackets (which I had previously re-installed)




Then I jacked the car down back onto the blocks


And then back to the ground


This put a bunch of air up front between the frame and the pan.


Not too bad.
Then off to the rear to repeat the process.





But then I ran into a little glitch. I hadn't noticed that the bumper brackets in the rear are MUCH wider apart than the ones in the front. So the chain I had intended to use was too short.
No big deal though. How many rednecks do you know that don't have a ten foot tow chain in the car?

So then I jacked the rear down to the ground and that left the whole frame hanging in mid-air.







Not a bad day's work

Switching to thumbnails

I've actually gotten quite a bit done since the last post. I just haven't posted.
The reason is that the pics got too big for dialup to load well. I need to switch to thumbnails instead. So now I'm working on going back to the beginning of the blog and redoing all of the pics to thumbnail view.
I'm also getting some good spam in my comments. I like the dating service one the best. I should write the guy who left it and thank him for the wonderful spam he put in there. He probably doesn't have a lot of free time for reading email though. What with all the dates he must have and the spam he has to send and having no life to begin with. I wonder if anyone who would take the time to read a car restoration blog and actually read someone else's feedback would really want to use a dating service. Somehow I doubt it.
I'll post more when I get the chance.