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| The longitudinal lengths of conduit were left at ten feet, and bent down and inwards just slightly to end up hanging over the brackets on the inner fenders. I tried using tie-wraps to connect them but they failed several times when I tried lifting the body with the conduit from the front, so I used some lightweight synthetic twine instead. The inner sill was painted with a locally available type of rust converter paint prior to the outer sill being welded on; that's the reddish brown colour. If at this point you are thinking "What a wreck!", you're not alone; there are others - some even in my own family! - who are similarly enthusiastic... |
| Point A is where the conduit was drilled through and 1/4" bolts (with fender washers) used to attach to the bonnet hinge holes. Attachment at the rear was also at the hinge bolt holes, but it's hard to see in this photo. Point B shows where the conduit had to be bent at rather a sharp angle to get over the lip right in front of the fuel filler cap. The conduit just began to buckle there, but not too badly to use. The third pice of conduit was cut in half and used for the X through the centre. This was to prevent the tub from racking - note if you use this method, you must put a bolt at the middle of the X. |
| The yellow box is the garage door opener. We positioned the body such that the opener was within the back half of the X, to get the most height. Even so, it was still on an angle, so had the appearance that it was taking off from a runway. Over the door opening you can see a bit of yellow rope. We had a few boards runnning across the rafters - in several places ropes attached to one piece of conduit, went up over the boards, and attached to the other piece of conduit. Thus the body had some ability to rock to one side or the other when you stood up and hit your head on it. All told I was very satisfied with this solution as it freed up floor space, and gave great access to the underside of the body. Of course best of all was the access to the frame and running gear. |
| Preparing for liftoff. This simple method was suggested by Dan Buettner, who in turn heard of it somewhere else. It took no more than an hour to bend three pieces of 3/4" electrical conduit and fasten it to the body, and probably another hour for my brother and me to lift it off and hang it from the rafters. I would guess by the feel of it that the bare tub weighs around 200 lbs. or maybe 100 kilos. We had it dangling by ropes, so one of us hoisted up one end of the car while the other tightened a rope. We just went back and forth from one end to the other until it was hanging as high as we could get it. |
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