Not sure if this is going to help anyone...but here it goes
Since I planned to hang my mk4 body from the ceiling of my garage, I started looking at how best to do that. I reviewed the forums for various ways of hanging it but most involved some variation of the heavy, wooden body buck that most use on the floor. For a number of reasons, I wanted to minimize the weight hanging from my crappy, Centex OSB joists….so I embarked on a process of building a lighter body buck that I could use with my hoist system. I looked at hanging the body upside down but that was problematic for a number of reasons. It could have worked but I decided I would rather have it upright and supported from below. I also built a platform to sit the body on but that turned out to be heavier than I wanted. Ultimately, I decided to mimic the chassis with a the minimum amount of wood. Here is where I landed:
- I took two 13ft 2x4’s and attached them inside the body through the front and rear turn signal light holes. I padded the end of each 2x4 and used ¼ inch lag bolts to attach.
- I used 4 inch wood screws to add in three cross supports between the long 2x4s.
- Off those long 2x4’s, I built three supports: dashboard, trunk bar, and front fenders. These points coincide to where most of the weight is supported when the body is on the chassis. Instead of using large, heavy pieces of plywood or OSB, I used small pieces that fit those areas perfectly (except the dashboard which is almost the width of the body.
- For the front and trunk supports, I used the regular body buck plans with Stan’s modified plans to get the right shapes/angles.
- I mounted eye hooks into the cross supports...this is where the hoist straps attach.
The end result is a very rigid and secure “internal” buck that supports the body just like the chassis. All in, it weighs 40 lbs….so together with the 93 lb body, I’m hoisting 133 pounds to the ceiling. Not too bad.
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