My '99 E350 Extended 15P with dually rear is sadly rusting away underneath. The body mounts nearest the rear wheels are the worst and the "flanges" that are right in front of the wheels I can put my fingers through. The exterior body is in pretty good shape.

I want to neutralize the rust, put something like POR-15 on the entire undercarriage and then apply a spray on rust proofing to extended the life of the van a few more years.

I've never lifted a body before but totally unwilling to speed thousands to fix the van at a shop since I drive it less then 3K per year.

I'm looking for instructions on how to actually lift the body, it will be done in the driveway. Loosen 14 mounting bolts seems easy enough, but what should I be jacking it up with? It's an awful long distance between the ground and the floor of the van. I don't need to jack it too high off the frame. I figure just a few inches would be enough.

Can anybody point me in a direction of tools (jacks) to buy or other more modest means to actually separate the body from the frame? Thanks for kind responses in advance.

 

I'm interested to hear how to remove the body bolts without them breaking or tearing apart the bushings. I practiced on body bolts at the pick-n-pull and I could turn them about 90* against the springiness of the bushings without loosening them one bit. I stopped before I got hurt. I suppose next up is an impact wrench.

Sixto
93 E150 Chateau 5.8 185K miles

 

Here's something maybe helpful from a few days ago: https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...et-it-out.html

Good info there!

 

I've seen pictures where the body was lifted off using a car lift. So 2 points on either side around the middle. The body seems stiff enough. Maybe 2 4x4 steel tubes, one on either end or side and blocks to reach the body, then 4 floor jacks and a few helpers, one on each jack. Then plenty of wood blocking to set it down on.

 

Closest thing I've done to the van body is a Full size 80's Bronco body tub. A friend and I made up some huge wood saw horses. I think we used 4"x4" lumber for the legs. We pulled or broke all the body mount bolts and made sure everything was unhooked. Then we jacked up each side a little at a time until it was high enough to slide 2"x6" boards ( stood on end ) in under the body. We used 3 2"x6" boards side by side ( sandwiched together ) for each saw horse set. When we got it high enough we were able to just roll the chassis out from under it.

Now if you have a fully equipped shop with a overhead hoist set up or some heavy equipment to do the lifting things go much faster. I didn't have any of that.

 

^^^^ Here's a link to this very thing: https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...-e350-cab.html

Oh yeah the fully equipped shop makes so much of this easy as pie!

I will say lifting the complete unloaded body from the frame in theory should be easily done with something similar to rocker panel pinch weld clamps used in collision repair installed to be lifting points. Photos in above link aren't too clear if the lift arms contact the rocker panel pinch weld areas or other underbody contact points.

Since the body is a complete structure that's fitted to the frame during manufacture it should survive being lifted off again properly.

Oh to have the body slip off so easily---changing shocks, fuel pumps even plugs would be a snap then!

 

I watched that body lift that on youtube. I'm sure it can be separated "easily". I was just looking for ideas on how to get it up in the air, off of the frame. Seems like you would need some mighty tall jacks / jack stands. I was thinking of building a solid wooden platform to put the jacks on so they would be closer to the underside of the van. My floor jacks were all low profiles to get under the mustangs and only have 20" of lift max.

 

What you need to do is to build a structure out of wood that will fill the space between your 4 jacks and the body. Don't put the jacks on something to raise them up but fill the space between the jacks and the body. Make the structure all one piece so that it forms a sort of open frame box under the van with the four corners resting on the jack pads.
Once you have the body off the frame you and then place something under the "box" so that you can lower the jacks while keeping the body up in the air.
Raising the body higher is as simple as putting some kind of blocks on the jack pads.