I finally got the body off the car on Sept 16th.  I've been going through a messy break-up and didn't get much car work done for almost 3 weeks.  The Vette is now at the top of my list. 

When I tried to lift the body the first time the rocker channel on the drivers side basically disintegrated so I didn't want to lift from the sides like I originally planned.  When I was able to get back to work I decided to use an engine hoist to lift the body off the frame.  I used two bolts, four nuts, and four washers with two 3ft long pieces of 1/4" chain.  I took the chains and connected the first one between the door strikers.  The other one I connected between the lower door hinge mount points with the bolts through a hole and a nut and washer on each side of the metal to keep it from bending/tearing.  Where they met in the middle I put the engine hoist hook and lifted away.  I sat it down on my body dolly and it was about 2 inches too narrow..  I had to make some on the fly modifications to get it to fit right.  Thankfully I made it out of wood.  That Friday (the 18th) I brought the frame home and started stripping it down.

The first thing I noticed was the front differential bracket is about to fall off from rust.  Then I also noticed the transmission bell housing bolts were all about to fall out.  The previous owner really did some high quality work.  I began by removing the transmission and and sitting it aside.  The bracket situation for the mount is pretty weird but it came out without too much effort.  Then I began stripping the brake and fuel lines.  I wasn't very careful with these as all the brake line ends were seized up and I want to replace with stainless lines anyway.  I mostly just cut these out.  I reached the point where I needed to get rid of the engine and suspension.  Since it was easier to remove the engine with it still rolling I borrowed a hoist again and bought a 50$ AC Delco engine stand at O'Reillys.

Next I began to take the rear suspension off.  I removed the half shaft, shocks, spring, and sway bar.  I removed the front frame extensions and front sway bar also over the next few days.  I've been pretty busy so I haven't gotten too much done.  I worked on removing the trailing arms tonight (the 23rd) but they are being stubborn.  I need to go get some longer reciprocating saw blades and cut the bolts from the inside. 

These are the pictures Ive taken in the last few days.

Take a look at some of this rust.  Take careful note of how the crack-head previous owner welded a piece of metal over the frame rust to cover it up instead of fixing it.

It's September 29th and I just finished stripping the frame down.  Finally got the front suspension taken off, I forgot how much I hate spring compressors.  This is the latest batch of pictures.  I did find the VIN number on the frame, to prove conclusively that it is a good numbers matching car.  I found someone who will sand blast it for roughly 100$, he requested that I pressure wash it and get as much grease as possible off the frame.  What fun.  Took nearly a gallon of degreasing solvent and two hours with the highest intensity pressure nozzle but I finally got it clean.