Removing body panels from Chassis

I am in the process of dismantling my rolled GT$ and am down to the chassis and body panels but have no idea how to remove the panels without destroying the thinner parts of the chassis.

Do I need an acetylene torch or do I just hammer the panels off ?

I'm use to fixing the mechanicals and resurrecting cars not burying them so have never had to do this to get down to the bare chassis.

The roof was cut off when they pulled me out so the car was a write off and I'm just trying to recycle as much as possible.

Cheers

John

 

On a GT4, many of the seams are covered with lead, or more likely, filler!! So to remove the panels tidily is near impossible.

You can, however, painstakingly locate every tack and spot weld and grind/drill them away.

But the speediest method for clean removal is to use a small cut off wheel, and sacrifice parts of the adjacent panel as necessary.

 

Sorry john to here about your accident
Are you parting the car out?If so do you have a list of what you have?Again sorry to ask this of you at this time

 

Hi if you are dismantling this car (assuming it is a US model) I am interested in a specific exterior trim part. Though from what you indicate it may be cut through getting you out of the car!

Can you confirm if you are interested in selling soem parts?

 

Thanks Phil, I had a suspicion this was the case as there is a LOT of filler on this car but the places I removed filler there wasn't any obvious join sections.

As for the parting out I will have a full listing in a week and I'll be putting that on the Australia section as I live in Qld, Australia so if anyone wants anything they will have to factor in the cost of transport, just got the front suspension to go and it is ready to be catalogued (a lot of new parts )

 

John,

I also mourn the loss of your car and hope you are feeling better, I am still interested in what happened so maybe we will not duplicate your accident. I alway assumed if I rolled the gt4 I would be a goner........I am very gald you are still with us!!!

Sincerely,

Rob

 

Hi Rob,

Thanks for the kind words, and to answer your question :

travelling in a convoy of Ferraris I was behind a Toyota in medium rain conditions when the front right tyre hit some standing water due to poor road design. This standing water stopped the RHS of the cat dead in it's tracks and as the road was wet this allowed the car to aquaplane and spin around the stopped wheel axis. As we drive on the LHS of the road here , and the road was sweeping to the left, this meant I was spinning across the oncoming traffic (missed everyone!!) and hit an embankment on the opposite side of the road which had the car dig into and flip it into the air where upon it rolled twice, both times coming down on the drivers A pillar.

Now, one thing I found out this w/e when pulling the completely unscathed engine out (apart from the damaged front right suspension the car survived mechanically unscathed!!) was that when the fireys cut the roof off there is tubing in the roof panels.

I've cut thru a few rooves on cars but never seen this before and I put this down to the fact these cars have a full chassis so if you ever roll a gt4 (God forbid!) you have some solcae in the fact Ferrari have built in extra strength over your head (person following me reckons the car went 10-12' in the air and came down each time on the A pillar).

The passenger side was totally intact with the family (wife and son behind her) and the door opened normally .

Contributing factor according to the police accident investigators was the width of the tyre, speed and the standing water. I was running 245/70/14 Yokohama A509s (excellent rain tyres), speed was 87kph in a 100 zone and the water wouldn't have been more than 2" but this combination was dramatic enough for the accident.

I have driven this car on a very wet racetrack with no foibles so was immensely surprised to have this happen.

John

 

Sorry to hear about your accident. Hope your able to replace the car with parting out the first. Good luck.

Philip

 

Wow! Amazing story. Glad you're ok.

 

Sorry to here that john but I too am surprised at what happened as the speed wasn't that excessive.I also knew about the gt4 having a sort of built in "roll cage".But as you also stated typical crap aussie roads!

 

Gents, thanks for the kind wishes, and hard to believe but this was 6 months ago and my last operation on the arm was 8 weeks ago and am now getting back into the Ferrari buying mode so am very happy at present, just confused at which car to get (going for a 328GTB to get it past the wife).

My next car WILL have a full harness seat belt, wrap around seats, roll cage if possible (my skull, fractured in 3 places, doesn't have as much coverage since the accident) and I'll be wearing a helmet (I don't care how stupid I look).

I have been very impressed by the sense of family inside the Ferrari club here in Oz and on the 'Net as my family has received great assistance and well wishes over the last 6 months for which we are very appreciative.

I loved my gt4 and was only just coming to terms with it on the track in understanding the huge differences tyres and ability will make to your times but am now looking forward to even better times on the track in a slightly faster Fcar.

 

I suppose it is too late for you to do this:

http://www.barchetta.cc/All.Ferraris/by-serial-number/ferrari-by-serial-number/model-index/model-index-by-date-1980/166-mm-s-n-0-33.html