(Words and photos by Matt Graves) – Sorry for the long dry spell on the Chicken Coupe update. I can’t let Brian steal the spot light this week with his half-assed Buford T Justice update (editor’s note: aren’t they all?!). Mine report actually has some meat in it.  After a very long and cold winter here in Tennessee, I finally got motivated. I wanted to remove the frame from under the big beast but it took some figurin’ on exactly how to go about it without pulling my shop down. I have a decent size shop which is 32 x 40. It is big enough to work on two cars at once but when you split a Caddy body and frame apart you quickly realize they make up two cars on their own.

We got the body up off the frame by using some taller jack stands. We then lowered the frame down once the body was unbolted. During this entire process I was thinking that it would be easy. We’d just pull the frame out from under car through the front. Nope. We forgot about the frame hump in the back which still left us 6” inches to raise up the body that I didn’t have. We then had to slide the frame out sideways. In order to do that we had to balance the body on three jack stands at a time and slowly work out the frame. A few hours later we were done and only one guy was grievously injured.

Now began the tear down of the frame. The back of the frame had seen its better days. Either somebody had installed a trailer hitch or granny backed over a sign in a grocery store parking lot because there was some funked up steel back there. I chopped off the brace and welded in a much stronger 1” square tube to stiffen it up. These GM frames are big but they actually flex a lot once the body is off. Keep that in mind full frame people. Any extra bracing goes along way.

Next, we yanked out the 10 bolt that was also past its prime. We’ve got big plans for this that which I will reveal at a later time. If you have ever tried unbolting these 4-link control arms that have been sitting for years it’s a pain. We used a gallon of WD-40 on all the bolts and let it soak overnight. It helped but a big breaker bar followed up by the impact did the job.

The next update we will be fabricating up the transmission crossmember for the TREMEC Magnum 6-speed. We also need to remove the motor and redo our motor mounts. The location needs to be adjusted just a little to give us a better driveline set up. Right now we have the factory “iron log” crossmember holding the trans up. It’s surprisingly close in fitment. It would be simple to modify to use but it’s too effen heavy and won’t clear the exhaust on both sides.  Stay tuned now that spring is here updates will be rolling in steady.

SCROLL DOWN FOR PHOTOS AND CAPTIONS OF THE PROGRESS! ALL PREVIOUS CHICKEN COUPE UPDATES CAN BE FOUND AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS STORY BELOW THE PHOTOS!

Three car garage now a Caddy aquarium full of parts and one little girl riding her bike.

Wacked off the bent rear frame brace. Make sure to brace the frame before cutting the brace then weld in the brace…got it??

Rear axle removal. One of life’s great pleasures…

Transmission crossmember. Stock one is very close but very ugly and heavy.

Caddy body floating and waiting to be sanded..

Motor has to come out to get some slight adjustment to the mounts.

Bonus Footage! Tail light fillers are completely perfect. Very rare for these cars.

Hmm should I keep the fillers or flush the tail lights? More to come….

CHICKEN COUPE PROJECT INTRODUCTION

CHICKEN COUPE TEAR DOWN BEGINS

CHICKEN COUPE BODY ASSESSMENT AND PROJECT PLAN