On August 10, 2021, I was able to get my crew together to go and retrieve our newly upholstered body from Ernie Romero’s workshop. Janet, Tori, Chris Presley & I all packed into the F-250 and headed South. Getting the body back into the truck was slightly more exciting than originally taking it to Ernie’s place. We had to remove the lifter pistons from the camper shell back window so the plump upholstery would fit in. It seems that during its visit to Ernie’s workshop, our body put on a few pounds (about 200+ in addition to the original 500+ or so) and bulked up a bit. We all exhaled, and the body squeezed in. No scratches, tears or ruptures.The drive home was uneventful but we had yet to extract the body from the pickup and take it down the hill to my workshop.  During our struggles to get the body out, one of our Scout dads from Carlsbad Boy Scout Troop 748 (Joel Tarman), happened to drive by and slow down to see what the commotion was.  “Do you need some help?”  Um….. Yes!  Next I went next door and drafted both Charles & Mary Essex to add their combined lifting power to the growing group of Michigan sherpas.  With 6 people hoisting and groaning, we got the now much heavier body down the hill without incident. We pushed the chassis out and prepared to walk the body on to the shop floor.

We walked the body in and set it on top of blocks and I inserted the specially constructed lifting bracket into the back seat area.The bracket was attached to my hydraulic engine hoist and raised the carefully balanced body up so we could roll the chassis in and lower the body into place.

It soon became apparent to us all that the hoist arm was bumping the top of the back seat and pitching the entire body up at strange angles that wouldn’t allow us to align anything.  The chain needed to be lengthened. After several tries, we got the chain long enough and the body lowered into place perfectly.

While most of the restoration process is fairly solitary work, this particular operation required a crew. And I’m very happy we were able to have ALL their help.  It was time for a well deserved malted adult beverage…….. Whew!