August 12th, 2012
I have been considering making a rotisserie to raise
and rotate this car for much of the needed repairs and work to be done. I found a few designs online that looked
simple enough to build and still be effective for easy access to all body
panels. Then one day dad says “Why don’t
we just put some wheels on the bottom of that steel rack out there behind the
shop and set the car on that?”
Hmmmmmm…. So we took a look at it, did some measuring and it turns out
the rack would make a great cart to base the car on and have it at a good level
to do most of the work we needed, plus
easy to roll around. (Including rolling it outside to do some sandblasting)
The rack was missing one of the top stabilizer bars
between the upright corners so I welded in a section of steel and this made it sturdy
again and ready to go to hold up a car.
Dad drilled and bolted on some casters he had laying around the shop for
awhile and we had a cart. Now all we had
to do was lift up the car and set it down gently onto the cart.
By this juncture the rear end and leaf springs had
been removed, the engine, the tranny, all of the bolt on front suspension and
brakes, the interior were all gone, and the floor pans had been cut out, also
the sub frame connectors had been tacked in.
Basically the car is almost fully stripped to a shell at this point.
We need an idea to lift the car onto the cart, and
as always dad has a great idea. One of
us will be using the little Ford tractor’s bucket with a strap on the front of
the car, and the other will be in the rear using a cherry picker to lift. Then we’ll just roll the cart underneath the
car when we get it high enough. Sounds reasonable, yes??
Actually yes, it was that easy. A few moments were a little frightening,
going up with the body, higher and higher was kinda scary. We each had one strap connected to the center
of the front and rear of the body so there was a pivot point which allowed the
body to spin if we were not holding it, keeping it from doing so. Once the body was high enough, we rolled the
cart in under the body centering it as best we could with what we thought the
weight distribution would be and started to lower the body back down. We had placed a couple of 4 x 4’s on top of
the cart to let the body rest on and these made contact with the new sub frame
connectors and the front frame rails which turned out to be a perfect fit.
Before un-strapping our lifting devices, we pushed
and pulled on the body testing the balance of the whole structure hoping it
would not tip. It seemed very well balanced
and quite sturdy. We used tie down
straps to secure the sub frame connectors to the cart so it would not try to
slide around, setting the body in a state of unbalance. I will have to say that first few days when I
opened the door to the shop, I nervously looked inside to see if the body was
still up on the cart, hopeful the cart had not given out and tumbled the whole
thing to the floor. That was three
months ago and the body is still up there, the cart is still holding strong.
It has made it so much easier to work on and access
areas that would otherwise be difficult at best. Rolling the whole assembly around has been
very handy for different causes.
Here's the cart, ready to support.
Nice balance point, seems to be holding pretty good.
Dad :)
Straps holding body shell secure on cart. These just needed to snug the shell down onto the cart so it wouldn't slide.
Balanced...we have been told by more than one person we are quite brave for trusting this thing up there like that. It has been a great device for taming the tougher jobs.
Yes, I trust it. :)
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