OK, I am having a senior moment here. Using wood to support body with no suspension

[russ69coupe 3]

I have seen numerous pictures of people who have used 4x4's or similar to make a dolly type structure to keep the body off of the ground and moveable with the suspension off.

 

I just scored several pieces of 4x's here at work and went to look at how others have done this and I can't find any pictures.:helpsmilie:

 

What I am thinking to do is to have it 2 pieces, a front and a rear. Each one being a modified "H", maybe with a cross member near the top and near the bottomm and mounting in the front to the control arm mounting holes, not sure about the rear, maybe the forward leaf spring mount location, or maybe the rear. I am sure I can do this, but I would like to see how others have done it again just as a sanity check.

 

I plan on having the body a good distance off of the ground, to make it easier to get under it to work on the bottom since I don't have a rotissorie anymore. Maybe 2-3 feet up in the air, nothing really drastic. The pieces I got are cut at about 3 feet or a little less, so that should be good.

Wish I could draw a picture, what I am thinking about in detail is to have two 4x4's being the uprights, and using 2x4's as the crossmembers, using two of them at both the top and bottom, sandwiching the 4x4 in between. And having the bottom 2x4's extend out past the 4x4 on each side and sandwich another piece of wood (either stacked 2x4's or a 4x4) to mount the casters to. I am debating whether to run a connecting piece between the front and rear supports. I know it is needed for a rotissorie, but not sure if I need one in this case. I do need this to be able to move the car around quite a bit, so if nothing else I will make that piece easily removable so I can put it on when moving and take it out when I need to get underneath.

 

Oh, just in case you don't know, the car is totally stripped (as soon as I get the suspension back off), as bare a shell as you can get without cutting. :biggrin: And the car is solid, I don't have to worry about lifting it up on these and having the center collapse. :clap:

 

Thanks,

Russ

[369coupes 14]

if it were me i would use square tubing in stead of wood make a T for the front drill holes in the top part of it to bolt it to the bumper loactions

on the rear get some plate steel or use stock or even after market shackels and sandwich the square tubing between them where the rear spring eye would go and then tie a crossmember between them put fixed casters on them

 

if you want to get fancy get somepivot casters for the front just my 2cents

[russ69coupe 3]

Thanks, but since it is me I have to do this on the cheap. :-) And free is about as cheap as I can get.

I've seen it done several times, I just can't find the sites that I have seen it on.

[Protowrxs 111]

If you want uber cheap then this might work for the front. This was simply so I could roll the car out of the garage, get the front clip blaster, roll it back in and put on the stands.

 

http://www.protowrxs.com/Nolen/Stang/Rebuild/2006-06-24.asp

 

-Stephen

[369coupes 14]

sorry russ i was just trying to suggest a safer more stable way of doing it even a stripped shell isnt a feather weight

[russ69coupe 3]

No problem. I would use steel if I had any. I just know that others have used the wood before and it is driving me up a wall not being able to remember where I have seen it. They build houses out of the stuff, so it should work ok as long as I do it the right way. I'd tie the car up to the roof for a safety measure, but the roof on this garage wouldn't hold much I am thinking. (J/K)

 

Hey, Keith. I just realised it is you. I was wondering if you had gotten your user name change you have been wanting. Didn't realise it was you until I noticed the sig. :-)

Russ

[369coupes 14]

yep tis me

[Protowrxs 111]

I used a wood frame to support a 40 Ford sedan I owned at one time. I used 4x4 posts in the corners and hooked it together with 2x4's around the bottom and then lots of triangulation and bracing. It worked but the 40 body was lighter than a Mustang shell for sure.

 

-Stephen

[Pakrat 1,043]

Here's a real clevor idea, do you mean something like this? :wacko:

 

 

http://www.mistupid.com/pictures/images/badjack.jpg

[bnickel 10,004]

as long as it is triangulated somehow 4x4's and 2x4's will be fine. i too have seen it done a bunch like that. i've also seen people build dollies for their jackstands in the same fashion which also works well. personally, i'd probably go that route and build some super stiff rolling dollies for my jackstands, remember a piece of wood is stronger when it is a fairly short length.

[Pakrat 1,043]

as long as it is triangulated somehow 4x4's and 2x4's will be fine. i too have seen it done a bunch like that. i've also seen people build dollies for their jackstands in the same fashion which also works well. personally, i'd probably go that route and build some super stiff rolling dollies for my jackstands, remember a piece of wood is stronger when it is a fairly short length.

 

I really like that idea alot. I have been contemplating getting or making wheel dollies for some time now to keep my car tucked into the corner of my one car garage on the off seasons but I also like to keep the weight off the tires. Up until now I have always inched it in with the hydraulic jack and then put it on the jackstands, this would give me the best of both worlds.

 

Even though you have the wood for free though, I think you are going to be pretty surprised what good casters will cost you, and they will have to be good ones with I would think at least one on each side having a brake lock as well for safety.

[bnickel 10,004]

Pak, i wish i had some pics for you but they looked easy enough to build i didn't bother saving any of them.

 

 

as far as the casters, you can actually get some really nice ones at harbor freight for not a lot of money, even the kind with locks.

[Kiwi John 10]

if it were me i would use square tubing in stead of wood make a T for the front drill holes in the top part of it to bolt it to the bumper loactions

on the rear get some plate steel or use stock or even after market shackels and sandwich the square tubing between them where the rear spring eye would go and then tie a crossmember between them put fixed casters on them

 

if you want to get fancy get somepivot casters for the front just my 2cents

 

 

 

 

I had my bare body sideways for a few years.... what did I just say... geez

 

For the rear...

I made a tee out of angle iron, drilled four holes equal to where the back bumper bolts go through the body and bolted it on with a lot of spacer washers.

 

For the front...

I had 2 extra 69 door hinges that I bolted in place, I had a piece of 1 3/4" round tubing bent in a shallow arc (left over front race car bumper), I welded the tubing to the hinges and then welded the hinges so they wouldn't move.

 

the width was probably adout 4 or 5 feet.

 

Two of us just picked up the body and turned it over onto its side , it was easy. This worked extremely well. Stable too.

 

The tee could probably be made from wood as long as you put a couple of 45degree braces in and they were bolted through.

 

The front could also be made from wood with 2 short uprights that were well secured.

 

Once the body is sitting on its side there is not a lot of strain on the supports.

 

I hope this helps you with some ideas.

 

Cheers

John

[Pakrat 1,043]

Pak, i wish i had some pics for you but they looked easy enough to build i didn't bother saving any of them.

 

 

as far as the casters, you can actually get some really nice ones at harbor freight for not a lot of money, even the kind with locks.

 

This looks like a simple enough design and I have to think it can be made for less: http://www.kingdolly.com/prices.html

 

Seems over kill on weight too, I'm thinking you really only need a caster rated at about 150 lbs each or so?!?!?!?!?

 

I did some searches for casters the other night and the problem was finding one that comes in the same dimensions in a 360* with and with out a brake. Ideally I would like to get 4 with brakes and 12 without. I found one great and affordable company last night but I guess I didn't book mark it and I'm having trouble finding it in a google search again.

[bnickel 10,004]

This looks like a simple enough design and I have to think it can be made for less: http://www.kingdolly.com/prices.html

 

Seems over kill on weight too, I'm thinking you really only need a caster rated at about 150 lbs each or so?!?!?!?!?

 

I did some searches for casters the other night and the problem was finding one that comes in the same dimensions in a 360* with and with out a brake. Ideally I would like to get 4 with brakes and 12 without. I found one great and affordable company last night but I guess I didn't book mark it and I'm having trouble finding it in a google search again.

 

 

exactly what i was talking about, i have seen those made from 2x4's and 4x4's. found a bunch of casters on harbor freights website

 

http://search.harborfreight.com/cpisearch/web/search.do

 

there are some 3 3/4" ones that are identical but one has a lock and the other doesn't, they are on different pages though.

 

 

edit: well the link doesn't work just type in "caster" into the search

[Pakrat 1,043]

exactly what i was talking about, i have seen those made from 2x4's and 4x4's. found a bunch of casters on harbor freights website

 

http://search.harborfreight.com/cpisearch/web/search.do

 

there are some 3 3/4" ones that are identical but one has a lock and the other doesn't, they are on different pages though.

 

 

edit: well the link doesn't work just type in "caster" into the search

 

I did that before but I still can't find one that matches your description. These seem to be the only 3 x 3/4" ones that match but the are a post instead of a late and they are rated at just 100lbs.

 

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=90997

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=90992

 

Are these the ones you mean?

[bnickel 10,004]

Pak, you can't link directly from their site, i found that out in my post. assuming you saw the same ones i saw at 100lbs each that brings the rating for 4 of them up to 400lbs per dolly which would be about 1600lbs for a set of 4. that should be able to handle a bare shell fairly easily and even with a bunch of parts installed it should still be able to handle it pretty easily.

[Pakrat 1,043]

Pak, you can't link directly from their site, i found that out in my post. assuming you saw the same ones i saw at 100lbs each that brings the rating for 4 of them up to 400lbs per dolly which would be about 1600lbs for a set of 4. that should be able to handle a bare shell fairly easily and even with a bunch of parts installed it should still be able to handle it pretty easily.

 

I am pretty sure you can't link to a search page but you can to the direct page like I did, Did you even try to click on my links? They work for me.

 

I'd really like to support the weight of a finished car in the end which I think is over 2000 lbs isn't it?

[bnickel 10,004]

well they work now, they didn't the first time i clicked them. it may be because they were stored in our cookies because i puled them both up after doing a search, IDK, but they didn't work the first time.

 

well if you don't like those try searching Grainger or McMaster-Carr.

[bnickel 10,004]

grainger has what you're looking for. they're rated at 300lbs each

 

http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/wwg/guideBrowse.shtml

 

they are the Top Plate 51/55 series casters.

 

http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/wwg/itemDetailsRender.shtml?ItemKey=3A014&BaseItem=5UX82

 

 

 

http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/wwg/itemDetailsRender.shtml?ItemKey=5UX82&BaseItem=3A014

[Pakrat 1,043]

grainger has what you're looking for. they're rated at 300lbs each

 

http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/wwg/guideBrowse.shtml

 

they are the Top Plate 51/55 series casters.

 

http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/wwg/itemDetailsRender.shtml?ItemKey=3A014&BaseItem=5UX82

 

 

 

http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/wwg/itemDetailsRender.shtml?ItemKey=5UX82&BaseItem=3A014

 

 

Ouch on the prices though! It could cost more to build than to just buy it. I may give this one a try and just not add a brake to it. http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=41516

[Ltnrisk 104]

when i was rebuilding the enigine bay with all new sheet metal I had my stang sitting on wood. I had 2 rows, one laying closer to the front running close to the firewall and the other just in front of the rear tires. it was really stable and i could just hit away on the front with out being worried. plus with it being on wood the side walls where easier to come out square and level as long as i had a jack to hold the front in place.

[Burn 14]

Here is a cart I just built. 5" 330lbs casters from Harbor Freight

 

http://www.1969stang.com/mustang/forum/showpost.php?p=20731&postcount=11