Homebuilt body cart.

[Itoldyouso]

A body cart is really helpful when you are doing body work or painting, and since Dan already has his tied up in the shop I decided to build one today to put my 27 body on. I can't take credit for the design, I saw it on some forum or maybe a magazine article. The lumber, wheels, and bolts only cost me right at $ 100.00, and it took me about 3 hours to make it. I hope it helps anyone else who needs a way to move and store a body, especially when no one is around to help you lift it.

I'll have to do this in several posts due to the number of pictures and text. (the size I decided on is perfect for a T bucket body, 30's roadster body, 27 body, etc. If you want to enlarge it to fit a later body you can upgrade to 2 x 6 lumber maybe and also add some cross bracing, and make it longer/ wider to suit.)

Here is a list of the parts I used:

4 pieces of 2 x 4 lumber, 48 inches long. (side rails)
4 pieces of 2 x 4 lumber, 24 inches long. (front and back rails)
4 pieces of 4 x 4 lumber, 15 inches long. (upright pieces)
2 pieces of 2 x 6 lumber, 38 inches long. ( outriggers that the wheels go to)
16 hex bolts, 3/8 x 6 inches long. (fasten the side/front pieces to uprights)
32 flat washers, 3/8, for the above bolts.
16 nuts, 3/8, for the above bolts.
16 hex bolts, 5/16 x 2 inch to mount wheels. (store was out of 2 inch, I used 2.5 inch instead)
16 flat washers, for the above bolts.
16 nuts, 5/16 for the above bolts.
1 box of 3 inch long drywall screws to mount the outriggers to frame.
4 swiveling caster wheels, ones with brakes on them work better as you can lock the wheels to prevent it from moving around when sanding, etc.

The supplies are shown in picture # 1.

Picture number two shows the wheels mounted on the outriggers. Once this is done you can set it aside until later.

The idea is to use the 4 x 4's as uprights and build a framework around them with the 4 48 inch boards and the 4 24 inch boards. The 6 inch long bolts go through each side and front piece and through the 4 x 4's. Because the bolts would hit each other if you drilled the holes exactly in the center of the side and front pieces it is important to stagger the holes so the bolts will miss each other when you install them. (See picture 3 to understand what I mean)

Once the side pieces are bolted to the uprights, it will look like picture # 4.

continued in next post............................