Mobile Sawhorses and Continuing Interior Prep

November 8, 2009 - It's been 3 weeks since my last blog entry and forward progress continues to be made. I decided that I need to be able to move the car in and out of the garage onto the driveway to give me more elbow room and sunlight. I just can't say enough about having direct sunlight to work by.

So the mobile sawhorses came about when a neighbor commented on how I should put castors or wheels on the bottom of the jackstands. The castors sort of defeat the purspose of the jackstand but the concept was workable. So I put pencil to paper and came up with the following: sawhorses using 300lb brackets and 360-wheels capable of supporting 250lbs.

Since the overall weight of the frame at this point is between 600-700 lbs, the sawhorses should be plenty strong enough. One person can easily albeit slowly move the vehicle in or out of the garage. After moving the vehicle in and out of the garage a few times, I have to say, the sawhorses are really the "bee's knees"; I'd only wish I'd thought of it sooner. Here's a side view:



Here's a front-on view:



And a three-quarter view:



As you can see, the construction is really quite simple. The sawhorse brackets were purchased from Ace Hardware for about $5/pair. They are screwed into the 2x4s with 1-1/2 in wood screws. The 360-wheels came from Harbor Freight and cost about $30. Yes, half of the wheels are lockable. I used almost 8 2x4s at $2/piece from Lowes and the hardware to bolt the wheels to the lower 2x4s ran about $15. The entire cost of both assemblies was about $75. While the sawhorses are more than strong enough for the task, I have to be leary of the sawhorses moving and constantly checking of their position. And finally, a three-quarter view of the entire vehicle and sawhorses:



Now back to the interior prep. I think I'm 90% finished with the interior. I've stripped all of the paint, tar, seam sealer, etc down to bare metal. Here's what's left to do:

• Fill in all of the small rust holes with All-Metal Filler.
• Weld the parking brake pivot into place.
• Weld the left inner firewall piece into place.
• Thoroughly clean entire surface area.
• Prime with Rust Encapsulator.
• Paint.

The center console tunnel was a real pain in the a**. It was covered with floor pan tar and had to be air-hammer chiseled out. Here's a forward three-quarter view from the driver's side:



Here's a forward three-quarter view from the passeneger's side:



Here's a three-quarter view of the rear firewall from the driver's side:



Here's a shot of the upper rear firewall driver's side:



And finally a shot of both rear firewall and driver's seat area:



As you can see in the immediate above picture, the bottom right hand corner had some serious rust issues. It is black because it has been "rust converted" and "rust encapsulated". I will prime the entire interior with Rust Encapsulator as I believe it will be the best rust inhibitor for the rest of the car's life.