Post #7, 4/26/10 Building the Jig

65 Mustang Restoration

Well, it was time to get prepped for the weekend project,,, so Friday before work I went to Marion Iron & ordered various sizes of tubing,, from the extremely rude sketch that I drew up Thursday evening. They had it ready for me after work,,, I was shocked that it was only $69 for everything. Only 1 dilemma,, the 2 round aluminum slugs that they cut for me, didn't have holes through the center. So I found a machine shop that had a lath & they drilled the 1/2" holes for me. 

So, can you tell what it is yet, even though a couple of parts are missing?  I got a set of (4), 12" pneumatic, super heavy duty swivel casters off of Ebay,, pretty cheaply since the were demos.

We spent quite a few hours over the weekend, designing as I went, on building our new cart/jig for the mustang. The front was super easy,, the rear was quite a bit more entailed, but since it has more of a purpose other than to just hold the car up,, I knew it would be much more involved. The rear section is also designed to help me properly locate & align the new rear sections/panels as I start replacing them. Since nearly everything in the rear is to be replaced this should help out immensely,, especially with keeping everything square. 

Here's what it turned out like.

You may notice a couple of things. First of all, when I cut the rear frame sections off, it will have no effect on how the car is supported. 2nd,, with this design,,, besides the car sitting nice and low, like it is here, I can flip the legs over and raise the car up an additional 2-3 feet, which should come in pretty handy for doing underneath the floor,,, or at least that's how it's suppose to work,,, I guess we'll some time in the future. 

I have to thank the owners at Zimmerman-Houdek Credit Cars for loaning me their  handy little 110v Miller Mig Welder and Drill Press,, I couldn't have done it with out them this weekend. Thanks!