Thread: Homebuilt body cart.

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Cool stuff. I guess we all are working with wood these days! It's a hell of a lot easier than metal! Don(s) weren't you surprised what a 2x4 stud goes for! Man I remember when 100 bucks would make a nice redwood deck or a small shed!

Originally Posted by stovens

Man I remember when 100 bucks would make a nice redwood deck or a small shed!

$100 - the new dollar bill.
I took my wife out yesterday for a nice, but not fancy, lunch (no booze, iced tea only) and an ice cream cone later at a roadside stand. The lunch was $27 + $5 tip and the cones were $3 each.

Dave, those castered pallets are a great idea. I did something similar under my 46. I took four Harbor Freight wheel dollys (the kind you put one under each tire normally) strapped them together and put a pallet on top. The frame rests on that and so far hasn't fallen off, although I plan to make a better setup soon.

Steve, yep, lumber isn't priced like it used to be, however $ 36 of the hundred bucks went for the wheels and another chunk went for all new bolts and nuts. One thing I have noticed is that the quality of lumber has improved. I remember having to dig through a pallet of crooked, warped 2 x 4's to find enough semi straight ones to build something. Lately they look much better. Maybe since construction has died they aren't cutting down any tree they can to get wood and the selection is better.

Don

Originally Posted by Itoldyouso

One thing I have noticed is that the quality of lumber has improved. I remember having to dig through a pallet of crooked, warped 2 x 4's to find enough semi straight ones to build something. Lately they look much better. Maybe since construction has died they aren't cutting down any tree they can to get wood and the selection is better.

Don

Suspicions confirmed - all the good wood is now going to Florida instead of Japan and China!!

I picked through a stack of 2x4's in HD a couple weeks ago, gave up and went across the road to Lowes and found some that made it 5 miles home without turning into corkscrews, but it was a close getting them nailed in quick enough.

Making up dollys or storage devices is fun and wood splinters are a break from the usual steel slivers

I'd agree that construction slow down could have an effect on the "quality" of wood available, but I'd bet it has more to do with spending a little more time in the kiln to take out more moisture. A slower market leads to buyers being able to be pickier thus motivating suppliers.

I'm not sure how to corelate what you guys are experiencing today to a couple years ago, but some might remember the crate I built to ship a '40 frame to Hawaii. I had about $100 of material in that (not counting the box of screws and a few sticks of nails). I also used a set of wheel dollies to roll it out to the truck for loading. Handy little devices those.

Bob Vila would be proud. That is one serious crate.

Don

I built a body dolly when I was building my Heap. Cost $00.00. I had some waterbed frames I plucked from trash. They make great shelves. 2 x 8 with a rounded edge. I just made a square frame, screwed together with deck screws. For casters, I had a bunch of those cheap plastic casters that are on the bottom of office chairs. I drilled holes installed 2 in each corner and it worked great. Used for the international, and ford cab's, and had my 39 dodge cab on it till I got rid of it a month ago. It had been outside for about a year, and didnt look so great anymore, didn't have any further use for it so I took it apart, used 2 boards for shelves in garage and threw away the other 2 sad looking ones. One mans trash, anothers treasure.