This article describes why and how I built the body trolley. As I only have a single garage (17ft 9ins x 8ft 9ins) it seems like the best option to create a mobile environment to make life in the garage much easier.
This trolley will serve to raise the body enough to provide ease of access to, well... everywhere, and allow me to easily move the body around inside -and outside the garage.
The construction is based on Dale Cordingley's 'Bodywork Frame' however, I have made some slight modifications because of my particular build situation.
Specification:
- Height: 50 cm (1 ft 8 ins) to the deck. This puts the highest point of the body 123 cm above the floor
- Width: 120 cm wide (4'0")
- Length: 155 cm long (5'2")
Component Listing and Dimensions:
- 1x Plywood Deck 1550 ((1350 x 1200 x 18 mm ply) + (2 x 100 mm softwood side extensions))
- 4x Softwood Legs (345 x 100 x 100mm)
- 4x Heavy Duty Braked Castors (125mm wheel diameter, 250kg Load) (Castors Online)
- 1x Softwood deck frame (1190 x 1330mm) using (100 x 50 mm) carcass wood
- 1x Softwood deck support (1140 x 100 x 100 mm)
- 4x Body retaining pieces of wood to be located inside the tunnel
- 4x Chest Handles (Toolstation)
- Assorted countersunk wood screws.
- Coach Screws ((M6 x 80 mm) & (M8 x 70 mm))
- M6 & M8 Penny Washers
- Rubber Matting (for the deck) (Halfords)
- Wood Adhesive (Evo-Stik Gripfill)
- Impact Adhesive (Evo Stik)
Construction:
1. Attached the top frame to the decking. Frame position is 20 mm 'in' from the outside edge, the intent being to include corner ply braces as additional load-bearers and load-spreaders.
2. Corner post jointed into the frame and is flush with the outside edges of the frame.
So far so good!!!
3. Attached the lateral cross-members and castors
Attached ply corner braces. These fit snugly between the deck and the lower lateral cross-members. Secured with M6 x 80mm coach screws and penny washers.
One cartridge of wood adhesive was used during the build. Initially, I wasn't going to use any glue, and in reality, the trolley is strong enough without it, however, for the sake of a couple of quid it was worth doing.
Two build sequences are described here:
- Bolted the castors in place with M8 x 70mm coach bolts. I opted for rubber [semilastic] castors as the nylon or polyurethane type are less forgiving and therefore harsher on a painted floor.
- Fixed a single 100 x 100mm frame cross-member (the dark brown cross-beam) to the underside of the deck. For this, I used the remainder of the fence post (which was used for the legs.) Secured with M8 x 70mm bolts/penny washers (one per side) and wood screws (screwed through the deck into the beam.)
4. Added two handles per side. One in each corner
Notice the On-The-Fly-Modification: Having measured the underside of the tub section of a GD (it is 150cm (5'0") from back to front) I decided to add extensions to my trolley to allow for all of the underside to be supported. In reality, there really was no need as the trolleys I've seen were more than sufficient to support the shell. And conversely, a GD shell is more than strong enough to be supported -with ease- by a couple of trestles or in fact any size trolley. But... I had the wood, I had the time, I had all my tools at hand, I had enough rubber decking, it was a nice day..... so I thought I might as well.
Dremelled off the exposed screw ends and gave the outside a light sanding to get rid of the splinters.....
Job done...!!! Looks quite crab like I think.
Comment: When I was pondering how to do certain things, I found that I was involuntarily taking my Stanley knife (which I always have in my back pocket) and I whittled away my marking pencil (which I always have in my front pocket) until the point ended up being surgically sharp..... Sort of like a snooker player when he is contemplating a difficult shot... Had a good giggle at this observation.