Can't wait to see this Vette done. Did you mention what color you're going to paint it?

 

what if you position a floor jack with a couple of 4x4's at the center of the door. still take 2 of you to (wo)manhandle, but you would be wiggleing, leaning, etc. not holding the weight.

 

I've been trying to decide that for years, but I had to make a choice when we picked the primer as it's colour goes with the top coat colour. I was back and forth between hot pink and blue and I've finally decided on the blue I found on a 2014 Ford Focus, Blue Candy Metallic:



It's a pretty common colour on newer Fords. It looks deep and bright on both sunny and overcast days. Even at night it still looks delicious!

I'll ask the spouse about it. I think the trick is there's not much room to maneuver anything on wheels beside the hoist.

 

Just enuff room. I'll try to set my dolly up and get a pic of it since I need to adjust the driver door.
WHILE I'M AT IT...I may as well install two swivel wheels on the front end of the motorcycle jack...it already has two swivels on the rear.

IF you can get/borrow a transmission jack it would need even less room and already has 4 swivel wheels.

 

We have a transmission jack. It will definitely not fit on the bed of the hoist or beside the hoist. And it's around 4 foot tall, do you mean transmission jack, or floor jack?

 

OOOPS...I was thinking of the old school low profile xmsn jack...lowered height was about 6-8". Ill try to post a pic of my m.c./door jack setup today .

 

With some 2x lumber & misc you could build build a surface level with the lift.

 

We do have a low profile floor jack. Only two of the wheels swivel but it might fit on the bed of the hoist with the car

That might work!

 

Here ya go.....it's a DIY ONE PERSON door installation tool/
It's wide enough to fit the width of the motorcycle lifting platform.
It's about 2 feet tall.
The base of it is long enough to fit the lifting platform.
I stapled an old thick towel to protect the paint on the door...the staples are on the backside of the wooden frame.
I used simple straps to hold the door tight against the frame and used a wooden tapered shimunder the door bottom edge to make the hinge holes line up with the birdcage holes.

Bottom of wooden base....




Laying on it's side/back view of upright...........





Sitting correctly on motorcycle lift/jack......(clamp it securely to m.c. jack lifting platform)





Front view...the door skin faces against the soft cloth and is strapped snugly to the wooden frame....


The door can stay secured to the lift and parked out of the way.

 

I looked through all my pictures and could not find the door dolly picture I had saved.
Sorry.

 

Thanks for checking

 

When I finished priming the back of the car I figured I'd take a short break and then get back at it. That was over two months ago. For some reason it's a lot easier to stop working on a project than it is to get started back up on it again

While I was trying to build up my motivation again hubby decided he's done being a mechanic and he brought his tools home:





There's another similarly sized cabinet in the basement. Sweety says last time he seriously tallied it up he figured he had about $80k in tools. His educated guess is that he now has about $100k invested in them. The sad thing is that they can only be sold for pennies on the dollar. The even sadder thing is that Revenue Canada doesn't let mechanics deduct their tool purchase costs from their net income - that's so unfair.

I've often complained about the cramped garage, it's a lot worse now with some of hubby's tools in it. Here's what he left after he made room for the tool boxes:



It's the same on the passenger side of the hoist. I've been really enjoying my time off, it's easy to let it slide with the car being partially buried. I figure I've given the spouse long enough, I'm going to suggest to him that he let me move all that stuff off the hoist and find a place for it. I don't want to let the whole winter slip away and I've got nothing done. It would really be nice to have the rest of the car ready for primer once all the snow melts in the spring. Wish me luck

 

I’ve found that retirement has given me all kinds of free time to do all the little home projects that were always on my pending list.
Now that Hubby is retired he may decide to clean out the garage, because it’s been on his list of things he’s wanted to get done, but never had the extra time to do so.

When I’m done with a project, I will sell all those speciality tools I purchased during the disassembly and assembly, knowing I may never use them again.
I found that people will pay good money for tools as long as the price is about 50%-70% of what they can purchase them for new.
I’ve had really good luck selling tools on Craigslist.
I’m not sure if you have Craigslist in Canada, but I would image, if not, there is something similar.
There’s always a newbie starting a career in the trade that could use a break on good tool prices.

Good luck and tell the Hubby, Happy Retirement!

 

Priya.......been there..........STILL THERE

I bought a few low profile roll-a-round wooden dollys from Harbor Freight and place heavy items on them so I can easily move the heavy stuff when I want to work on the car.

 

I should have made it clear, the spouse has not retired unfortunately, we can't afford that yet. He's taken a job as a parts man as the car repair is too physically demanding, he has an untreated hernia that's only been getting worse and says he can't see well enough to see the pin-outs on wire connectors. Another 4 years planned before he retires and it's at about half the pay he was getting. In the mean time he says I'm not allowed to use his tools as I'm pretty haphazard and disorganized and he's afraid (with some justification) that I'll lose them.

 

Getting older is hard to take.
My chosen career is a young man’s game.
I always told myself I would never work at a desk and would never sit in the car and do the job from the front seat.

I get the tools thing.
A man’s tools are kind of like a woman’s diamonds.

 

Craigslist isn't really used in Canada but there is Kijiji. You couldn't get anywhere near 50% of the new cost for the whole collection, I'll give you some "for examples":

There isn't much of a market for a lot of the used tools. Let's say you've got a specialty tool that is needed to rebuild a transmission on a '92-97 Dodge truck with a 6.2 litre diesel engine, it costs $600 new. You can ask $300 but who are you going to sell it to? Other than a professional mechanic or an automotive repair shop you need to find someone who owns a '92-97 Dodge truck with a 6.2 litre diesel engine who also wants to rebuild their own transmission. If by chance you should come across such a person then the problem is how much are they going to be willing to pay for a specialty tool they only plan to use once? To make it worthwhile to take the risk of rebuilding your own transmission you want to do it on the cheap, if you add another $300 to the cost of rebuilding it yourself are you going to still want to do it yourself? Maybe you give it a go if the tool is $50. A professional or an automotive repair shop may not be interested in it either. Perhaps they haven't seen a '92-'97 Dodge with a 6.2 litre diesel needing a transmission rebuild come into the shop in years, are they going to want to pay $300 for a tool they figure they likely will never need? Maybe they'll give you $50 for it on the off chance they'll need it someday but for $300 they may prefer to wait until such a truck comes in before spending that kind of money, or decide in the rare event such a truck should come in that's a sort of job they it's easier to pass up than accept.

Or for example, my husband has 13 die grinders, these are all top end tools so they are between $200 and $300 each. A new no-name brand die grinder can be bought new at Princess auto for $50, is anyone going to be willing to pay you over $100 for a used one? Not likely. You might get $25 for it and then how long is it going to take you to sell the other 12?

Or there's an electronic tester that cost several thousand dollars ten years ago but for the new cars that just came out you need a newer more capable electronic tester and your ten year old one won't do the job, then there really isn't anyone interested in it, other than again the rare person with an older vehicle that is doing advanced diagnostics on their own car. They're not going to want to spend thousands on obsolete electronic equipment when they could pay a shop hundreds to do the job for them.

Or for example, who are you going to sell a 20 gallon used oil collector/container to? It's 4 or 5 foot tall a couple of feet in diameter, How many people at home changing their own oil on occasion are going to want something like that? A repair shop might buy it but most already have one or more so there isn't many buyers for a used one. Or a 3/4 drive socket set from 1&1/4 to 3 inches in diameter? I don't recall how much something like that costs but I know he can spend $80 on a single wrench. Only a heavy duty mechanic would potentially be interested in that, that's a pretty small market.

More realistically you want to sell the entire set of tools at once so you're not trying to sell it piece by piece over years and years to get a decent price for it. An amateur fixing their own car might be interested, or a new mechanic starting out but how much are they going to be willing to shell out for such a collection of tools, many of which they will likely never need? Not $50k. Maybe Joe the amateur fixing his own cars will give you a few thousand for it but probably not much more. The new mechanic starting out might be interested in it, but because they're starting out they have no money so are they going to be willing and able to give you more than a few thousand for the whole collection? The experienced mechanic that would have the big bucks to spend on tools will already have a large collection of tools, so they're not likely interested in spending much on another complete set.

So, for a big collection of tools like this, if you want to sell it all you get pennies on the dollar.

 

he has to remember he was paid for those tools as he used them and charged people money. that is why he was making twice he is now getting as a parts person-probably in the same place! and now they are just a pile of steel in his and your way. i looked at my garage full of tools and parts and realized they either had to go or i would just stare at them while trapped by them until i died of old age.

 

Well, he never personally charged anyone money, he got his hourly wage. He's working at a different place than he was. I'm pretty sure he's going to want to keep them until he dies and then it'll be up to me or whomever to sell them. People in most other professions can deduct the cost of equipment they buy to do their job from their gross income at tax time.

I don't know if you are aware but only 1/4 (or less) to at most 1/3 of the cost of an hour of labour you pay to the repair shop to fix your car goes to the mechanic doing the work.

 

The Corvette has been the only car I’ve worked on where “ special tools” were required.
(i.e. the spindle bearing set up tool) the kit was 300 bucks.
Paying someone to do this ( like Gary R.) would cost as much, if not more, and there’s shipping back and forth to add to that. The difference is I still have a way to do it again should I ever need to, only this time it’s free.
I have three boxes sitting on bases full of tools,…some of the stuff I haven’t touched in years. I guess it could be argued that it should be sold off as opposed to just sitting around taking up space. And while I concur, it doesn’t matter whether it’s the US or Canada, mechanics tools are in every pawn shop and flea market all over the place, and are potentially worthless to anyone except me.
And even if I garage-sold the stuff I haven’t touched in a decade,…took .25 to the dollar, right after I sold them, It’d be the one I need next.

I guess the stuff will just have to sit and take up space.