Working with wood is one of my favourite things. It's just the most remarkable material nature created. Unfortunately, this weekend I had a vicious cold.
Last week I reinforced the interior so that it wouldn't collapse accidentally. This week I created a dolly so that I can roll the body and frame around the shop, and later, to the media blaster and metalwork shops. I'm most eager to put the van on the dolly so that I can move it outside where the light is much better than in Harry's barn.
The dolly is 33 inches wide. There is 50 inches between the middle support members. These are reinforce by a 2x4 at the top. There are two other support members: 1) the front one, which "swings" down (and thus why it doesn't have wheels on it) to allow better access to the engine areas (where I need a lot of stuff built) and, 2) the rear one, which should line up directly enter the rear fenders. There is no 2x4 reinforcement at the top for these ones because I need to allow the front and rear axles to get through. The whole things is secured by glue and screws. I think that I went overboard constructing it, but I expect that the van will be on it for more than a year. Besides, I had the material.
My pocket doors had these holes cut in them to allow the addition of windows (to correspond with the ones in the exterior). Well, this week I got an estimates to replace them -- $1200, plus they cannot duplicate embossing pattern. Gulp! I don't suppose there are some nice ones out there that nobody's using.
Finally, I removed the battery tray (not original). The gas tank is next. With those things out of the way, I can left the van onto the dolly next weekend. I also removed the "air vents" that were put in the roof.
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