Making it Mobile 2: How To Build A Body Dolly
Photos and Text by Wayne Scraba
In the last issue, we talked about the need for body mobility (not mine – the car!). To recap, the body dolly concept had to be light. It had to be robust. It had to be easy enough to build. It had to be adaptable to multiple applications. And it had to be cheap. Added up, it wasn’t as easy as you might think. The solution was an aluminum support “box” mounted on caster wheels.
And at this stage in the game, I simply had a couple of nicely welded aluminum boxes along with a couple of surplus casters. I had to find a way to gain access to the hardware (the main subframe mount bolts along with the caster mounting bolts). The simple solution is to cut an access hole in the spacer box. I marked off a rectangle on the side of each of the aluminum spacers. Next, I drilled four pilot holes in each corner of the rectangle that I marked off. I enlarged the pilot so that I could fit a jigsaw (for the cuts near the corners) and an angle grinder fitted with a cut-off wheel (for the open area cuts). FYI, with the appropriate cut-off wheel, the angle grinder makes short work of slicing the aluminum.
Upstairs (top of the box), I marked the center by way of a hammer and punch. At this point, I cut the hole for the subframe mounting bolt with a 7/8-inch hole saw. All of the cuts, including the rectangle were deburred with a sanding block. Sure I wanted to look (sort of) nice, but the real reason is that it saves skin when you access the internal fasteners. On the bottom side of the box, I marked the holes for the caster wheel mounts (a center punch and hammer will do the job). With the holes drilled, it was simple matter to simply bolt the casters to the box section tubing.
The final step was to bolt the new dollies to the actual body shell. Eureka! It actually worked. As it turns out, the actual shape of the Nova body mount is such that the dolly legs are locked in place when each subframe bolt is tightened. It works perfectly too. The truth is, I went from stranded in the shop to totally mobile. And the best part is, with a bit of fiddling, I’m sure it can be used on any number of different applications. Check out the following photos for more info.
I drilled a set of pilot holes in each corner of the access port. That was followed up with a set of holes big enough to fit a jigsaw.
As pointed out in the text, the access port was cut open by way of a cut-off wheel and a jigsaw. This is what it looks like after a quick deburr.
Next up, I added the body mount hole. On the topside, I found the center, marked it with a center punch and then drilled a 7/8-inch diameter hole.
Downstairs, I drilled four holes in the aluminum box and then bolted on the caster wheels. Easy-peasy.
From here, it was a simple step to bolt each of the body dolly wheels and spacers to the shell. Honestly, the thing is incredibly easy to move around in the shop. Mission accomplished.