Other uses for a wheelbarrow

[GPster]

Well this will be my admission of a technical subject. This is probably as technical as this project gets. The wheelbarrow in question has worn out me, two wheels (one of them a steel spoked one) and three handles. It belonged to my wife's grandfather and he died in '62 so we inherited it when we bought the old family home place. I used it til '93 when it gave out and I saved it for a firewall indent for the Willys (I'd heard it would make a good one) but when it's replacement rotted through I put the barrow back to use on the replacement's frame that had an angle iron splint on it's left arm. It worked its way through three tire/tubes and finally wore out the tire. Because the firewall indent for the Jeepster has been handled by an old refrigerator door (another tech article?) I couldn't bear to not reward its years of faithful service, so here it is. It has been modeled to look like a cross between '34 Ford and an oversized track (as in tractor) roadster piece in honor of its age. It is actually mounted up-side down with the front of the barrow being the bottom. That allows the bottom of the bucket to slant forward (like the '34) and allows the front edge to make a nice slope covering the bottom of the radiator, the transmission cooler and the front crossmember. So you can make a 26" wide grill shell or a "T" bucket stroller for the fairgrounds. The dumb things you do when you're too cheap to throw stuff away. GPster

[enjenjo]

I like it! the proprotions are good for that truck.

[Crosley.In.AZ]

good use of the sheet metal Joe

[Dirty2]

Nice work. I always hated the firewalls made out of those. But that looks good.

[rooster]

Very cool !!!!!!!!!!! I like it.

[58 Yeoman]

You did a good job on cutting the slots.  Did you do it by hand, or have someone do it?  Looks like it was made for it.

[GPster]

You did a good job on cutting the slots.  Did you do it by hand, or have someone do it?  Looks like it was made for it.

Handy dandy hole saws and cut-off wheels in my 4 1/2" side grinder. With a little addition and subtraction on the pattern you decide you figure out the size of the hole to get the end radius you want,then you can mark the center of the radius and drill it. I have decent hole saws with a 1/4"   arbor/drill and if you don't force them too bad the hole will end up where you want it. I figured the space I had, how many slots I wanted and how much space I wanted between the slots and the arithmetic told me what size holes I could use. The down-ward taper of the pattern and the slots and spaces is a product  of the fact that the bottom of the barrow was a trapizoid. The top of the slots are 2" holes with 7/8" in between them and the bottom of the slots are 1 3/4" holes with 5/8" between them. With the holes made I clamped a piece of 1" flat iron  to act as a guide from the outside edge of one hole to the outside edge of the partner hole for that slot and used a cut-off wheel in my grinder to cut the edge with the guide keeping the edge from going astray. Cut the edges of the slots formed by each pair of hole and you have the series of slots. The idea now is to get a piece of expanded metal big enough to cover the area of the slot from the back side. Strips of bar stock will hold the expanded metal in place and those strips of metal will be sized the same as the width between the slots and will be fastened to capture the expanded metal in place with screws (?) from the front. These strips of metal will also act as stiffeners to the grill area. The hood and grill will be welded together to stabilize the edges of both so the hood and grill will be removed together. There will be pins and straps to hold the back of the hood at the firewall end and the front edge rests on/over some 5/8 nuts and bolts. The rolled edge around the barrow had a 5/8 I.D. and I wanted to keep part of it as  stiffener and straight edges along the sides of the radiator mount. The size available let me take 2,  5/8" x 8" bolts (Lowes) and weld the heads of the bolts to the top of the front crossmember. Because these are common bolts they have a longer than normal threaded length (2") but still have enough un-threaded shank so the don't show exposed threads and look like an after thought. These bolts are double nutted at the threaded end that fits inside the abbreviated barrow rim. The double/nutting is there to provide height adjustment and maybe between the nuts there might appear brackets for Parking/Directional Single lights. To pull the front end of all this body work down against these nuts there will be another strap going from one side of the radiator support, over top of the hood and to the other side of the radiator support. This is still a work in progress but I am excited about the possible completion of this stage. GPster

[40]

Good Job,Joe!!