Well, I am sure most of you all practice being safe, when working on your speedster. I recall, when working
for a manufacturing company, every Monday morning, for 30 minutes, they held a meeting with all the employees
and the topic was always the same, going over safety rules, to follow, when working. Dead workers do not
produce the product, it seems. Seriously, I have been building my own speedster ( first time doing one from the
ground up, with new parts, not a rebuild) and thought I had taken some steps to be safe, when working under the
body. The body , as you can see in my assembly notes and photos is suspended from my garage ceiling. Note, this
is in a metallic commercial built small car repair shop, so metal beams, supporting the roof can hold up to 1000 pounds, if I used four hand winched cables.
Each hand winch cable device is rated at 2 tons capacity. So, put four of these lift cables spread over the body
frame to lift up the unfinished body, while doing all the needed body modifications and installing parts on it. To add
to this method, as body is about three feet up from the floor of the garage , at a height I felt was a good working
height, added two jack stands, with 2X4's on top of them, towards the rear of the body, under the metal frame made as part of the speedster body. Each jack stand will reach up to 30 inches in height and the boards added two more inches. These are rated at 12 tons capacity. So, what could possible go wrong ? Looked safe to me.
I used some heavy aluminum awning wind supports, from an old outside roll up awning. Now, these are channel designed aluminum and very strong, to allow the 12X12 outside roll up awning to handle up to 50 mph winds. What I forgot was these supports are designed to have sliding parts on them, for use on different sized awnings. Okay,
follow me a few more minutes.
While working on putting on the outside door handles, I needed to move the front of the car, with the support all the way across , under where the gas tank would be, up and down, to get a level body, measured on top of the doors.
Reason, the instructions say to draw a straight line, level with the body, for mounting the door handles. Not a problem, as I have these nice hand winched cables attached to both of the front sides of the body, to the aluminum
awning pieces, which are under the body, where gas tank goes and under the fenders.
Lucky me, I was standing by the door, outside the body and not under it, when with not too fast action, the front of the body fell to the floor. More luck, it landed on my shop creeper, the thing you can lay on, while working under cars . That protected the body from damage, amazing it landed right on the cushion on the creeper. Did this get my attention ? You better believe it ! So, what did I do wrong ? I forgot the aluminum awning supports, while more than strong enough for the estimated 300 pounds on the front of the speedster body, could slide in and out. Due to the adjustments I was making up and down with the hand winches, the pieces slide apart, letting the body fall to the floor. Not a big , loud crash, but I was happy I was not under the body.
So, nothing broke. The two cables holding up the rear of the body and the more heavy section of the car body held and the two jack stands, also stayed in place, adding to the rear of the body not coming off the jack stands. My long story is that the assembly manual stated to use work horses or supports you make, like doing woodwork, and from
one to the other use boards to support the body. I do not have enough space in my bay for all those "horses" and boards and went with a system, to hold up the body, allowing me access to any area I needed , where parts were being installed.
You cannot be too careful and I think, my over kill on the cable system and jack stands saved the body from any damage. I am happy I was not under the front of the body, when it came down, even doing that somewhat slowly,
not a good situation to have been in. So, work very smart. Work with safety in mind, all the time. When you hold tools look for one second what is close to your hands and if moving your hand with force will cause a cut , should
your hand or fingers get pushed into some metal or sharp area. When under a body, look up, before you get up, to see where you head is going, to be sure you don't bang your head on the vehicle parts. I am "hard headed" but that meaning does not save me from injury. I have worked on cars since age 16, some 50 plus years. Only two serious injuries, which were both my fault, from not being careful enough and using some common sense and safety practice.
Work smart and careful. We can replace the speedster body or repair it, but replacing a life is impossible. Cars, we can fix. People are harder to fix . So, welcome to the "Monday" safety meeting. It's worth repeating to work safely.
