Jigs & Tools

My father visited the other day, and he pointed out how many of the tools & jigs that I’ve made for working on the Westfield are made out of wood. I’m not sure whether it’s because I’m just more comfortable with wood, or because I happen to have a lot of woodworking tools. Here are a few of my favorite contraptions from this project.

First is the fixture I use to lift the back of the car up using the engine hoist.

The loops of rope which hang down get connected to the mounts for the rollbar. The wooden spreader makes takes all of the pinching forces, so that the force on the frame is straight up.

The second contraption is what I use for loosening (and tightening one of these days) the nuts on the end of the rear axles.

The four little holes go over the wheel studs and get held tight with lug nuts. This lets you get a good purchase on the big nut in the center, as Tom is demonstrating here.

Those nuts take something like 250 ft-lbs of torque, so you want quite a bit of leverage. That’s quite a wrench, isn’t it?

But everybody’s favorites are my wooden springs.

These let me roll the car around the garage without dealing with the real springs and all of the forces they bring to the table.