Floor chains

[Guest cardinal905]

I am going to pour the floor on my shop addition this weekend and have a question, I am debating putting recessed chains or some form of pull point into the floor---my question is, will I use these someday---anybody have input on how often I would need to pull off a solid point, I am new to restoration but want to plan my shop accordingly. Thanks:confused:

[JZRIV]

I have seen these installed on occasion and seriously considered it when I built my garage. I decided not to do it. If the area in front of your garage is fairly level and not sharply angled down, pushing a vehicle, frame, etc, in whether its on wheels or dollies is easy. If the area in front is angled sharply away a pull point could come in handy someday.

One thought process is to do it and then its always there if you need it. But it could end up being in the way or a trip hazard and I didn't want that. My rationale was even if you do have a need somewhere down the road, just go buy a $4 D-ring with mounting plate like is used on a trailer and bolt it to the floor using flush type anchors. Then when you are done you can unbolt it and shove something in the anchor holes so they don't fill up with dirt.

[Guest cardinal905]

I never thought about pulling something into the garage, I have a tractor for that. I was wondering how often guys have found they wish they had a point form which to pull out a bumper or frame. Thanks for the input though.

[msmazcol]

A buddy of mine poured a floor in his shop pole building. He builds race cars. We framed four square boxes and measured them for locating wheel scales used when building these cars. After the pour was done we removed the box frame and it left a area to place the scales which did not require using a jack to get the chassis on the scales. His honest view is they are a pain in the a$$.

If you've got a bunch of floor area where you can designate an area for the tie downs OK. If it is in the path of normal operation, pass.

Chances of your tie down rings being in the "right" spot should you need them are slim. If you are pulling a frame that needs to be done on a frame rack machine. Make friends with a body shop equipped for the job.

Now if you were asking whether you should put heat in your shop floor thats a for sure YES.

Just one opinion.

[Guest frazer51]

In my work area which was 15' X35' I put in four S/S anchors. One center front, one center rear and two others L & R directly under the I beam which supports the hoist. The tops of the anchors were at floor height so nothing to trip over.

I had a car with both quarters with slight buckles over the rear wheels. I chained the front frame to the eye in the floor and put a comalong at the rear and pulled till the buckles vanished, it worked.

With the engine removed like when doing a total restoration I can remove the coil springs from the front end simply by chaining the front of the frame to the eye in the floor and placing the jack under the "A" frame compressing the spring and dismantling the suspension and removing the spring. I could go on and on.

Over the past 35 years this has been a good investment for my home shop. How does the old saying go? "I'd rather have it and not need it than to need it and not have it". What is the shop rate at a frame shop these days? Or just having your item hauled to another shop for this work?:confused:

Edited April 9, 2010 by frazer51 (see edit history)

[Guest cardinal905]

Thats what I was after, when you mean one L/R under hoist are you talking a two post Hyd. lift ? I was wondering about that but wrote those locations off as I did not want to be stressing the uprights or the arms of the lift. I am installing a two post lift as well. And finally, yes I am doing in floor radiant---I have that in the original shop and would not be without it, global warming has not come to the midwest yet.

[Guest frazer51]

Well 35 /40 years ago there were no lifts in my budget and I had to settle for an overhead I beam to support a chain hoist. It was under this beam where the L &R hooks were placed. I would chain the frame to one side and pull from the other, like for example a door jamb.

As a young man most of my work on cars was done in the elements. A garage was much needed for shelter from those elements. Many an evening I would come in the house with icicles hanging off my love handles. I needed no lift because now I could at least roll under the car in my new garage on my creeper. I've included a photo of what I call my "poor mans lift" which I constructed in 1973 shortly after I built the garage. Me and the neighbors got a lot of use from it, even today.

I must remark that the garage was built just for my hobby with the older cars. So back then how would I convince my wife that I needed such an elaborate structure just for some old cars. Well my small shop has worked fine for me all these years and since I have retired 12 years ago at 65 I have restored 13 cars. 2 were AACA Senior and 1 was a Junior. I've been restoring cars long before it was fashionable. My wife has done my upholestery through all these years. I am sure that how ever you make your garage that you will certainly enjoy it.

[Mark Shaw]

I wish I had thought of floor anchors when I poured my radiant shop floor....

[DavidAU]

I vote for the floor anchors.

Another very handy item to think about when you are pouring the concrete floor is a 4 foot long length of railway line or similar steel beam layed upside down in the concrete so the flat side is flush with the floor surface.

Great for using as an anvil for beating steel or sheetmetal on. Doesn't take up any room.

Only downside is getting down on the knees as you get older. A lot of sheetmetal shops have these for groove joining sheetmetal on.

David

[Guest cardinal905]

Thanks for the input. frazer, I am interested how you paint your cars, I am considering a homemade paint booth. Do you paint outside ? I have heard so many opinions on how people paint and dont want to build a booth if a guy can get good results otherwise. By the way, I did slap in some floor chains. I used a peice of mechanical strut that I bolted 16'' of 3/8 chain to, I staked that down to the base and then used a 4'' PVC FIP adapter with a flush plug at floor level. Should work beautifully, I will have to protect the threads if I pull against them , thats it.

[Guest frazer51]

Well a paint booth would be the ideal thing to do if you can afford it. Unless you intend to work in the paint booth then your building would need to be twice as big. As for myself and my limited budget I decided to paint in my workshop when the time came. It involved a good cleaning of the shop , covering all the tool and last wetting down the floor. I usually tried to schedule my big painting jobs for the summer months when ever there wasn't a heating problem of keeping the shop warm. Most of the time I would paint a car in pieces and this might need for me to setup some things outside. I would make sure first that none of the neighbors had their cars near by for fear of over spray. Years ago when I first started to paint I would use lacquer paints for my more serious work. When ever they "outlawed" lacquer paints I started using acrylic enamels with the hardeners. Since I would color sand and buff all my paint work this was the way for me to go. If any little dust ever got in my paint job the color sanding took care of that. Although I averaged about one paint job a year our local paint supply store invited me to attend a paint seminar by a big paint supply company. Since I was a self tought painter I soon discovered at the seminar that even the professionals were having problems. Now that old age and failing eyesight has set in I guess that my painting day are behind me. I've included some pictures of cars that I have painted in this little garage through the years.

[Guest cardinal905]

Thanks for the input, the cars look great and it looks like you have fun driving them to boot ! I think I will put in a homemade paint booth, using a good fan and sealed lights etc. I figure I can store a car in there when not painting so I dont lose that shop space.

[Guest frazer51]

It looks like you are doing a fine job. I'm certain you'll have an excellent paint booth and storage area. Keep up the good work.