Wheel Dollies

If you have enough room in your garage to just drive your project car in and let it set, then this isn’t the post for you.  For the rest of us, if you need to get a car farther to the side in your garage so you have enough room for other things in your garage, or just to make sure nothing else bumps the nice paint, then you are in the same place as me, and probably most people out there.

I have a 1966 Impala in my garage.  I have a set of wheel dollies that I put the Impala on to be able to move it around the garage.

I have two pair of these:

Wheel Dollies

I just have two pair of them from Northern Tool.  They are not the fanciest, but they do work.  I think that upgraded caster wheels are in order though.  I am able to move the car myself, but trying to get it to go the direction I want is tough until the wheels are all going the right direction.  I have had to move a few of them with a big pliers so they were pointing the right direction.

By the way, in case you didn’t know, a big pair of pliers is a very useful thing to have in your garage.

Wheel Dollies

 

But once I have the wheels going the way I need them to, pushing the car around is pretty easy.

And in case you didn’t know, a 1966 Impala is not exactly a compact car.  I am guessing it weighs some were around 3600-3700 pounds based on what I have been able to find, so I am pretty close to the limit for the dollies.

Pushing a car around gives you a good idea of the amount of energy in gasoline really quick.  Even on a flat concrete garage floor, that is a lot of weight to get moving.

At least in this garage there is enough room for the car.  In my last garage, there was about a foot in front and a foot in back of the car when I got it in the garage, and once I had it pushed within an inch or two of the wall, there was just enough room to also get a 2008 Focus, which is a compact car.

And because I had a shelf along the other garage wall, I had to back the Focus in close to the shelf so the drivers door would open in the open area over towards the Impala.  It may have been a two car garage, but I don’t think they figured one of the cars would be a 60’s full size car.

I now have a bigger garage, and we are almost done going through the boxes from moving, so I will soon have room to start working on the Impala, I am looking forward to it.


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