Quick and dirty but awesome creeper

I have put up with a hft low profile creeper for about 2 years now. Was a step up from coroplast but not by much. The whole plastic body always flexed changing the alignment of the abysmal castors. The casters would get snagged on the smallest pebble or cat littler crumbs (cheap oil absorbant) that got missed by the broom. Combined the two problems and the confined space under the car make for a miserable experience. The plastic and head cushion arent any more forgiving than coroplast in concrete. So when the $20 creeper cracked its castor mount my day was made.

I am generally struggling to pay the bills, so i have come to do as my grandparent's parents have done in the great depression era. Save everything i can use later on, "waste not want not". While the new creeper i made is not made with new materials or pretty in the least to look at, it cost nothing but time to make. All its parts are pulled from old would be junk. It is also stronger, more comfortable, and rolls across the floor like an astronaut in a space odyssey!

The frame is made from parts of a curbside treadmill frame, a log rack from a 1940s school house wood furnace, and some random scraps of emt tubing. I could have welded the frame together but i have buckets of old screws / bolts salvaged from the gambit of house hold appliances. The castors are a combo of rollerblade wheels and the defacto hft creeper castors. I drilled out the rivets holding the old non bearing hft wheels and replaced them with the dual bearing rollerblade wheels. This lowered the overall center of gravity of the creeper , (as the rb wheels were shorter) and makes the creeper roll like a mechanic s dream. The creeper will actually roll to low spots on a basically flat garage floor. i can rotate 360* holding a suspended brake rotor with one hand

The cushion is still a work in progress as i need to find some fake leather couch and harvest its vinyl (for now it is covered with some old hotel pillow cases for now). The foam is from a saabs back seat trimmed to fit.

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I know what you mean on those flexy creepers, jere. Great job on cobbling this together. :)

Thanks jere! We've added your Creeper to our Automotive category, as well as to your builder page: jere's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

<div id="blocks"> <div class="block b1 pngfix"> <div class="bimg"> <div> <a href="http://www.homemadetools.net/creeper-2"><img src="http://www.homemadetools.net/uploads/134170/creeper-2.jpeg" /></a></div> </div> <div class="head pngfix"></div> <div class="left pngfix"></div> <div class="right pngfix"></div> <div class="blockover b1 pngfix"> <div class="title"> <a href="http://www.homemadetools.net/creeper-2">Creeper</a> <span> by <a href="/builder/jere_2">jere</a></span> </div> <div class="tags">tags: <a href="http://www.homemadetools.net/tag/creeper">creeper</a>, <a href="http://www.homemadetools.net/tag/casters">caster(s)</a></div> </div> </div> </div>

Great use of available parts. I know what you mean about "waste not want not" having parents who were in their early twenties in the Great Depression and made sure I learned this lesson.

Jere
Spare me from cheap creepers. The roller blade wheels have got me thinking. I picked up an old creeper cheaply at a pawn shop. That's almost as unusual as finding the creeper itself. I will give it the roller blade wheel treatment. The steel wheels catch in every pitted spot in the floor. Thanks for the idea. We are not plagued by Harbour Freight here in Canada but have cheap junk too.

Bob

Good idea Bob, i would love to see what you come up with. I never took the opportunity to try the roller blade wheels on the plastic creeper. i think they would have even improved that excuse of a creeper. I bet an old solid creeper with the bearing wheels would a great combination.

Nice build and excellent re-purposing, Jere! I also hear you about the depression era mindset! Reminded me of my "Hemi-Hauler" I made a couple hundred years ago out of an old bed frame and other scraps. I did a lot of brakes and front end stuff over those years plus Lots of motorcycle work and got tired of being on my knees. A thought for your cover is re-purposing an old car seat covering, the woven nylon type, hold up better than naughahyde/vinyl. I used that on my Hemi-Hauler seat and it's still on there, surviving screwdrivers, chemicals, my big'o bum (6'6" 250) and the kids riding it down the driveway...still have it. Wish they had Inline skates back then...nothing more irritating than getting caught on a crack or pebble while trying to hold 50lbs or more with one hand! ~¿@ Thanks for the share and memories! ~PJ

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Originally Posted by PJs

Nice build and excellent re-purposing, Jere! I also hear you about the depression era mindset! Reminded me of my "Hemi-Hauler" I made a couple hundred years ago out of an old bed frame and other scraps. I did a lot of brakes and front end stuff over those years plus Lots of motorcycle work and got tired of being on my knees. A thought for your cover is re-purposing an old car seat covering, the woven nylon type, hold up better than naughahyde/vinyl. I used that on my Hemi-Hauler seat and it's still on there, surviving screwdrivers, chemicals, my big'o bum (6'6" 250) and the kids riding it down the driveway...still have it. Wish they had Inline skates back then...nothing more irritating than getting caught on a crack or pebble while trying to hold 50lbs or more with one hand! ~¿@ Thanks for the share and memories! ~PJ

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Great idea for the cover that older stuff really does hold up better. I will see what i can track down. Your hemi hauler sounds really cool, you should share it if you get a chance. I think people today rely to much on just buying new when the old breaks. We are slowly losing our ingenuity one generation at a time. Sharing older ideas and designs seems like a good way to reverse that.

Jere that looks so comfortable id fall asleep under there....:O)

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Originally Posted by Captainleeward

Jere that looks so comfortable id fall asleep under there....:O)

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Ha i did find myself starting to doze off after an extra long day already.

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Great idea for the cover that older stuff really does hold up better. I will see what i can track down. Your hemi hauler sounds really cool, you should share it if you get a chance. I think people today rely to much on just buying new when the old breaks. We are slowly losing our ingenuity one generation at a time. Sharing older ideas and designs seems like a good way to reverse that.

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Think the Hauler material was out of an old Chevy, IIRC? Next time I'm in the shed I will try and remember to take some pics of it if anyone is interested. Was going to give it to my son for working on his 64 Malibu SS, but he picked up one of those Craftman's with the pneumatic cylinder... too wobbly for me and mostly plastic but the wheels are good.

I'm with you on the loss of making do with things at hand, ingenuity and building things to last or repairing things...that's what is so great about this forum, IMHO!! The Hemi-Hauler is 40+ years old now and probably has 10k miles on it and took an afternoon to build it from stuff laying around. Think your creeper will be around for a while too, but may be a bit too comfortable to use for any length of time. :thumbsup:

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Jere that looks so comfortable id fall asleep under there....:O)

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Ha i did find myself starting to doze off after an extra long day already.

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I hear you both! It's also a long way back up...might have to lay there and think about it, resting my eyes of course...for a minute. :lol: ~PJ

I certainly wouldn't mind seeing it but guess i am the only one. Dont go to too much trouble, not enough of traffic around here