The $9 Harbor Freight dolly that beat my $600 panel jig for door skins

Been doing door skins the old way for 15 years, clamping panels to a 4x4 with sheet metal screws. Last month on a Ram 1500 in Austin, the skin kept pulling at the bottom, no matter how many clamps I used. Buddy from the collision shop down the road told me to try one of those cheap weld-on dollies you spin around on. Grabbed one for 9 bucks, welded a couple of studs to it, set the skin against it and worked the edges with a hammer. Held shape perfect, zero warping. Anyone else use those rotating dollies for anything besides planishing? Or am I just late to the party?

1 comments

1 Comment

sagep1916d agoMost Upvoted

Hold up. You welded studs to a spinning dolly and used it like a buck? That thing flexes when you breathe on it. A $600 jig holds tolerances all day. That dolly worked once on one truck. You got lucky. That setup will fold on the next skin you do, especially around compound curves. The jig is boring but it's repeatable. You traded your whole process for a lucky break. That's not a system, that's a gamble.