[landarts]

You probably saw in the first post a picture of the Devil Cowboy parked in the garage with a makeshift gantry over the front of the truck. I saw a build thread on a different site for a build where the guy built a homemade gantry out of scrap items around his shop. It looked like it would be a great tool for removing cabs, beds, front clips, and other items on the truck. It could also be used with a few bolt-on pieces as a paint tree.

Started to think about it and I had a stash of thick wall 2" square tubing and some 1 3/4" thick wall tubing so it could be made to be taken apart very easily. I had two extra sets of heavy-duty casters and some hand-crank winches that I picked up on clearance a while back. Bingo, now all we need to do is design something up that will fit my needs. After a day or so I spent a morning cutting and welding it together and now I have a breakdown gantry/paint tree.

I have used this a few times already and I like how it saves my back. I have since added removable bracing in the upper corners and both sides of the base. This project will need the cab lifted since it is sitting on a body lift that needs to go away and have the proper body rubber installed. Also need to remove the bed and repair or replace it with a perfect bed I have in storage. Either way, you slice it, this homemade tool will get used and my back will not be taking any of the load.

Pict 1 - is the gantry I built before adding all my corner braces
Pict 2 - is from the other build site that gave me the idea
Pict 3 - same from other build site