I took out and cleaned and replaced hydraulic lifters in a 1971 Torino in the parking lot !!!
Rebuilt (the first time) my air-cooled 1970 VW Beetle engine on the coffee table in my apartment. Didn't have a lift like that, only a small jack, and didn't use that until I needed to hold the engine up to put the bolts back in the bell housing. Also pulled the transmission out of a '76 Mercury Monarch to replace the seals in front of same apartment. Spent COUNTLESS hours doing body work to the VW in the parking lot.
Speaking of ol VW bugs ........ sitting in a class one day and buddy of mine was talking about his bug.... something about how easy it was to take the engine out, he could do it in 5 minutes !!! I told him he was full of sht !!!
1965 Olds Cutlass F85, Granted that car was set up for the drag strip, but 2 of us could have the motor and transmission in and out of the car in 15min, with everything disconnected, removed, then reinstalled, reconnected and refilled and running.
I knew an (eccentric) old guy who owned and flew his own Howard (round engine) airplane.
In Canada that's called the Canadian Tire parking lot repair...
BTW most kids couldn’t then either! I used to say it took 15 minutes not 5 to pull the VW engine but even that got me free beer whenever I had to do it. As for the average kid then, I had four different “helpers” over about as many years and not one knew which way to turn a bolt to loosen or tighten it. One adamantly refused to believe the car had a battery even after I showed it to him as- “The car runs and starts on gasoline so it doesn’t need a battery!” and when shown it said “That is not a battery, they are round thingies like in my flashlight!"
I built/rebuilt lotsa stuff in the house,.....as it was often too cold in my dad's little shop.
That !!, is a excellent idea. I have seen those rigs a thousand times, and never thought about using them as portable staging.
