Hot Rodding Your Floor Jack!!!

Rebuilding a BMW Motor is level ten

		This article is the one in a series that will be released in conjunction with Wayne's upcoming book, 101 Projects for Your BMW 3-Series. The book will be 256 pages of full color projects detailing everything from performance mods to timing the camshafts. With more than 350+ full-color glossy photos accompanying extensive step-by-step procedures, this book should be a staple in any 3-Series owner's collection. See The Official Book Website for more details. The book is due out in October 2005.
		And when your really bored ! How to Hot Rod your floor jack This is what happens when you have way too much time on your hands such as in the winter when the car is laid up (for those of you in snow country) or the rest of us when our creative juices are flowing with no immediate outlet. You start looking for something to fix up or modify. The cat ran when I looked at him and the next thing I saw was my pathetic looking floor jack that has served me so well over the years. Woohoo !! A project. What better way to repay this old friend than to strip it down, repaint it and give it a new identity. My jack has always stood by in the corner of the garage as a welcome home to various spiders and bugs until called upon to serve -which it has done without fail for too many years to remember. As far back as I can remember I can't recall anyone looking at my floor jack and saying " Wow, bitchen jack Dood !" Well, we're going to change that. This is where it all started. This jack needs a little cleaning up. So after hosing it down I started taking it apart. No brain surgery here! Pretty simple stuff! I had to come up with a color scheme that would give it some life - so when in doubt go with Red. In my custom designed combination garage / laundry room / paint booth, I shot the mechanical components with Fire Engine Red and chrome paint just to give it that needed accent. The reassembly goes pretty easy. it looks good, but we're definitely lacking that LOOK that I'm searching for. Off to Pep Boys--the three wise men of tacky (opps, I mean cool) car stuff. I was drawing a complete blank until I found the decal isle. Wow ! There are so many tacky (I mean cool) decals in there I had a real tough time making my decision, but true to Hot Rodding form I went with the tried and true SKULL AND FLAMES ! Can't go wrong there. I also got some black edge strips to keep from damaging the jack's (I mean the Porsche's) paint while using it. It really looked REALLY tacky so it went into the trash. After I put on the small skull and flames I realized it just wasn't leaping out at me yet, so back to Pep Boys and sure enough they had BIGGER skulls and flames !! Woohoo ! AND they had CHROME edge strips ! I thought I'd died and go to tacky ( I mean COOL) heaven. OK, running every stop sign on the way home to finish this project, I ripped off the old small decals and put on the new big ones. OH YESSSS ! Now THAT is the look I was going for. The flames on the handle finish it off completely. My neighbor came over. The first thing he said to me when he looks at what I have done is BITCHEN JACK DOOD !! (the second thing he said is "I'm moving!")