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Mostly Useless

November 19, 2021

I own a tow dolly. It’s a broken tow dolly.

A tow dolly is has nothing to do with dolls. And the spelling is deliberate. Nothing to do with toes. You use a tow dolly to tow cars. My tow dolly is broken. That’s fine, I’m fixing it.

Well, not all of it. I’m working on stripping the paint. . .and the rust. I’ll then prime and repaint it. But, my tow dolly needed more than a new coat of paint. The previous owner had driven a car off the dolly without lowering the ramps. As a result it broke the steel ramps.

BROKE steel ramps.

Okay, it was a car rolling off that did it.

I cannot fix broken steel ramps. In fact, with few exceptions, I can’t fix most things made of steel. I’ve been working on stripping the old paint and rust. Last week my son-in-law stopped by. He brought his portable welder.

I didn’t even know there were portable welders.

My job was to hold the work steady why he did the important bits.

Welding is a fascinating process. . .you just can’t look at it.

When he was done, there were 1/4″ pieces of steel angle iron.

I’m pretty sure we won’t break the steel plates in the future. Now I just have to strip off the rest of the paint. . .and rust.

Stay safe

Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.

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From → car repairs

One Comment
  1. Eric S Scott permalink

    They have this laser tool somewhere that strips the rust and paint back down to clean metal. But if your hand or other organic matter gets in the way, nothing much happens. It’s almost like doing a power wash of the rust.

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