MTFCA Forum

I'm sure many of you can relate to this, but I have one car in particular that this is meaningful. Why?. because I built this car myself over a period of seven years. The moment is laying on a creeper and reminiscing where I bought every single nut and bolt, not just any nut and bolt, but genuine Ford and period correct. I'm wrapping up that moment now with a nice cold beer!

Yes I can relate.
Enjoying the view trying to figure out how to get up off the creeper.

Yes John, getting off a creeper at 82 can be a challenge!

You call that a creeper/ Mine is often a sleeper!

Allan from down under.

Who said you had to get off the creeper? As an old salt, come prepared, more beer and just lean over for a whiz!

I've got a creeper new in the box, never opened. That's creepy.
Crawled many times under the T but it has always been on cardboard.

The creeper is just one of the things that cruelly reminds us that while we still think we can do the things we did in our 20's, we're at the age that those things take longer, hurt more for longer, take longer to heal, and what we used to do all night now takes all night to get up to do. But hey, we're still doing!!!

Me, I've given up the crawler and found it easier to do a roll!!!

Never mind getting up off the creeper. At 84 I can't even get down. I sold my 26 TT because I couldn't bend to finish working on it.
.This getten old business ain't half as much fun as I thought it would be. Then again, so many were never given the chance t got this far . So I must be happy and thankful where I am.

Original Smith wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 25, 2025 6:47 pm

I'm sure many of you can relate to this, but I have one car in particular that this is meaningful. Why?. because I built this car myself over a period of seven years. The moment is laying on a creeper and reminiscing where I bought every single nut and bolt, not just any nut and bolt, but genuine Ford and period correct. I'm wrapping up that moment now with a nice cold beer!

Larry, I can certainly relate to this with regard to the couple of Model T's that I completely restored. If someone has the interest and ability to do so, fully restoring one's own Model T is a very rewarding experience that continues even after it is done, whether maintaining it, driving it or even just looking at it. I have to admit though that I have cheated and used modern nuts and bolts in places!

It’s not the getting down it’s the getting up.
“No one said life would be easy…. No one said it’d be this hard.”

Getting up can be a real problem. Creepers need brakes on the wheels like braked castors. When attempting to roll of mine, the bloody thing wants to leave me before I can get up, so I often jam it up against a wheel so it can"t run away. The adjustable headrest is way too much like a pillow sometimes.

Allan from down under.

Well I have been restoring brass cars since I was 14. My father had me doing just about everything from top to bottom. He was quick to get me started and I learned quickly.

As I grew up restoring cars my father had me doing all the lifting tugging cleaning and painting. Now that I look back it was the best education I could have received. He was a self taught machinist, and very particular about the quality. He taught me body work, painting, babbit bearing work, machine work. We even did tops and upholstery. I can still remember him saying, "there is never time to do it right but always time to do it over.

Few years back I purchased a 4 post drive on floor hoist, that is the best thing I did for my 82 year old bones and joints. I don't have to worry about getting up off the damn creeper any more!!

I realized in my later years why my father had me doing all the manual labor, I was younger than he was and I was just dumb enough to do it, yes I was learning and it was a lot easier on his bones and joints.

just sayin'

brasscarguy

I have a dog bone creeper. There was a guy about20 or more years ago selling them at Hershey. What makes them so nice is the wheels are about 6" dia. They have fenders? that cover the wheels, which makes the creeper look like a dog bone. When I attempt to get up, I push myself up onto a dog bone which makes getting up a lot easier. I have two of my T's parked parallel side by side, and the 3rd T parked right in back of them. Using the wheels, tires, and fenders allows me to pull myself up from the creeper.