Starting on a little project that's been waiting in the wings for a year

I bought the remnants of an old wagon last year for 10 bucks. I intended to fix it up for my swap meet wagon. It seems like at every swap meet I wind up buying a bunch of stuff and having to carry it for miles. This should solve that hassle and be a showpiece of what I am capable of doing.

The dead remains...


Cracks everywhere to repair...



Lots of rust out to repair...



This is bent...


Holes worn oversize...


Repair to oversize hole is to weld a nice thick washer over it to restore the round opening and give it some "meat" in that area to stave off future wear. The original builders of these wagons didn't have the idea of building to last this long. Even back then, some things were disposable...




I went to Northern Tool and bought new wheels and tires. Luckily they had them on sale this week real cheap. These will be nice since the originals were hard rubber and these are pneumatic and will keep the wagon from bouncing as much. I also had to build new axles since the original ones were very bent and worn. I found a nice 6 foot long piece of cold rolled round rod at the scrap yard for 35 cents a pound (about 3 dollars total).

Here is the initial mock-up with the new wheels and axles in place...