{"product_id":"vintage-grand-master-oak-mechanics-creeper-model-hd-a-c-1950-1975","title":"Vintage Grand Master Oak Mechanic's Creeper, Model HD-A, c. 1950–1975","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAn oak mechanic's creeper, the low wheeled board a man lay on to get under a car, and this one still carries every bit of its original printing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe body is built the way shop equipment used to be. Solid oak rails running the length, oak boards laid across them, and the whole thing drawn together with large dome head rivets set at close intervals down both sides, every head still bright. Two steel strap plates are screwed across the deck where the boards meet, which is where a creeper works hardest and where the cheap ones let go.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOne end rises. The head board is canted up on a short frame so the head and shoulders sit above the deck, and a padded rest in grey vinyl is fixed across the top of it. Underneath, swivel casters are set beneath the frame rails so the whole board turns and tracks in any direction rather than only fore and aft.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe printing is the part that survived, and it is why this one is worth having. GRAND MASTER runs across the head board in bold blue condensed capitals. On the deck below, Professional Quality is laid out in a confident blue script with MODEL HD-A and MADE IN U.S.A. set underneath it in small caps. All of it is screen printed straight onto the oak, and all of it is still crisp and legible.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe oak has gone a warm amber with use, darker around the rivet heads and along the rails where hands and oil got to it, which is exactly the surface you want and cannot fake.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe creeper is one of those objects the American garage invented and then stopped changing for fifty years. Oak because it was cheap, stiff and would take a rivet. Rails and cross boards because that is the lightest way to carry a man. Casters at the rails because a mechanic under a car needs to move sideways as often as lengthways. The form arrived with the automobile and stayed until moulded plastic replaced it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe name is a trade brand rather than a manufacturer. Professional Quality, a model designation and Made in U.S.A., printed together with no company name anywhere on the piece, is the signature of a hardware jobber's house brand, a name owned by a distributor and applied to goods built under contract by a factory that put its own name on nothing. That is how most shop equipment reached the counter, and it is why GRAND MASTER turns up on the board with no address behind it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe materials set the floor. The headrest is grey vinyl over padding, not canvas and not leather, and vinyl upholstery of that kind belongs to the years after the war rather than before it. Every creeper of this form photographed from the thirties and earlier carries canvas or bare wood at the head.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe construction sets the ceiling. A full oak body, riveted, with the graphics screen printed directly onto the timber is pre plastic shop equipment. Through the seventies the trade moved to steel frames with vinyl pads and then to one piece moulded bodies, and a creeper built entirely of wood and steel sits before that changeover.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOn that evidence it is offered as c. 1950 to 1975. Four things would narrow it: whether the casters carry a maker's name or a patent number cast into the yoke, whether the caster mounting plates are steel or moulded plastic, whether the headrest vinyl is original or a recover, which the original tack line under the edge would show, and whether a hardware store or jobber stencil survives anywhere on the underside.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003ctable\u003e\n  \u003ctbody\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eType\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eAutomotive mechanic's creeper, oak body on swivel casters\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eBrand\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eGrand Master\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eModel\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eHD-A\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMarks\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eGRAND MASTER on the head board. Professional Quality in script with MODEL HD-A and MADE IN U.S.A. on the deck, all screen printed in blue\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eConstruction\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSolid oak rails and cross boards, dome head rivets throughout, two steel strap plates across the deck joints\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eHead\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCanted head board on a raised frame with a padded rest in grey vinyl\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eRunning Gear\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSwivel casters set beneath the frame rails\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ec. 1950–1975\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eLength\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e40 in.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eWidth\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e17 in.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eHeight\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e6 in. at the head\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eWeight\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e14 lb.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSound and solid, sitting square with no racking in the frame. Oak carries the honest darkening, scuffing and oil shadow of shop use, heaviest along the rails and around the rivet heads. Rivets tight throughout. Steel straps in place with all screws present. Blue printing crisp and fully legible on the head board and the deck. Headrest vinyl intact with light wear and some surface marking. Casters turn. As with any piece of shop equipment of this age, check the rivets and the casters before putting weight on it.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003c\/tbody\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBranded shop equipment with the graphics still on it is the whole game in industrial decor, and most of what reaches the market has been sanded, repainted or worn blank. This one kept its name, its model number and its country of origin in clean blue print on bare oak, which is the difference between an old board and an object with something to say.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt reads well on a wall. Stood on end or hung flat, forty inches of riveted oak with GRAND MASTER across the top does the work of a sign, and it suits a garage, a bar, a workshop office or a shop wall that needs one honest American thing on it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnd it still rolls, which keeps the options open. On the floor it takes a plant, a stack of books or a case of something and moves out of the way with a foot, and it is low enough to live under a bench or a console instead of taking up a room. Sold as found, and it will do either job.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Grand Master","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50412890816617,"sku":"VE-1695","price":788.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/ve-1695-01_1b369c5c-a2c2-41a9-8209-dad59089b1db.jpg?v=1790245857","url":"https:\/\/viridianeclection.com\/products\/vintage-grand-master-oak-mechanics-creeper-model-hd-a-c-1950-1975","provider":"Viridian Eclection","version":"1.0","type":"link"}