Rotisserie Build Thread

[ZohanIsBack]

Posted this on another Z forum. Basically what I did tonight.

I thought I would share what I consider to be a unique twist on the rotisserie. Basically, I started with two engine stands, the four wheel kind. I decided I wanted to be able to pull the car around my garage any direction and wanted heavy duty casters. So I said to hell with it -- I have a welder, so why not? I wanted the option to be able to work on the vehicle's interior while on the rotisserie. As in actually climb inside to an extent without risking it tipping over. And so this idea was born. I would widen the front beam of each engine stand and probably add length to the main vertical engine support to allow complete, 360 degree rotation (yes, I pass AWS certified bend tests for butt-end welds).

I chopped off the metal casters and non rotating wheels, lengthened the front bar, and welded on the new 330lb caster (engine stand each rated for 1000).

I'm in to it:

$30 orange engine stand

$35 engine stand

$100 even (WITH TAX, !) 1.5 x 3 x 1/8 inch tube, 2 x 2 x 1/8 inch tube, 3/16 flat stock 18 x 18 inch, 22 ga CR steel sheet for body work.

$50 in casters

First off is to get rid of these.

Here is what I started with if you imagine it under the forward support, .

Here is what I got.

Cheap HF casters. $6 each

I should have used my stick welder instead of my cheap $90 HF mig. But not bad welds for a harbor freight tool with no bottle setup.

Garage is a mess... :-/

[grannyknot]

Zohan, when you get ready to put the car up make sure you mount the tie bar (the piece joining the two engine stands)

as low as possible. Most engine stands don't have enough clearance to allow the car spin 180*, a low tie bar will help.

Chris

[geezer]

Couple of things to know. You will need the center point of the rotation to be at least 42" high with the the spreader bar that connects each end having 1" of clearance from the floor, if you are using a spreader bar. Otherwise you will not be able to rotate 360 degrees. I find that if you exercise the amount of overkill that I did building the end brackets and fastening them securely, you don't even need a spreader bar but I had left mine on just to be safe with the amount of structural strength I had removed from the shell while replacing the floors, rocker, etc. I wasn't sure how much twist or flex would occur. The pic of the rear end bracket was taken before welding on the through floor pieces (overkill).

I got lucky and got an old freebee cart that had good wheels on it and just used that for a base, then cut it in half to create each end.

When I had built mine, I bought 3 cheap engine stands. The metal from the 3rd gave me the material needed to raise each end and build the tie bar. They were not the angled head variety which simplified things as well. Total cost was less than $175. and a solid two days before my son and I lifted the shell up by hand with the brackets bolted to the shell and slipped the brackets into the receivers.

I hope you are getting enough penetration with that flux core wire welder.

Just sharing how I did it, I'm aware there is more than one way to skin a cat, so carry on and good luck!

[jmortensen]

The biggest tip I have is about getting the car up there. The first time I put mine up, I jacked it up, put wood under the jackstands, put wood under the jack, jacked it further, wood under the jackstands, etc. It's nerve wracking and I think I almost dropped my car once or twice. A MUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCH better way to do it is to get 2 engine hoists and two load levelers. Hook one to the front frame attachment and one to the rear. You can level the car with the load levelers and the cherry pickers can lift a shell 5 feet with no problems at all.

The other thing is to offset the ends so that the car isn't top heavy. My pivots were offset 3.5" down, and that worked pretty well for a 240 shell. When I put the cage in, it got top heavy, and when the suspension went on, it was bottom heavy, but never so much that I couldn't muscle it around, and I'm not super strong by any stretch.

[ZohanIsBack]

Thanks for the tips guys! First off, I am actually welding on extensions to raise the car high enough to go 360. I had already thought about getting it around, so I went ahead and measures the car. It was 68 inches wide at the fender wells, so I split that to 34 at the bottom of the rotating rod, then added 2 inches. In total there should be at least 2.5 inches of space between the car and the front tube of the engine stand. Since the engine stand is 3.5 inches off the ground with the larger casters, this brings the center of rotation for the entire car up to 2.5" + 34" + 3.5" = 40".

I'm not going to use a spreader bar. The rotisserie should be pretty over engineered and I'll be adding slide in "lockout" bolts which prevent the rotating pad of the engine stand from sliding out if I were to pull on the car from the front. Think about the handles use to rotate the engine stand. It's basically this, but a locking pin/blot that goes all the way through. The last thing I want is to pull on the front end of the rotisserie and the rear slides out from the stand and the car falls. It's just an extra safety.

Geezer: I do believe I have enough penetration on the metal. I'm at 80 amps and I take my time. I'm not too worried about it. Would love a bottle setup. I could haul my 220v arc welder out, but that would just be way overkill on 1/8. Besides, what wire welder can't handle 1/8? .

Jmortensen: Haha! That sounds so sketchy! I plan to raise the car up with the hoist one end at a time and bolt the plate on loosely. I plan to make the adapter plate (so I can still use the stand for engines later) with two elongated holes so the car can be bolted up even at an angle. Probably will double nut the preliminary bolts to handle the load. Then do the rear and tighten the bolts. Add the 2-4 remaining bolts and it's good to go.

Here are some more pictures:

I had to correct the angle to be straight, like the other engine stand. This one is tilted back to reduce load with an engine on it. Meh... Fixed that...

Solid weld, then I strayed off course on accident.

Started on the second stand.

And...pulled the engine. Any takers?

[ksechler]

Johan:

Is that a Bullit in the background? It's funny the guy I bought my z from was also a cyclist. Sometimes the stuff in the background is as interesting as the car.

[jmortensen]

The bike is a 4 link. Bullit's have a single pivot.

[ZohanIsBack]

Ehhhh.... Sorry JM, the bike is a Bullit. One of the best handling downhill bikes I've ridden. Needs new rims. Apparently 7 foot drops onto pavement don't play well with stock rims.. Have a nice pair of sun rims going on for the spring. The move down here kinda beat it up in the truck. Man I road that bike like a bat outta hell up until a year ago. That's spring break's project.

But agreed, pics in the background are as interesting as the main subjects themselves.

[jmortensen]

Is this the twilight zone?!? I don't want to tell you what is in your garage, but it says Ellsworth on it. Bullits are made by Santa Cruz and have single pivots.

Bullit:

Ellsworth:

Edited January 29, 2013 by jmortensen

[240260280z]

I have an old solid frame Tech. for off road and a Rossin SLX w Campy road bike.

[ksechler]

JM:

Zohan's the original poster. I asked him if his bike was a Bullit (which it is). The picture with the Ellsworth is my garage. You are correct it is a 4 link but an Epiphany not a Dare.

[jmortensen]

Ah... oops. XD