1973 Rebuild

Matthew Abate · May 16, 2017

UPDATE: Rotisserie purchased!

wheee! · May 16, 2017

Ah! The Circle of (re)Life!

sweatybetty · May 17, 2017

10 hours ago, Matthew Abate said:

UPDATE: Rotisserie purchased!

you are now past the point of no return. its hopeless. you are addicted. but, there is help here.

Matthew Abate · May 22, 2017

Saturday night:

This is the Tuxedo CR-3000, $917 from Best Buy Automotive Equipment, not including lift-gate service, shipment tracking, brackets, and tip for the driver who muscled it up my driveway on a hand lift while I was at work.

I was nervous it was going to be cheap and maybe even dangerous, but my assessment is that this thing is going to be perfectly fine once I upgrade 8 of the bolts to better hardware. The fact that the T-arms are 2.5" tubes instead of 3" might actually make it more usable because I can get more creative with how I make the rear brackets. Could I have gotten a better one? Sure, but this is good enough to get the job done, which is what matters on this budget.

If you do get one for yourself, remember not to over tighten the nut on the end of the screw that adjusts the height of the T-arm. If you do it won't spin when you turn the handle, which will cause the handle to come off because of the way that it attaches.

Edited May 23, 2017 by Matthew Abate

siteunseen · May 22, 2017

Looks good.

I have bought enough stuff for mine I thought about creating an LLC and using all of it to lower my gross income. What's less than zero? Maybe Uncle IRiS would pay me?

Matthew Abate · June 7, 2017

The rotisserie arms are ready to mount on the front. I feel like I need to make an insert to spread the pressure from the bolts in order to prevent mushrooming, and then wait for the rear mounts to arrive in the mail, which should happen tomorrow.

...

In other news, can anyone identify these wheels? I've seen them discussed before but can't begin to think of how to search for that discussion. I believe the manufacturer starts with M but I'm blanking on it.

Matthew Abate · June 10, 2017

I think this Tuxedo/Kernel rotisserie is going to be just fine for home use. The real question ended up being how to mount it. I bought a few sets of brackets but ended up not using everything. Here's how it went...

First, I had read that the Auto Twirler mopar valence mounts attach to the the 240z front bumper mounting holes. This is not the case. I tried turning them 90 degrees and fitting them to the tow hook mounting spot just under that, but I did not think this through correctly and drilled the brackets in such a way that the Tuxedo valence arms could quite reach the brackets.

I ended up drilling the silver Tuxedo arms to mount to the tow hook mount point as a solution. This meant a small set of holes for the bolts in the top and a larger set of holes underneath to get the socket in (see previous post).

I was concerned about the potential for mushrooming, so I drilled some of the Tuxedo valence plates to act as a washer to spread the pressure and hopefully mitigate that.

Next I made some plates to go between the Auto Twirler Mopar rear bumper brackets and the car. I drilled these plates and the brackets, then welded them together and ground them down to fit into the cavity for the bumper brackets.

Last was just mounting the brackets and lining up the T-arms with the brackets. I tightened it all up and now the car is hung!

The next steps are to remove the suspension and balance the car on the rotisserie. Then I'm in business.

Matthew Abate · June 11, 2017

On 6/6/2017 at 10:20 PM, Matthew Abate said:

In other news, can anyone identify these wheels? I've seen them discussed before but can't begin to think of how to search for that discussion. I believe the manufacturer starts with M but I'm blanking on it.

Found the answer to my own question. They are M.A.G. Princess Anne Alloys, most commonly found on British cars like MGBs and Scimitars. They are not the Dunlops that I have seen floating around here. Apparently these are crazy hard to find, although it looks like they cam in a 15x7" version.