Rotisserie restoration?

[Scott Johnson]

Have any of you ever done a rotisserie restoration on a Suburban? Thinking about building one to do my 72 Sub 4x4. Any pictures or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Scott

[dinnut]

what is a rotisserie restoration? where you put ur car on a thing and can turn in 360 degrees end over end?

[krazy_texan]

yep, that is what it is
i have seen some pretty huge rotisseseries to, my best friends dad has one that he used for his T6 texan airplane

[crazy4chevs]

end over end WOW, I thought they rolled them sideways.

[Scott Johnson]

Have a pretty good idea on how to build the thing, going to buy some steel next week and get started. Just wanted to see if anyone else had built one, so I could possibly avoid mistakes.

[Canadian694x4]

I know ronh72c10 built one to restore his 1/2 ton truck. He even has a site with a computer drawing of what the rotisserie looks like. It will at least give you some ideas.

http://www.vbrfarms.com/rhanson/roti...otisserie.html

[Blue Beard]

Sure would like to find a good set of plans for building these units..............

[Scott Johnson]

Gives me some more ideas, we`ll see what happens.

[ronh72c10]

I've built one but wouldn't build it the same way again, somebody separately emailed me about it and here's my response:

I've only had frames mounted on my rotisserie so far, there wasn't any way to adjust it's CG close enough to balance it so it would rotate easily. A complete body should be easier, the L adjusters may have to be lengthened vertically, but they're easy to make so I wouldn't worry if you had to remake them. Since the Stang is a unibody make sure that the body is solid before putting it on the rotisserie, brace the door openings especially, it would really suck to tweak the body. Another thing, I've currently got a stripped 72 Truck frame (400lbs???) on the rotisserie and that seems pretty heavy for it, the body will probably be heavier so don't skimp on the structure.

That said, a couple of things I would do differently on another rotisserie:
1. A positive latching mechanism, a screw clamping down on the pivot just doesn't hold it well enough.
2. The two vertical posts at the ends would be replaced by a single thicker post (3 to 4 inches)
3. I'd make the horizontal pivoting support a 3"x3" tube instead of a 2"x2" tube, I bent it once when I dropped one end 6"
4. Get good castors, nothing is more frustrating than trying to get them to pivot when you're moving the rotisserie and they don't.

A couple of sites worth looking at:

My design was based on the following:
http://www.mgbexperience.com/rotator/

there is a design on this site using engine stands, but I didn't like it
http://www.autorestorer.com/

this guy built a rotisserie to support his roadrunner body,
http://www.sandysgarage.com/current.html

this site points to a comercial company that makes the rotisserie design that I think works well and would be how I would build the next one,
http://www.accessiblesystems.com/


Ron

[Blue Beard]

Ron,

Thanks for the info links, lot to take in on those sites.

[Truck Hippy]

What does one cost new? I am going to get one when I finish my garage. Wes

wesbaird@charter.net

[Scott Johnson]

I think the bottoms up lift looks good, and that is the way I am leaning toward building one. Does anyone know the approx. weight of a Suburban body stripped? This will make a difference in what material I use. The only real problem I am having is deciding how high to mount my pivot point. I want to make the upright solid and not adjustable, and have the place where it mounts to the body adjustable. I came up with 48 inches high, but I would hate to build the thing and not have enough clearance to rotate the truck. I know an adjustable upright would solve the problem, but I think the thing would be a lot more solid with a fixed upright. I am leaning towards building the actual stand out of 3x3 box 3/16 thick. the pipe up top that holds the spinning mechanism will be 2 1/2 inch pipe 3/16 thick. The part that spins and attaches to the body will be 2 1/2 inch box 3/16 thick. I think this will be heavy enough, what do any of you think?

Scott

[Scott Johnson]

ttt