Building a rotisserie...

[v6spider]

way back a long time ago I did some research on building a rotisserie so that I could properly get to the underside of my spider and weld in all of the reinforcements and modify the transmission doghouse area for my v6 swap. Not to mention cleaning and removal of rust and re undercoating ETC... but I need to get my memory refreshed on how I should approach this.

I am seeking advice on building one cheaply and easily as possible. One concern I have also is on my 72' spider the bumper mounts are just studs that poke out the front and rear to mount the bumper and its associated hardware to, not a hole where the bumper slides into it. What kind of weight can these support? Do I need to do any reinforcing there? I know it is a good idea to build a door frame support. So I will be doing that for sure.

I appreciate any help one give in this.

Thanks!

Rob

[Ken]

There have been a couple guys on this site building them with two engine stands, use the search to find them
Ken

[v6spider]

There have been a couple guys on this site building them with two engine stands, use the search to find them
Ken

Thanks Ken,

I have seen that and was thinking I may go in that direction. One of the things I am really concerned about is attachment as My car has 12mm studs that were used to attach the bumper. I am thinking I am going to have to remove those and cut a hole to have access to the frame in order to get a stronger attachment place. But I want to make sure. Just don't want to reinvent the wheel per se'.

I noticed you are down in Yelm. I bought my first spider in Yelm! Thanks for the help neighbor!

Thanks!
Rob

[azygoustoyou]

If it doesn't matter about spinning the car around. I could make you a painting cart that would give you 24" under the car at the highest setting. You could also move it around with ease. Or if you can weld your own, just copy this one.

[v6spider]

If it doesn't matter about spinning the car around. I could make you a painting cart that would give you 24" under the car at the highest setting. You could also move it around with ease. Or if you can weld your own, just copy this one.

i appreciate the offer to build one... But unfortunately I need to spin the car around upside or sideways so that I may weld in extra frame support and cut and modify the bell-housing area of the floor board so that my 4.3l Chevy v6 and Borg-Warner t5 world class tranny will fit in those areas. I am a fabricator so I will be building a rotisserie. I just am hoping someone will answer my concerns listed in the post. Especially about mounting the car to the rotisserie....

BTW I really like your cart. It is definitely a convenient way to roll the body around when it is not in a roll-able state!

Thanks!
Rob

[Curly]

Mounting the front of the Spider shouldn't be too difficult - you could use the cross-member mounting points in the front subframe. The rear end will be more complicated especially if you want to avoid drilling holes through the rear rear frame in the boot (trunk!). As a fabricator you should be able to rig something up that uses the rear shocker towers, they're probably the strongest area at the rear of the car and would easily take the weight of the shell.
I made my rotisserie from a couple of engine stands and it worked a treat, but SPYDUH is a '76 model and has the heavy duty bumper mounting points that made mounting it on the rotisserie pretty easy.

[baltobernie]

I saw on the Internet somewhere a rotisserie made from plywood, in the shape of an apostrophe. Very elegant design, and probably very stable, too. Can't seem to locate it this morning ...

[Europa]

I saw on the Internet somewhere a rotisserie made from plywood, in the shape of an apostrophe. Very elegant design, and probably very stable, too. Can't seem to locate it this morning ...

Any one of these?

http://www.nastyz28.com/forum/showthread.php?t=98675

http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthread.php?p=801001

[v6spider]

Wow thanks guys! this really helps!

3 different designs to choose from. I like the last link europa posted just for the sheer simplicity of it, but i think I am going to try and build something like what curly built that way I can roll it around in the garage too and spin it either direction.

Curly - with regards to attachment, do you think that if I remove the studs for the bumper mounts and cut holes so that I can have access to frame ends to mount my 72' like you did with SPYDUH that it would be strong enough?

Thanks guys I really appreciate your help!

Rob

[maytag]

v6:
I built a rotisserie last year for a different project (a '68 Datsun Fairlady Roadster ), but I think the way I built it had some merit as far as some of the engineering goes. Something to consider:
If you're going to rotate the car, you'll want to be able to center the weight as close to the rotational axis as possible. That means either some serious math, or a level of adjust-ability. I chose the latter, and I'm currently enjoying that adjust-ability as I have a mustang on it now that required an extremely different setup!

I've scanned a sketch I just made to try to explain all of the different levels of adjust-ability.
Most of this adjustment came in the way of one pipe sliding inside (or outside) another, and bolting.
The critical areas of course were being able to adjust the height of the center of gravity, relative to the rotating axis.
For a bearing, I ran to the wrecking yard and picked-up a couple of front-wheel-drive hubs, complete with the wheel-studs so i could bolt-on the tube (but then I ended-up welding it anyway). I paid $10/ea. All scrap steel. Harbor freight had some cheap casters. I think I'm into the thing less than $100, including welding rod. (it aint pretty though.... )

My scanner's busted. I'll try to get it scanned-in... but here's a rough pic.

[htchevyii]

Denise's rotisserie:
http://www.fiatspider.com/f08/viewtopic ... rie#p32943

[Curly]

Curly - with regards to attachment, do you think that if I remove the studs for the bumper mounts and cut holes so that I can have access to frame ends to mount my 72' like you did with SPYDUH that it would be strong enough?
Rob

Rob, I'm not familiar with the rear bumper mounts of the early spiders, but presume they are similar to those of my AC Coupe - and nowhere near strong enough for the mounting of the rotisserie.
I also wouldn't cut holes on the exterior sheet metal if that could be avoided. I'd consider making a reasonably heavy bar with plates on each end to go in the boot space between the left and right frame members. This 'brace' could then be bolted through the frame members to plates on the otherside. This would mean drilling a few holes through the frame, but it would give you a very sound mounting point for the rotisserie.

[mdrburchette]

Denise's rotisserie:
http://www.fiatspider.com/f08/viewtopic ... rie#p32943

Trey brought up the rotisserie we built and it was specifically for a 72. Good luck with your project.

[v6spider]

Denise's rotisserie:
http://www.fiatspider.com/f08/viewtopic ... rie#p32943

Trey brought up the rotisserie we built and it was specifically for a 72. Good luck with your project.

mdrburchette - Do you have any close-up pics of how you attached the mounting points to the body? Were you able to use the studs or did you have to attach like Curly suggested? I would really appreciate any advice you could offer.

I want to thank everyone for all the great responses too. I have been posting on this board off and on for years and it has always been a great resource.

Thanks!

Rob

[mdrburchette]

Hey Rob. Sorry it took so long for me to get back to this thread. I kinda float around when I have a moment here and there. It's probably too late to help you, but here are a couple pics close up:
The base


Front view of base. There is a screw on top to tighten the rotisserie so the car stays in one position.


The part that bolts onto the car has the original bumper brackets that fit into the holes on the car. It's a nice, simple design.