Hi,

How many of you have used a rotisserie in your restoration of ypou FGF or other cars? Any brand you recommend? Is there anything difficult about the process? Can you use one with the glass still in the car??? Windshield and rear, doors are off!

Thanks,
Mike

Here are the major vendors I've seen at car shows and in people's project albums.

http://www.theroto2000.com/

http://www.accessiblesystems.com/bul/at+.php

http://www.autotwirler.com/

http://www.whirlyjig.com/


I can't say which is best. Once I built mine, I didn't pay close attention to their construction at shows, though I have seen a few nicely constructed ones first hand. I have seen various heavier designs supporting a lot of weight in demonstrations. I don't think that's highly important. The unibody for the Firebird is somewhere around 600-800 pounds according to what I've read. All of these should easily handle that. A sturdier design would be best if you contemplate taking it to a media blaster on a roll-back. One of the more important features is the type and diameter of the wheels. A small diameter hard wheel will stop dead in it's tracks when you try to roll it over a pebble. Any of these commercial designs will full adjustment for balance would have good resale value when you're finished with it.

I think that trying to leave the glass installed would defeat the purpose of a frame-off restoration. It would be like fixing a rain stained ceiling in your house without repairing the leaking roof. These cars fail, in part, because of primer and lacquer failing underneath the glass seal. A little rust in there turns into advanced rust, leaking, water soaking on the carpets and under the trunk mats. Soon you have rotten floors trunk pans and trunk drop-offs. All the rust in my project started with the glass support channel paint failure. I really don't think you can skip this step unless someone had done this area over using modern paint, "glass out" before.

I took everything off. Glass, doors, front frame, quarter glass and heater plenum, interior etc before placing the body onto the stand. It's necessary to reduce the weight your dealing with. After all, you'll be turning the car on it's side to work on it. You don't want 3200 pounds spinning on gimbles and turned by hand. It's also necessary to remove the parts in order to keep media grit out of all the parts.

I am too lazy to look, but someone here posted a homebuilt one out of Harbor Freight engine lifts. Looked really nice and would be pretty cheap to make.

I made mine. It nothing fancy, just heavy duty. The plans I've seen are better than mine because you can lift the car with it(built in cylinders). Some one will post the plans or I'll do a search and find them a little later.

glass should be removed and doors on! doors give it structural stability if you have alot of rust! id put them back on unless you have the 1/4's off! dunno what your doin to the car but a bit more info would be nice for a recommendation! also have you considered building your own?

the home built job works well as well! measure betweem the rearbumper mounts for the rear hook point. measure the front frame mounts for the front. then you just attach those peices to the engine stands round neck with a welder and vuala! instant rotisserie.

The problem I have with the engine stand method is the wheel spread is to narrow with very small casters but the basis is there to build off of.

I saw one for sale at the Year One gig at Road Atlanta, it was about $1100 with cylinders but don't remember the brand. I've thought about buying one, could use it and probably sell it for a few hundred less than new when done. The price of having the right tools for the job.

A home made one might be a tough sell but it could be scrapped out since you wouldn't have much in it. If I had the time to build one, I would, but I have no place or reason to store it when done.

I made mine out of the old style engine stands. They are big and wide. No tipping at all. And when you cut off that front leg sticking out they do not take up much room when stored. Just roll the two stands up against the wall and the only other piece is the long support that connects the two and it doesn't take up much space on the floor against the wall. I forget mine is even there....

my bbq grill has a nice Rotisserie.maybe you can cook the bird on it..lol

thats a bird roaster

Scott has his plans online.jpg

http://www.surfari.net/~scottmoo/frontfront1
http://www.surfari.net/~scottmoo/rearframe1.jpg
http://www.surfari.net/~scottmoo/rearframe2.jpg
http://www.surfari.net/~scottmoo/diagfront1.jpg
http://www.surfari.net/~scottmoo/diagfront2.jpg
http://www.surfari.net/~scottmoo/coupe.jpg
http://www.surfari.net/~scottmoo/coupeups.jpg

I copied most of his plan with only minor changes. Engine stands don't have a wide enough base for safety. Scott's plans use engine cranes only for the steel. Front and rear stands of a rotisserie need to be tied together for stability. On sale the Harbor Freight cranes (including hydraulic cylinders) cost $150 each. That puts materials cost around $400 when you're finished.



But it's cheaper to head to the buffet at 4PM... less work too! Get ready Terry. Cold weather is coming here and the geezers are headed your way.

Here's a pic of my simple and heavy duty one. Excuse the mess but it's in one of those corners that I rarely get to.

you can cut the leg off the front and weld another peice in its place. match the id to od of both peices so one slide into the other. drill a hole for a pin to slide through it and you have a more secure peice! also you can extend the legs of the engine stand outward by doing this method as it is more stabil as well!

If I were making any changes to Scott's plans, I would have the lifting arms run along a traveler that let you hook the stand up to the car starting from rest on the suspension. It was inconvenient to lift the car way up to get things hooked up. In other words, the vertical arms would be 48" tall and a concentric sleeve would slide that entire length. As designed, these telescope and that limits minimum height for hooking things up.

The hydraulic rams are not that important when you can use a single engine hoist a several inches at a time alternating each end. You raise it to position once and leave it, so rams are a conveniance, not a necessity.

The base should be very wide. Casters should have their center of gravity reduced just like you see in Jim's stand and on my alerations to Scotts stands. Front and rear stands should be hooked together. I know folks have gotten by with two cheapie engine stands but I don't think it's wise.

Jim, you're stand it getting dusty. Time to start a new project. Or eBay it? Looks like a genuine Ram Air rotisserie to me.

Ahhh. Wise man says, "Once you do a few on rotisserie you get very very picky which one you put on next". It's like a big chunk out of your life when you decide to go the long haul. You gotta make it count!