Rodger
True Classic
I have my '81 stripped and almost ready to go to the body shop. I have seen pics of X's on rotisserie's and thought that was cool and I really wanted every inch of this car gone over by the body/paint shop so I decided to build one.
I already had a Harbor Freight 750lb engine stand so I just got another one on sale. I took the lower crossbeams with the fixed wheels and flipped them over so the wheels are on top, then got some casters and mounted them to the lower crossbeams with U bolts. This accomplished two things. It raised the height about 5 inches at the crossbeam and pretty much levels the rotating part that the car will attach to. I didn't want to cut them up as I would like to use them again as engine stands, plus I don't weld.
I got some 1.5 inch square tubing with 1/8 inch wall, one 40 inches long for the front and the other 43" long for the back. Drilled a few 1/2" holes to mount the tubing to the bumper shocks and the engine stand plates. Used my hoist to lift the car up by the tie down hooks and slid the stands into the shock mount tubes one end at a time.
Once I had it all on the rotisserie, I got another 9 foot section of 1.5 inch square tubing but with 1/16 inch wall to tie the two stands together to make it more stable for moving. Since the ends of the stands are higher than where the single pivoting wheels are, the two inch tubing of the stands are not parallel to the floor anymore. I cut a slight bevel, 2 inches from the ends of my 9 foot piece which allowed me slide about 3 inches of it into each stand. I drilled a horizontal hole and placed a bolt though it. I drilled the hole larger than the bolt and used a Nylok nut to secure it loosely because I found that when I spin the car the stands want to pivot slightly off of the center line. This slight looseness creates a hinge effect for this pivoting to occur.
Total cost was probably under $300 for the two stands, 4 casters, tubing, bolts, etc. Since I used the stands pretty much as is, they are not quite tall enough to allow the car to spin completely around, but it will allow the car to rotate to almost vertical which allows great access to the bottom of the car. It is amazing what you can see when the car is on its side.
I already had a Harbor Freight 750lb engine stand so I just got another one on sale. I took the lower crossbeams with the fixed wheels and flipped them over so the wheels are on top, then got some casters and mounted them to the lower crossbeams with U bolts. This accomplished two things. It raised the height about 5 inches at the crossbeam and pretty much levels the rotating part that the car will attach to. I didn't want to cut them up as I would like to use them again as engine stands, plus I don't weld.
I got some 1.5 inch square tubing with 1/8 inch wall, one 40 inches long for the front and the other 43" long for the back. Drilled a few 1/2" holes to mount the tubing to the bumper shocks and the engine stand plates. Used my hoist to lift the car up by the tie down hooks and slid the stands into the shock mount tubes one end at a time.
Once I had it all on the rotisserie, I got another 9 foot section of 1.5 inch square tubing but with 1/16 inch wall to tie the two stands together to make it more stable for moving. Since the ends of the stands are higher than where the single pivoting wheels are, the two inch tubing of the stands are not parallel to the floor anymore. I cut a slight bevel, 2 inches from the ends of my 9 foot piece which allowed me slide about 3 inches of it into each stand. I drilled a horizontal hole and placed a bolt though it. I drilled the hole larger than the bolt and used a Nylok nut to secure it loosely because I found that when I spin the car the stands want to pivot slightly off of the center line. This slight looseness creates a hinge effect for this pivoting to occur.
Total cost was probably under $300 for the two stands, 4 casters, tubing, bolts, etc. Since I used the stands pretty much as is, they are not quite tall enough to allow the car to spin completely around, but it will allow the car to rotate to almost vertical which allows great access to the bottom of the car. It is amazing what you can see when the car is on its side.
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