Car Tilting Rotisseries

[v8250]

Dear All, am about to purchase a heavy duty car tilting rotisserie unit with a lifting capacity of 2.2 tonnes; this to complete the underbody work of my MGB V8 conversion.

Before I spend a considerable amount of money, would any of the hands-on PH'ers be interested in renting this from me post acquisition? My thoughts here are to 1. reimburse some of the outlay, and 2. help other folk who are restoring their car/s and could really put this unit to good use.

Rgds,
v8250

[gforceg]

There are a few people on here who have made their own. Maybe offer to rent theirs when they're done? Just a thought.

[cahami]

gforceg said:

There are a few people on here who have made their own. Maybe offer to rent theirs when they're done? Just a thought.

This: If you are capable of restoring the underside of a car then why not make one? I made one from 3"x2" box and a couple of acrow props (for adjustment) some brackets and scaffold tubes, I used an old motorbike disc brake to lock off in position Spend the money on on more useful stuff for the car.

[uk66fastback]

I rented mine when I restored my fastback from a Mustang restorer after trying unsuccessfully to buy a couple of ones that were being used for resto - the people selling just took longer than they thought, one guy was ill etc, and the cars never left them ...

So there is a market for it ... I was charged £2 a day and had it for about eight months (which is quite long I would have thought).

But as has been said, ever thought of making your own? There are plenty of plans on the interenet for them ... gotta save £££££££

After eight months up in the air and at various angles, it's a helluva shock when it's back on its wheels!

Edited by uk66fastback on Friday 3rd January 11:13

[droopsnoot]

There are two basic types - those that bolt on to the wheel hubs and rotate a complete car, and those that bolt to bumper irons and are designed (I think, at least) to only lift a bare bodyshell. The latter tend to be much cheaper and easier to home-make than the former. If you only want the bumper-mount kind, there's a chap on eBay that sells them for around the £100 mark which isn't too bad, I bought a used one for £70 which has been great, but I had to modify the bumper fixings from Ford to Vauxhall. A mate of mine had one of the hub-mount ones he was getting rid off, I think he said it was going on eBay at a start of £100, but this was last summer so will be long gone by now. Point being, they are around for reasonable money.

Mine has been invaluable, once I'd got the bodyshell strong enough that lifting it on either end wouldn't cause it to fold in the middle. From the work the OP mentioned, I'm guessing it will have to be a bumper-mount one. A chap I know restoring a Firenza made one from wood offcuts, keeping the cost down again.

[Mr_B]

You can buy a basic one for £200. They are pretty simple if you are handy with a welder and only plan to put complete bare shell on them and not much more. By a generic cheap one and just have the brackets made ( or make your own ) and then sell it on when done.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3kbBLY1tlY

[spitdigger]

Have to agree, it's the best thing that I've done in a long while. Mine has a 260z shell on it, probably the same sort of weight as a MGB. Made primarily from 40x40 box and some spare bearings that were surplus at work. The holding mechanism is a section of rack & pinion from a manually operated slide of a feed bin - again left over at work ! This is okay but has some slop so there is movement when locked but not so much as to encourage redesign as yet. Pick up points are the bumper mounts both ends.

[v8250]

Gents, thanks for the replies - have taken a different approach to the rotisserie. Have bought 2x 680kg engine stands which will have the rubber bumper irons mounted to the front and rear chassis rails. Will extend & triangulate the engine stand bases, plus, link the two engine stand's forward legs the length of the car. This will give a very rigid rotisserie with a 1360kg load capability...all for £155.76 delivered.

Have bought product [engine stands + 2tonne crane] from SGS Engineering before; they are very well priced for quality of product - see here for more info www.sgs-engineering.com

Will post pics once done...

[mgtony]

Hi Andrew,

Sounds like a good plan to me!

A thread here on MGEXP with someone also using engine stands, not sure if there is anything on there that might help, but take a look.

http://www.mgexp.com/phorum/read.php?1,635763


For another cheap alternative,this method using timber seems to be a good idea:

http://www.mgexp.com/phorum/read.php?1,2567324

(If you need to log in to see pics, PM me)

[v8250]

mgtony said:

Hi Andrew, Sounds like a good plan to me!

Hi Tony, thanks for these. Have seen both before...re' wood, I'm sure it'll do the job but I haven't the balls to risk the old girl like this. Re' the MGExp chap, I'm taking a somewhat 'beefier' approach by using the bumper steels and adding some extra 2" tubing + a few other mods. Interestingly I hadn't intended on stripping back the waxoyl and stone chip but I'm really glad to have done this. Although it's been a filthy task, it's proven I have no rust on the underside and spraying with base tinted Raptor will make the underside look superb with all the new components. The Supersports exhaust system has arrived which is a fine piece of kit...!

Edited by v8250 on Monday 6th January 20:26

[mgtony]

That exhaust is amazing. Have you seen any of the threads on MGEXP regarding vents in the front wings? There are a couple which are fitting them for mainly decorative purposes, and other to aid cooling when fitting a V8 or similar.

http://www.mgexp.com/phorum/read.php?1,2562005

or

http://www.mgexp.com/phorum/read.php?1,1600117

Reading the Maserati Mexico thread on here earlier reminded me of these threads, and I thought that car had some great shaped vents in the wings.

[v8250]

mgtony said:

That exhaust is amazing. Have you seen any of the threads on MGEXP regarding vents in the front wings? There are a couple which are fitting them for mainly decorative purposes, and other to aid cooling when fitting a V8 or similar.

Reading the Maserati Mexico thread on here earlier reminded me of these threads, and I thought that car had some great shaped vents in the wings.

Yes, quite pleased with the exhaust. Will be modifying the front sections to add a balance pipe which will 'soften' any excess V8 burble a little and make the car more comfortable to drive on long routes. This might sound odd to some but a V8 can be very tiring on a long run.

Re' heat soak/heat extraction...the side vents are an interesting thought but I don't think they'll be needed. The manifolds are exiting through the inner wings and will be ceramic coated. I've calc'd out air flow through the engine bay and there's a good +ve air flow + reflective foil to gearbox tunnel. Interestingly, the heat problems with the V8's is that the engines have poor heat txfr through the cooling system where the V8's are low flow rate cooling :. have calc'd the increased size of radiator and will keep coolant in tiptop condition. Hopefully the other plus point is that I'm running injection which won't suffer heat soak to the extent of SU's.

Have to say, some of the other car restoration threads on here at the moment are bloody marvelous. There are some great projects being completed. A+

[task]

Probably a bit late now but I built a "rotisserie" for my BGT, it was on there for a year and was a great help whilst doing the welding;

[benters]

my dad made his own and it looked rather like this one above this post.
Sturdy as you like !

[Mr_B]

There's a guy on a BMW E30 forum selling one he built for £250 , located in South Wales. It's built by himself specific for an E30, but could be adapted for yours I would think.

You need to be a forum member to view though.

http://www.e30zone.net/modules.php?name=Forums&amp...

[rolymo]

Revolving Car Rotisseries :- Made my own from rectanglar steel and a couple of MG Midget front hubs ,originally to fit a chrome bumper MG GT which mean't that the height had to be arranged to allow full rotation clearing the floor by the roof.
Suspended by the bumper mounts this leaves the center unsupported when removing the sills,inners, floor panels causing body sag,particularly on the MG Roadster.
Therefore a separate sub frame was incorporated to support the floor and while making this unit the opportunity was taken to produce mounts for rubber bumper mounts, MG-Midget ( both chrome & rubber models) and all types of Triumph spitfire.

[rolymo]

When we did not need this tool in our workshop it generated quite a regular income by hiring out by the week to private owners doing their own restorations at home etc.

[rolymo]

Made a mistake, memory is getting a little shaky. I used Triumph Spitfire front stub axles and hubs which made the job easier being bolt-up

[SPT28]

I've just got hold of one from a friend who had one for his mini, it was originally from www.rolloverjigs.com.

Minor changes were required in terms of the attachments it bolts to but asides that it was easy to do - lifting it on was an experience though, especially standing in the engine bay holding it up while the locking bolts were put in place!

Not the best picture but you get the idea - will make the sill replacements 10x easier I hope