sponsored in part by
|
11/24/01 -- You may have seen other restoration sites that employ a "body tub rotisserie" of sorts -- I'll call mine a Spitfire spit... But until Dan Canaan came along, nobody seemed very keen on sharing the process of constructing one for the rest of us. It was more like "Hey, look what I've got!"
My effort was inspired by Dan's post on the Totally Triumph Network forums and further detail was gleaned from his own restoration website. Pictures of Dan's rotisserie in action are available through both links. A BIG THANK YOU, Dan!
To build a rotisserie like this one, you'll need:
I followed Dan's instructions closely with a few small exceptions. The first deviation I made was quite by accident. I didn't pay close enough attention and purchased 2" square tube stock instead of retangular tube stock like he used. I don't think this is going to make much difference. At least, the square stock still clears the bottom lip of the rear valance as it needs to, but the rectangle stock is probably the better way to go as it will provide maybe 1/2" more clearance between the rear brace and the rear valance panel. That may not sound like much, but it is when you're sanding.
My engine stands were purchased at Harbor Freight for $49 and are rated at 1,000 lbs apiece. Dan's stands have three legs, whereas mine have four, which I hope will provide a bit more stability. Using a cutoff wheel, I removed the welded axels on the engine stands that held the fixed wheels in place and welded 1/4" plates that I had cut to the same size as the mounting plates on the castors. I needed the welding practice, so I decided to first weld on the mounting plates with the intention of drilling holes through it and mounting the castors the same way the factory swivel castors are mounted. But again, my desire to practice welding and save time (no holes to drill, no hardware to buy) caused me to weld the castor mounting plates to the new stand plates. If a wheel breaks, I'll have to do a lot of grinding to remove it and will be cursing my impatient decision to weld instead of bolt, but I feel pretty confident that the casters will hold up just fine. They're rated for 250 lbs apiece.
To keep welding spatter out of the swivels while installing the castors, I simply wrapped a nylon wire tie around the swivel to protect the bearings. The tie almost melted, but actually did the trick nicely.
Fixed wheels are fine for an engine stand, but to maneuver a body tub on two stands, all wheels must be free to move independently as Dan stated. I need to be very careful though, since my work area in the driveway isn't flat. If I'm not careful and fail to chock those castors, my tub might end up over the side of the embankment in my yard where the driveway bends, or worse still, racing down the driveway and then down the hilly street below. What a nightmare THAT would be!!
I'm going to provide some measurements that I used, but be sure to double check your own mounting measurements to confirm that they will also work for you.
The stand that supports the front of the tub needs to have an angle iron section about 36" in length. Along one side, two 1/2" holes, each 14.5" from the middle of the angle iron piece (a total distance of 29" apart) must be drilled. This will mate with the mounting holes on the front of the tub where it bolts to the front outriggers on the frame. On the other side of the angle iron, two 1/2" holes need to be drilled to mount the angle stock to the engine stand. The exact distance that these holes must be apart depends on your engine stand, but I used 4.25" on mine, which allows for a bit of leveling adjustment. I probably could have gotten away with 4", but I'll repeat the 4.25" on the rear brace.
Again, following Dan's instructions, I created two extension supports that will be bolted and welded to the 47" length of angle iron that will make up the rear suppport mechanism. I chose 2"X2"X 3/8" square tube stock. The 8" piece (which will be placed against the body in front of the lower valance lip under the trunk floor where the bumper support mounts) overlaps the 12" piece by 5".
I drilled two 3/8" holes through both pieces, which again, mate to the bumper mounting points on the rear outermost corners of the boot (trunk) floor. 5" bolts, lock washers and washers will secure these supports to the bottom of the tub per Dan's specifications.
Today, I finished drilling the holes in the rear support angle iron. Again, this piece is 47" long and I needed to drill holes that were 43" apart, from center -- the width between the bumper bracket holes, leaving a 2" overhang on each end. I temporarily fitted the brackets (as shown above) to test fit the contraption and see where I need to drill holes through the ends of the brackets for bolting and welding to the angle iron. So far, so good -- and almost finished. Just a bit more welding and painting and we're ready to get that tub off the chassis.
11/26/01-- I test fitted the rear support extensions to the tub today and then laid the 47" angle iron that will attach to the engine stand across both pieces so that I could mark the ends of the extensions for drilling 1/2" holes, which I subsequently did. Knowing that my bumper mounting holes on the floor were 43" apart, I had already drilled holes that same distance apart in the angle iron, remember? Once the extensions were tightened up to the boot floor, I simply marked where I wanted to drill the mounting holes through the support extentions by centering the mark through the aforementioned holes in the angle iron.
Take care to make certain that the support extensions and angle iron are positioned as snugly as possible together before marking the spots for drilling. As mentioned in my last entry, I was planning on bolting and welding the extensions to the cross support, but like Dan, I've decided to rely on the bolts only, so that the contraption can be more easily disassembled and stored (or shipped to the next owner after I'm done with it). To add structural stability however, I'm going to take some extra square tube stock that I have left over weld it to the angle iron to "box in" the extensions on both sides, so that there can be no lateral movement or flexing.
The rear brace, ready for action.
12/1/01 -- Well, I about finished the project today. The only thing left is to weld brackets for the length of angle iron that will tie both stands together along the bottom. I may just opt to drill two holes a few inches apart on the bottom part of each stand instead and use bolts (I have since definitely decided to opt for this method). After cleaning the various bits with thinner, I sprayed them all with black primer (any color would do, but that was my preference) and followed it up with a spray of orange paint from Home Depot. I think the color was called "Dreamsicle Orange" Dan's choice was probably better -- mine isn't a perfect match -- but it was close enough for government work, as they say. I didn't feel like making a special trip to the auto parts store for engine paint.
The front support, good to go. I wish fabricating the rear
support would have been as easy as this one!!
Before I painted everything, I fit the rear extentions and the lateral brace to the rear end once more, to mark the exact spots on the lateral brace (angle iron) where I wanted to weld the additional supports to keep the extensions from moving laterally. I wound up using some extra angle iron I had left over to create the braces and cut them into 1.5" lengths. Although it's time consuming to keep fitting and removing, fitting and removing, the end results of knowing that it's all going to fit and work out in the end makes the extra effort well worth it.
The angle iron brace snugged against the rear support extension
As you can see, I ran out of orange paint...
I'm not sure if this will help or not, but when I was drilling the support extensions (as shown above), I stamped them R for right and L for left with my metal stamping kit to make certain that when everything was assembled, it would fit correctly, allowing for minute differences in the fit on both sides.
After welding the braces in, everything that wasn't already primered was primed and painted. As you can see in the photo above, the 1/2" x 2.5" bolts that I purchased are about a half inch too short. One more trip to Home Depot, where I'll also pick up another four bolts to attach the angle iron that will be used to connect (and thus stabilize) the rotisserie along the bottom center. I've decided that for the door braces, I'm going to purchase some 1/4" x 3" flat stock. Three holes will be drilled in it to match the pattern of the door striker. To this piece I'll weld the end of a length of angle iron. This end will be screwed into the B post where the striker normally goes. The other end of the angle iron brace will have another 1/4" x 2" x 3" flat stock piece welded to it, which in turn will be drilled and bolted to the hinge mounting holes on the A post.
Whew! It's good to finally be done with this thing! Now, to get the tub on it!
12/2/01 -- I fashioned the door braces today from 1/16th x 3/4" tube stock with the ends flattened down and drilled through. I'm not positive that this will be my permanent solution, but I think I'm on the right track. It connects to the top hinge bolt on the A panel and goes back to a threaded 3/8ths hole on the inside lip of the rear cowling, just above the B post. It's a nice straight shot. My only reservation is that the tube stock may not be strong enough, but I think that it probably is for the intended purpose. I've decided that if I need to make any changes, I'm simply going to by some solid round 3/4" steel stock and either cut out flat spots on both ends to drill the mounting holes or weld 1/4 thick strips about 2" long on each end to bolt through. That would definitely be strong enough.
I was originally going to build braces using tube stock with 5/8" nuts welded to each end and threaded 5/8" rods to create an adjustable support to go from the strike plate to a piece of angle iron bolted to the upper door hinge area, but thought better of it. For one thing, my door openings are perfect and don't need any correction. For another, I realized I'd need left hand threaded rods and left handed nuts to build the things and decided that this would be far too labor instensive. So I went the "keep it simple, stupid" route instead. Now, all I need are two more burly men besides Ken C. and I to get the tub off the chassis and onto the Spitfire spit.
12/5/01 -- In preparation of getting the tub on the stands this weekend, I attached the rear brace to the rear valance. The photo below shows you where the extensions bolt onto the floor of the trunk.
The rear brace, when fully assembled with the engine stand face plate attached, is pretty heavy and awkward to heft, so I placed a floor jack under one side while I bolted the other in place. I found it necessary to loosen the two bolts that attach the extensions to the lateral brace in order to line all the holes up in the trunk floor with the extensions underneath.
After checking to make sure everything was aligned, I tightened up the extensions first to the floor, then on the lateral brace. This thing is solid now. On Saturday, Ken, myself and a couple of other men will lift the tub off the chassis (already unbolted) and slide the rear engine plate into one stand. We'll probably rest the front end on sawhorses while I bolt on the front brace unless we have enough manpower to hold up the front end for a moment or two..
I've decided that to "lock" the wheels in place, I'm going to simply insert bolts through the holes that are already drilled through the metal swivel wheels that originally came with and remain on the stand. That should do the trick nicely. Another option would be to take two narrow steel rods and insert them through both sets of wheels in the front and back.
Late this afternoon, I had a "creative" idea. I've been trying to figure out who to call to have help me lift the tub off the chassis to affix to the engine stands. I even thought about purchasing a winch or something similar to affix to the roof rafters in my garage to do the whole thing myself. But the easiest method was to give my UPS driver (I have a regular account) and his Christmas assistant a few buck each to help me and my son heft the tub. Everything I've been told and read is true. Four men can easily lift and maneuver the tub.
The only thing left to do was drill two more holes in the lower brace that connects the stands together to create one, cohesive apparatus. But both my 3/8ths drill bits are shot, so I'll have to wait until tomorrow. I've also decided to modify my plans for that brace since I've discovered to my utter delight that the tub should in fact rotate a full 360 degrees once the lower brace (which is presently angle iron) bolted to the top of the stands (thereby sticking up a couple of inches) is replaced with square tube stock that will be bolted to welded on brackets at the foot of each engine stand. Or, I might simply cut the angle stock down to fit and use it in the lower position instead. Come to think of it, that should work just fine...
12/7/01 -- Well, I was mistaken. Full 360 rotation is not possible, but close to full 180 degree rotation in either direction is, and that's good enough for me. I ran into some problems after getting everything bolted down. Actually, everything was fine, but my range of tub rotation was limited significantly by the fact that the engine plate mount is tilted downward slightly.
I've had some unique problems in getting this stand to allow me to lay the car directly on it's side without the stand connection brace really wanting to flex if it could. What happens is that the stands want to pivot away from each other (one goes east and the other goes west) during it's rotation precicely because the engine face plates securing the rig are NOT perpendicular to the ground. The reason that this is a problem is becase when the stand position changes, some stability is compromised and the front wheels of the rear support can even lift off the ground when the car is tilted on it's side!
Another challenge I faced is that the lower support arms of the engine stands are also tilted at an angle. The outside wheels directly under the engine plates are taller than the inside ones (inside meaning under the center of the car).
That means, when I ran the angle iron across them both, once the bolts were tightened, the center set of wheels wanted to lift off the ground. Not good. I tried using washers as spacers to compensate for the unlevel surface of the support arms, but again not really good. Note the sloping lower extensions on the stands in the photo above and also how the yoke for the engine plates slope downward as well.
As an experiment, I tried placing a floor jack under middle of the brace to see if I could raise it high enough to make the engine plates perpendicular, which left the inside wheels dangling in the air by about six inches, but I was uncomfortable with this solution. I'm not sure if I'd be doing more damage than good by solving the problem with this method but I suppose it's still an option. I'd probably weld 1/4 plates to both ends of some square tube stock that's cut to the correct length to level the engine mounts as a way to create leg "extensions" for the wheels. That may not actually be a bad idea...
What I ended up doing for now was this: I cut the vertical rib of the angle iron at each end where it meets the end of each engine stand (about a foot overlaps the stand on the other side of the cut) and bent the angle iron to close the gap at the top of the cuts. I then welded these shut. This created a flat surface for each side of the angle iron to mate with the sloping engine stand lower support on each side, while keeping the wheels all on the ground. The double bolt prevents the front stand from pivoting at all.
I then created a long vertical slot on the other side of the angle iron where it mounts to the rear stand and used just one bolt that's not locked down terribly tight, which allows the stand to pivot in order to compensate for the lack of perpendicularity, thus allowing the tub to rest straight up and down.
Here's what the stand looks like in action and when stored between my SUV and Mrs. Jones.
I think I'm done. Whew! I've got a good, workable rotisserie now, but if I had to do it all again, I would have selected a different engine stand that had perpendicular engine plate mounts OR if that's not possible, I would saw off the tops at a slight angle that matches the current degree of slope, turn the tops around and weld them back on so the slopes would offset each other and the yokes would be level with the ground. That would save a lot of time later on. Of course, this requires a bit of welding practice and of course a welder.
Please. Always wear your seatbelt while driving -- and that goes double for your children if you have any.
Join the NEW
Classic '60's Triumph Spitfire Webring!
|
Would you like to join the ring? |
|||||
|
Previous-> |
Next-> |
||||
This