<VV> Home-built rotisserie

[Jim Simpson]

As Bob Hall mentioned, I did build a rotisserie when I restored my '66 
Corsa coupe.  This was an incredibly long running project that finally 
started making some progress when I got the car up on its side so I could 
work on the bottom without having all sorts of crud falling in my face.

My "design" was based upon the fact that the body was totally 
stripped.  The only thing left in the car was the headliner!  I made an 
estimate of the remaining weight of the car by lifting the ends.  With the 
car up on jackstands -- one pair behind the front wheel arches and the 
other pair in front of the rear wheel arches -- I found could lift either 
end of the car off the closest set of jackstands.  From that, and the fact 
that I'm not a weight lifter by any stretch of the imagination, I estimated 
that the body weighed in at about 800 lbs.

At 800 lbs or so, I decided I could build the rotisserie out of wood.  A 
single 4x4" post, about 4' high at each end is adequate to support the 
weight without any problem.  (Check a builder's handbook for compression 
strengths of wooden posts.)  The posts have to be well braced to handle 
side and end loads -- you don't want the whole thing collapsing because you 
nudged it in the wrong direction.  My design had each post triangulated 
with 2x4s side to side and to the end away from the car to give plenty of 
lateral stability.

I used 3/4 threaded rods as pivots near the top of the posts.  These rods 
(with nuts on the ends and stacked washers as spacers in between) connected 
to 2x10 boards that were bolted to the bumper mounts front and rear.  I 
reinforced the 10x2's with metal straps (just 1" x 1/8" flat steel stock 
from the hardware store) across the grain of the board both at the center 
near the pivot point and at the ends to ensure the boards didn't split 
along the grain.  At the bumper attach points, I carved wooden blocks to 
approximate the contours of the body to a) give enough space between the 
body and the board and b) to ensure a tight fit to the board.  I used the 
largest bolts I could find that would fit though the bumper mount holes, 
well backed up with washers to ensure the load was spread as much as possible.

And that was about it!  Basically at each end there was a stabilized wooden 
post with a heavy board on a pivot as a crossbeam.  The crossbeam bolts to 
the body bumper mount holes through a roughly contoured spacer.

If you decide to make something like this, keep these things in mind.

1)  Make sure the posts are high enough so that the body won't scrape the 
floor as it pivots over onto it's side.  You need to figure out what the 
diagonal distance from your pivot point is to the farthest point on the 
lower part of the body.  My posts were roughly 4' high.  You will have to 
lift the body a fair distance to get it high enough to clear -- probably 
higher than your jacks and most jackstands will allow.  You may have to do 
the lift in a couple of stages.  I think the body on my car was around 30" 
off the ground before the bumper holes would align with the crossbeams and 
I was sure there was enough clearance.

2)  Unless you go to extraordinary efforts, you will find the body is top 
heavy -- the "logical" pivot points are on the centerline between the 
bumper mount holes.  Don't worry too much about that -- it's less than 100 
lbs top heavy and not hard to handle, but make sure you have someone there 
to handle it and also something you can use to rest the edge of the roof 
gutter on to hold the car upright.  (I stacked some cinder blocks and 
scrape wood to get the right height.  And NO, I DO NOT USE CINDER BLOCKS AS 
SUBSTITUTE JACKSTANDS!!)

3)  I'm not sure a convertible has the strength to be supported from the 
ends, particularly if the doors are not on the car or opened.  Someone want 
to try it?

4)  Be careful opening the trunk when the car is on it's side.  Those 
springs are pretty stiff and designed to open the lid against gravity!  No 
gravity resistance when it's sideways!

5)  Don't get under it!  Even if it's stripped, it's still heavy.

6)  I am NOT providing detailed plans, engineering drawings, or even photos 
for doing this.  It worked for me, but if you chose to duplicate this, it's 
at your own risk!