'Modifying' the Blue Sky Motorsports Rotisserie, My own rust chronicles continue! Options

[davebrossi]

Hello all!

The more I think about it, and the more I'm left to putter away in my garage, I'm starting to settle on the idea that, yes, I probably do need to pull the drive train on the clown car and mock up some form of rotisserie for the sake of decent conditions for my welder, and because It'd be cheaper than begging a local mechanic to pay for lift space!

With that in mind I've started researching (started, the top five google results don't count as a thorough search, I know) and I came across Blue Sky Motorsport's almost DIY two piece rotisserie setup. The one piece of the article of note however is the mounting points as they indicate their design was made for cars built to 1974. Mine is a 'conversion' 76, so I'm wondering if anyone's built one of these and can comment on what changes I'd have to make. Here's the link to the article;

https://blueskymotorsports.com/index.php?op...18&Itemid=6

Hurray! More learning! :-D

[bbrock]

I was going to mention this on your other thread, but my car will be coming off the rotisserie sometime within the next 9 months and you could have mine for cheap. Exactly when it comes off depends on the weather and whether I can get the underbelly painted this fall to turn the car into a roller over the winter. Sounds like you are eager to get started though but thought I'd throw it out there.

My rotisserie was based on the Blue Sky plans you are looking at. I don't know what would be different between early and late cars for mounts, but should be easy to adapt his design to any differences. I built the mounts and attached them to the front and rear of the chassis, and then welded the bar on so everything lined up.

A few notes on his design. He admits in the description it is over engineered. He specs uprights of 2"x4" tubing. I used 2-1/2" square tube which was much cheaper and PLENTY of strength. I used SAE hardware instead of metric because metric around here is 4X the cost with no benefit. IIRC he speced a pretty heavy tube to connect the two stands together (which isn't in his pics but you really need to do it for safety). That piece doesn't do anything other than keep the stands from spreading apart so can be fairly light. I saved quite a bit of $$ there. Lastly, I couldn't get the strong axle pipe he speced so used schedule 40 instead. It worked great for about a year, but Just as he predicted, they have deformed from using the 2-bolt brakes over time. They aren't a safety issue but have become kind of a PITA because the locking pressure changes as you rotate the car. Since you are just doing the floor, it probably won't be on the rotisserie long enough to be a problem, but thought I'd share my experience.

[davebrossi]

I was going to mention this on your other thread, but my car will be coming off the rotisserie sometime within the next 9 months and you could have mine for cheap. Exactly when it comes off depends on the weather and whether I can get the underbelly painted this fall to turn the car into a roller over the winter. Sounds like you are eager to get started though but thought I'd throw it out there.

My rotisserie was based on the Blue Sky plans you are looking at. I don't know what would be different between early and late cars for mounts, but should be easy to adapt his design to any differences. I built the mounts and attached them to the front and rear of the chassis, and then welded the bar on so everything lined up.

A few notes on his design. He admits in the description it is over engineered. He specs uprights of 2"x4" tubing. I used 2-1/2" square tube which was much cheaper and PLENTY of strength. I used SAE hardware instead of metric because metric around here is 4X the cost with no benefit. IIRC he speced a pretty heavy tube to connect the two stands together (which isn't in his pics but you really need to do it for safety). That piece doesn't do anything other than keep the stands from spreading apart so can be fairly light. I saved quite a bit of $$ there. Lastly, I couldn't get the strong axle pipe he speced so used schedule 40 instead. It worked great for about a year, but Just as he predicted, they have deformed from using the 2-bolt brakes over time. They aren't a safety issue but have become kind of a PITA because the locking pressure changes as you rotate the car. Since you are just doing the floor, it probably won't be on the rotisserie long enough to be a problem, but thought I'd share my experience.

I may take you up on that. My concern has gone from the floors to the state of the outer longitudinals. I have a steel strengthening kit from 914 Ltd welded in place to the outer long, but in removing protective undercoat from around the floor pans I noticed a couple spots of deep oxidation (like looking at layers of an onion) which I suspect when I get to the other side will be just as prevalent. While I wanted to skate by as easy as can be originally, I'm becoming wise to the fact that I can either do this half assed or go after whatever I see when I see it. There's emotional tie in to the car (Dad's last great project as a retired project engineer) that has me thinking I go the whole hog, and if there's rust, I fix it properly. Sure sounds nice on paper, probably a kidney or two in money. But I digress, I was planning on finding a machinist shop and seeing if they could interpret/build the plans. The Harbor Freight engine stand idea intrigues me a bit more though. Both'll require welding skill (I don't have it though I can solder!)