As pictured the center of gravity is great for a coupe. For a convertible the center of gravity is 1" lower, so there are notes on the pictures on which arms need to be altered. If you don't shorten the arms for a convertible you need to add 75+ lbs. to the top of the windshield frame in order for the convertible to be weighted correctly. That may be too much weight for the windshield frame to bear over a long period of time. Besides you probably will just be assembling a rotator for either or, not both.
These are my original pictures and I have welded some nuts for flat strap attaching points. The straps are added for lateral end-to-end stabilization during board sanding. If you do not stabilize this rotisserie somehow, you will get nasty end-to-end swaying during lengthwise board sanding. This is probably true with other folk’s design also. With straps installed you cannot rotate the body, period.
Base stands with connecting rod dimension: http://www.surfari.net/~scottmoo/roto.jpg
Front mounting bracket: http://www.surfari.net/~scottmoo/frontfront1 .jpg
Rear mounting bracket (2 pictures). Don’t forget to weld the nuts on the angle iron brackets before the angle iron is welded to the tubing!!!: http://www.surfari.net/~scottmoo/rearframe1.jpg
http://www.surfari.net/~scottmoo/rearframe2.jpg
Two #7620 Harbor Freight hoists were used. This lettered picture shows the origin of the square tubing parts:
http://www.surfari.net/~scottmoo/hist7620.jpg
Additionally, 5" of 1" steel pipe, 18" of 2 1/2" I.D. steel pipe, 24" of 2" I.D. pipe, 14" of 2"x2" angle iron, SAE treaded 1/2" nuts and bolts, a couple 5/8" bolts with washers for the front mounting to the cage nuts. And, I used 5" casters instead of the casters that were supplied with the hoists.
All of the hoist square tubing and steel pipe has nearly an 1/8" wall thickness.
Here again was a picture of the leftover hoist kit stuff:
http://www.surfari.net/~scottmoo/xtrapart.jpg
Due to the sail panels on coupes, it is necessary to raise the body approximately 3" higher than on a convertible to clear the center connecting rod. There is no way around this on this design. So, on a coupe there will be from 8" to 9" of vertical post overlap, where a convertible with have close to 12" of vertical post overlap.
I will be back from time to time to add to this post as questions and time arise.
It took me 3 weekends to fabricate it with some trial and error. I'm thinking you could do it in two weekends since I've supplied dimensions.
You will definitely burn the paint off the square tubing with a heat setting of "C" or "D" on a 110volt Lincoln Mig welder with .035 wire. You could use a scotchbrite pad on a roloc wheel to sand off the paint, but I just used my electric grinder with a coarse abrasive wheel to prep the area. You need to sand off at least 1/2" worth of paint next to each weld, then sand off the rest of the burnt paint later.
Unfortunately, the telescoping vertical tubing in these kits fit very sloppy. As stating in these previous two posts, I needed to strike welding beads the entire length of the inner post.
Here are the two other posts that I started this whole project with back in May of 2002.
http://www.camaros.net/forum/Forum3/HTML/002 845.ht... http://www.camaros.net/forum/Forum3/HTML/003 947.ht...
Well, I'm done with all my patch panels on the convertible, and I have about 6 weekends of firewall and underside painting before I can finally put this rotisserie in storage.
Later dudes!
Coupe on rotisserie http://www.surfari.net/~scottmoo/coupe.jpg http://www.surfari.net/~scottmoo/coupeups.jpg http://www.surfari.net/~scottmoo/coupside.jpg http://www.surfari.net/~scottmoo/coupside2.jpg
Convertible on rotisserie, HOWEVER RECOMMENDED ARM SHORTING IS NOT SHOW IN THESE PICTURES: http://www.surfari.net/~scottmoo/convdiag.jpg http://www.surfari.net/~scottmoo/conv90deg.jpg
[This message has been edited by bonecrusher67conv (edited 02-03-2003).]
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