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Can anyone share best practices to using a rotisserie for blasting, repairs and painting? I have concerns about supporting the body well enough so it won't twist or sag when lifting it off the frame and handling it on a rotisserie. I was also wondering if you can transport the body when it was attached to a rotisserie.
Convertibles require extra bracing so they don't collapse while on a rotisserie . Hardtops and sedans do not , unless the floor or rocker panels are removed or rusted away .
The easiest way to remove the body from the frame is with a twin post hoist , just lift it under the rocker panels . Roll the chassis out from underneath .
Assemble the two end pieces of the rotisserie to the front and back of the body while it is still on the hoist .
Connect the rotisserie to the front and rear body mounting points .
Then connect the two halves of the rotisserie together underneath .
Most rotissiries are adjustable , so just keep raising each end of the body until you can flip the body over with one hand . This is the balance point .
You will love working with a rotisserie , It makes difficult or impossible jobs so much easier.
Like patching a hole in the bottom of a quarter panel ;
The picture was not upside down , the body was .
If you are going to transport a body while on rotisserie , hire a towing company with a 20 foot flat bed . And make sure everything is strapped down good .
Thanks for the info Charlie. I have read a few threads on this site on different types of Rotisseries but did not get the feeling any one was better than another. Do you have any preferences? Also, can most rotisseries fit in and out of a typical 8 ft garage door with a car mounted?
My body guy hauled my 70 W-30 hardtop body on the rotisserie to a place 60 miles away and back to be soda blasted. Didn't hurt a thing. My body was very solid with very little rust.
Rotissiries vary in price from less than $1000 to $2500. Get the best one with the most features you can afford .
You don't have to buy a new one however . The one I got was $550 and had only been used once to restore a Camaro .
I bought it off Craigslist from a guy who said he was never going to do another body-off resto again .
One important feature is the long threaded adjustment screw that allows you to shift the body up or down to find the "balance point " along the rotational axis.
It is circled in the photo below . Properly adjusted , you can spin the body over with one hand .
The hydraulic rams are also very handy to get the body high enough to clear the sides from the long bar at the bottom .
You shouldn't have any trouble getting it out an 8 foot high door . And if you do , it can always be lowered on the rotisserie until it clears the door .
Last edited by Charlie Jones; August 4th, 2019 at 09:57 AM.
Hauled mine 200 miles to the body shop with no issues. Left doors on and gaps were all good and no shifting. It is a solid body. I did put jack stands in several places as you can see to support the body in the middle which was probably overkill, but worth the effort to me. And all rotisserie’s are not created equal. You get what you pay for and can usually sell easily after using if your a one use person.
Going 200 miles to a body shop you trust and does top notch work is nothing. It’s such a big investment and will be there for months anyways. If you choose any kind of shop doing any of your critical restoration work based on the distance you have to go in my opinion you are using the wrong criteria to pick a shop. You can easily lose way more that the extra $50 in gas in poor quality work and redo’s
Originally Posted by 72Pumpkin
A more personal question, why did you have to go 200 milestone find a bodyshop you liked?
Last edited by Ap6954; August 17th, 2019 at 12:32 PM.
August 2nd, 2019, 07:43 PM
