1974 Toyota Celica Gen 1 'TA22'

Hi Peter

Good to see you on here - welcome.

Thanks for the info. All valid points and I've been very conscious of the stress factors throughout, in fact it's why I've changed my original design approach which was to use the bolts that came with the rotisserie (see below) to the brackets that I'm now making.

I've spoken to several restorers of these cars who have them on rotisseries and they've all said to go down the route I am with regards to fixings. I've even copied the design of the brackets most commonly used to mirror attachment heights, as to go on to the chassis puts you at very different heights from the front compared to the rear.




With regards to the rotisserie itself, I'm not making one, just the brackets. It's a multi-adjustable bit of kit that can be easily levelled in terms of settings so should be more than good enough for what I need when lifting the shell


Would be interested to see your design if you have any pictures?

If there is enough experience with it then it will work but take care that you do not lift 1 side too much at a time as there is no pivot point

TBH - Never had a problem with mine - then again mines on tubular horizontal mounting shafts  



Providing the vehicle that you on there carries structural integrity you should be fine 

 

Obviously if its a convertible or you are chopping structural sections out the vehicle then it needs to be adequately braced 

Or an old mattress

Good you never faced any problems but is one rotator sits 15cm higher then the other side, either the rotator or the body has to flex to compensate this 15cm and if the brackets are very stiff, the body has to take this flex which it may but i have no knowlegde about that. I copied the rotator Chris has and i also use it when assembling the car when axle, suspension and lots more is fitted to a painted body so then the weight will be much more.
The solution i made includes a pivot point and this is also very handy if you want to remove the rotator from the body if the rotator is in the way. Just one M6 bolt is removed and you just take out the round bar and you can remove the rotator



you can see the construction on the picture above. There is also some clearance between the solid bar and the pices of pipe which can be usefull to reduce stress when the body is rotated 90 deg. You may recognize the body as this is my mgb V8 roadster conversion

Hmm I 'think' I understand what you are getting at, from what I can see though everything appears to be welded together so where is the flex/hinge point? Might just be the way I'm looking at the picture so will have a ponder over a beer later while staring at the set up I have .

The only advantage I have I guess is that I'm only going to have the shell rotating, nothing attached so it is pretty light.

ETA. I can see your car was a R/B Roadster to start with so in addition to the above, it might provide some useful reference points for a certain other project in progress at the current time.

Sam, its the 20mm unpainted grey round steel rod that runs from left to right. You mention that the weight is not much which is true but you are facing a load moment which is weight X arm and a empty body which a arm of 2 or 2,5 m causes a fair bit of load. Imagine it the same as holding a piece of wood with 2m length with on the other end a weight of 10kg. Its not easy to hold that and that is a loadmoment.
In general nothing will happen if the rotation points on both sides are at the same height and well aligned but this is difficult to achive. I am pretty sure with your current set up, you will notice a stiff point when rotating. The height of the stress in the construction is difficult to estimate and it could lead to welds cracking.
As you say there are lots of people who did it the way you did and it could all go well. I have a bachelor in mechanical engineering and was involved in stress calculating in heavy lifting equipment so i may be a bit overcautious. The construction i made is not that much extra work and a very big advantage is that with loosening 1 bolt, you can remove the rotator which prooved very handy.
Another remark: it looks like you are welding nuts on the square tube which clamp onto the square tube of the rotator. I am not sure if i like that construction as the wall thickness of the square tube is small so the clamping pressure is a bit uncertain. A solution is to fill the space between the bracket and the vertical post on both sides with another piece of square tube. You do not need to fasten it, just put it there and the brackets cannot go anywhere if the clamping force is gone. In mechanical engineering, it is prefered to have form closed construction instead of clamping constructions.

Again, i may be a bit overcautious and well proven practice often wins it from mechanical theory but adding that pieces of square tube is easy and gives a fair bit of assurance

If 2 people at the same time lift or lower the rotator, then there is no problem, but if i would call in my wife everytime i needed to lift or lower the rotator, i quess, i would not be married to here anymore but i believe your wife has an interest in classic car too so that is solved then.

if you drill a hole in the rotator bar that is oke too. What i suggested was to put a piece of square tube on both sides where the red area is in the picture

I'm late to the discussion but fascinated! Some questions :-

How does the hinge thingy work? I can't visualise it, sorry if being dim

As long as the pivot centres are in line vertically & horizontally isn't everything fine? Might need a counterbalance but should turn without imparting stresses?

If the shell were being stressed wouldn't it be stiff to turn?

Thanks in advance!

Matt