Body Rotisserie

I hate working on creeper. Never have the right tool, can’t get the light in the right location, s**t fall in your face, never enough room, stiff neck, welding over head. Enough is enough. Solve these problems by building your self a body rotisserie. With the addition of attachments for you specific body you can spin just about any car body. Note that the material specified in these plans are sized to handle a car frame and stripped body, not a bus or a dump truck. To handle heavier loads, the materials and construction should be altered accordingly. With a little more room than just your bodies length you gain access to any part on the body, in the location you want it. The payoff is not only in convenience but in time, quality and your own physical comfort. I constructed my rotisserie using the plans below in about 20 hours of fabrication time and $76.00 in tube, $8.00 in cutoff wheels, $5.00 in misc. steel and one 4 lbs. spool of .035 mig wire. It pretty simple, so don’t let it scare you off. Once I mounted my 1973 Charger SE body in the rotisserie and got it centered I can rotate it 360 degrees by my self, no problem.
Boy do I hate over head welding.

     MATERIALS:
  27 feet of 2 1/2-inch square steel tube with 0.188-inch wall
  38 feet of 2-inch square 11-gauge steel tube
(must fit inside 2 1/2-inch tube)
  2 feet of 3 1/2-inch round steel tube with 3/16-inch wall
  2 feet of 3-inch round steel tube with 3/16-inch wall
(must fit inside 3 1/2-inch tube)
  2 feet of 5/8-inch threaded rod
  two 5/8-inch hex nuts with flat washers
  ten 3/8-inch hex nuts, each with a 3-inch cap screw and two flat washers
  six 5/16-inch hex nuts with 1-inch cap screws
  Scrap steel plate or 1-inch square tube for braces
  Optional: four casters with 10-inch wheels (two swivel-type, two fixed)
     TOOLS:
  Chop saw or cut-off wheel
  Hammer and Center punch
  Drill press with vice (necessary to make consistent, true holes)
  29/64 and 5/8-inch drill bits, plus a chamfer or deburring bit
  Welder
  Grinder and files, to deburr cut steel
  Carpenter's square
  Metal Scribe
  Hand Wrenches
  Vice-Grips for welding

 

#

Description

Qty.

Length

Drill Size

Hole Placement

     2 INCH O.D. SQUARE TUBE STOCK:
1 Upright 2 60 in.

29/64 in.

Start 6 in. from end, 18 holes at 3 in. o.c.
2 Rotating Arm 2 48 in.

29/64 in.
5/8 in.

Start 2 in. from end, six holes at 2 in. o.c.
24 in. from end (centered)
3 Base Connector 2 12 in.

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4 Bracket Adjusting Arm 4 11 in.

29/64 in.

Start 2 in. from end, four holes at 2 in. o.c.
5 Bracket Attaching arm 4 11 in.

29/64 in.

2 in. from end, both ways through tube
6 Main Center Connector 1 84 in.

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     2 1/2 INCH O.D. SQUARE TUBE STOCK:
7 Base 2

48 in.

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8 Pivot-arm Slide 4 6 in. 29/64 in. 1 1/2 in. from end
9 Bracket Holder 4 3 in. 29/64 in. 1 1/2 in. from end
10 Pivot Height Adjuster 2 12 in. 29/64 in.
5/8 in.
2 in. from one end
6 in. from end, through top of tube only
11 Center Span Adjuster 2 72 in. 29/64 in. 2 in. from each end, through one side only
     ROUND TUBE STOCK:
12 Rotor (3 1/2-in. o.d.) 2

8 in.

29/64 in.

2 in. from end, through top of tube only
13 Pivot axle (3-in. o.d.) 2

8 in.

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     5/8 INCH THREADED ROD:

14

Pivot Connector

2

11 in.

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Pictures of my Charger in Rotisserie


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