Wooden Rotisserie for a Festiva

[Doug Brown]

There was a post a few months back about a making a "rotisserie" out of wood for rolling a Festiva onto it's side so you could work on the bottom of the car.

I can't find it - does anyone know where it is or have a link to it???

Many thanks for the help!

[william]

Redneck rotisserie

https://youtu.be/BiofyZFrdIk

If you Google wooden rotisserie there's lots of info on them.

[Doug Brown]

Thanks William! Pictures and videos and all the info I'll need to make one.

Regards, and again, thanks!

[Doug Brown]

OK, so after making a trip to Lowes for wood and bolts - approximate total cost of $100 - I started in.

Biggest 2 decisions were how to attach the wood to the car and the radius the "roller" should be.

Since my car (RED) is currently a bare chassis, I was able to use a lot of existing holes (mainly ones for the bumpers) to attach the "roller" to the car. I used 3/8" bolts since they would fit the holes. I only had to drill 3 new holes, and this was on the lower radiator cross member.

I ended up making the radius on the "roller" 25-inches since that was more or less the height of the car on the jackstands and the size of the piece of plywood I was using. Each roller is made up of 3 pieces of 1/2" cheapo plywood that were screwed together then bolted & screwed onto the 2" x 6" frame pieces. The piece of 2 x 6 that I cut off to match the radius of the roller I was able to use as a "chock" to keep the rotisserie in place when the car is on it's side.

It took 2-days to build, and this was NOT working flat out or with any additional help - did it all myself.

Even though the car is totally stripped, it is still fairly heavy, so the initial rolling takes some muscle. Once it is partially rolled over, it gets easier.

Since it is wood, you only need a saber saw, drill motor and a mini-grinder with a sanding disc to smooth things out.

While it might not look like much, it is cheap, easy to make and lets you easily work on the bottom of the car

[Doug Brown]

I'm having problems loading the 3 additional photos of the completed rotisserie - have asked for help from site moderator. As soon as I can, I'll upload the other pictures.

If you can't wait, send me a PM with your e-mail address and I'll send the pictures off to you.

The picture in the thread is VERY early in construction - the others show the finished product and the car on it's side - proof that it works!

[william]

Hey your welcome for the info.
These are a must up here in the rust belt.
Luckily I have one here at work I can use if I needed. (I do body work) it's a bit more "high tec" then the wood version it has hydraulic jacks and casters.
What are you doing to the underside of your car?

[Doug Brown]

Hi William -

I have one spot (1.5" diameter) of rust on the left rocker to fix and one small area (1/2" x 2") by the drivers side lower sil that needs a patch. The rest of the underbody looks good, just some surface rust here and there that I am going to treat and repaint. I wanted to look at the brake and fuel lines too, and it is MUCH easier doing it with the car on it's side!

I did look at the commercial metal units but for a one time use sort of deal the price was way too high. So far, it looks like the $100 wooden one will do everything that I need to do.

Again, thanks for info - it really made it easy to make once I saw the pictures!