Chassis roller, bar materials?

[DavidS16]

Have rusty car, have welder. Buy chassis roller!

Bought this wee beasty at the weekend, with a view to sorting out my little AX. Couldnt say no as it was an absolute steal. The plan is to strip it down and totally gut the shell of any rust - I blame some of the project threads on here for firing me up and believing I have more skill than I do - so this will be invaluable.

However, although the main roller and all its bits are present, the actual bars to connect to the car are car-specific so Ill need to make some up. From having looked at pics of others online, theyre generally just box section with bits.

Stupid, and pretty ambiguous, question but what spec of box section should be ok for supporting a bare shell?

Its a CJAutos NBN chassis roller.

I should add that the wet weight of the car is about 720kg so a bare shell is going to weigh next to nothing!

 

[Burdekin]

To know this you'd need a drawing to calculate. What I would say is the main strength in box section is from the size of the box rather than the thickness of the sides so if you know the size normally used then just go for a standard wall thickness. If unsure go up a size rather than a thicker wall if you can.

 

[addjunkie]

Id use the same wall thickness as the rest of the roller. At a guess probably 3mm. As for size look at pictures of the set up in use, you should be able to gauge to size. Looks about 40x40 to me form pictures

 

[Chris Stevens]

Cheap ERW 50x50 box would work fine, but I think you need to look very carefully at where to bolt to which is going to be substantial enough to take the weight of the shell when its revolved?

 

[DavidS16]

Thanks all.

Cheap ERW 50x50 box would work fine, but I think you need to look very carefully at where to bolt to which is going to be substantial enough to take the weight of the shell when its revolved?

Having had a look at people bolting up 106 chassis (very very similar shell) onto other home made rollers, it seems welding plates onto the front where the chassis legs are is fine. Basically rotating a fag packet given the weight of it!

Working out the centre of gravity? Thats a different matter :-s

 

[Wallace]

Might be worth contacting CJ Autos and asking if they can supply instructions if you don't have them. Underneath the plastic bumper is usually a steel bolt on bumper or crash bar bolted to the chassis, with that removed the fabricated mounting bar can be bolted on there. The mounts need to be at the same height front and rear and central so the pivot points are inline to allow the car to roll freely. The centre of gravity will be trial and error by adjusting the pivot height.

 

[gaz_moose]

just make 'forks' that slot inside the chassis rails.
if your rotisserie is wider than your car make them much longer than needed that way you can slide the shell back and fourth inside it to gain more clearance when working on the back/front.