Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Hi all,

I was having some trouble glassing in my R/H lower door bobbin so I decided to make life easy. I can now single handed take the car body outside sand away, sandblast and generally do those messy jobs outside and all on my own. Not a new idea I know but very handy, cost was mostly one length of 50mm square tube and some wheels the rest was scrap and bits and pieces I had lying around.

Tony W

I guess every one has there own tricks to share with others. I use a moving dolly to get the bodyshell where I want it and then just lift it to the angle I want and prop a board in the recess for the seat slide. There is normally somewhere to tie a rope to to steady it so if it's windy it doesn't blow over.

Gary, OMG and GBY.
A glance at your picture and reading your movement methods.... you are the quintessential Elan owner.
We own a truly fluid marque, corners the best and and so lightweight you can roll it around your house for maintenance.
Ferrari and Porsche owners would crap their pants if they saw their car in that configuration.

Eric

You have to love gary's use of the 386 cpu boxes as body/chassis stands for the car restoration ! Now that's what I call sustainable living. Have you applied for carbon credits yet ?

Redundent at 48, I have learned through a great teacher how to make do. I expect some day I may have to retire the windows98 pc that I still use to keep in touch. It still allows me access to all the great friends I have made here.

Mike Ostrov has a nice rottiserie he uses for his Elites. I took some pictures. I have the original hidef camera files if these are not good enough. I thought I had some pictures of another approach, but can't find them.

By the way, Gary, Mike still uses a WebTV for his surfing. And I still have a WebPal, which was the second web browsing TV settop box made.

David
1968 36/7988

Hi David

That Elite must be 1510 that needs a half a ski, Mike sent me some info on it. looks like a good project for you. If you have other photo's send them along.

Gary

cabc26b wrote:You have to love gary's use of the 386 cpu boxes as body/chassis stands for the car restoration ! Now that's what I call sustainable living. Have you applied for carbon credits yet ?

To be honest, they are 1992 486 DECpc cases, not quite rugged but quite over built with 300w power supplies. All of it was dedicated stuff so the only upgrade was through Digital. Before I left there in 98 they had made upgrades to 200mhz pentium pro's and 300 mhz Alpha processors. We had both and I ended up buying a pair for $75 each. one has the Alpha board and the other has the Pentium Pro. right now they have a bit of ice on them, come spring I am going plug them in an see if they boot, I think it should at least run the bios...

There winter job is to holld up the ends of the bench

Gary,

Good idea, except I can't weld (in addition to all the other things I can't do!)

So, here is another take. It is on casters, so can be moved to the car or the car moved into the cage.

It is made from 2X4 and 4X4 (I would use all 4X4 except I am by myself and 2X4s are easier to handle, though hardly as rigid.). I mounted the casters to the bottom. Added the vertical posts and then top member and metal bracing. Drilled holes for top cross beams, lifted one and leaned it against the wall. Lifted the second one (somehow keeping it from falling over) and bolted in the top cross pieces. Then the bottom pieces. The center can be bolted at several locations depending on what I want to do.

To use, I unbolt the bottom cross beam at one end and either roll the cage over the car or push the car into the cage. Bolt up the bottom to give as much rigidity as possible.

If I wanted to, I could put a chain around the engine and winch the engine out and onto an engne stand.

In this case, I lifted the body off using rope through 4 eye bolts in convenient holes already in the body to the winch, and winched up.

Then, two ways to go.

Unbolt the bottom cross beam, roll the chassis out, roll in a dolly (I had two already for the body and chassis) and let the body down. Roll the body out, roll the chassis back in, bolt back up. Now, there is much improved access to remove the engine.

The other use is to bolt in the middle cross beam at whatever height I want, insert a T piece (made from 1X4 secured to a 1 3/4' fence post inserted in the cross beam) and let the body down. Holes drilled in the 1X4 match up to holes in the body and the body is bolted down.

The height of the cross beam determines the working height. Lowest is off the floor for easy working around the body. Middle allows the body to be rotated 90 deg for easy access to the under body and roof. Highest allows the body to be rotated upside down.

This works best in the open air or a commercial unit with 9+ ft ceilings. A regular garage would be more challenging.

Theoretically, I could enclose this with plastic sheeting and use it as an inexpensive paint booth. Or use this to minimize the dust generated when sanding.

Remember, I have no mechanical skills, but comments or suggestions are welcome.

David
1968 36/7988

Now my curiosity has been aroused. I didn't know what a rotisserie was before this. Here are some links to other rotisseries. Google "(car, auto) rotisserie" for more.

http://www.theroto2000.com/
http://www.britishv8.org/Articles/Auto- ... sserie.htm
http://www.project-cars.com/car_auto_rotisserie.php
http://www.prostreetcar.com/body_rotisserie.html
http://members.tripod.com/~mopar_roadst ... serie.html
http://www.mgexperience.net/article/rotator.html
http://www.sierrasolutions.biz/carotator.html
http://www.accessiblesystems.com/automotive.php
http://www.autotwirler.com/
http://www.1962to1965mopar.ornocar.com/ ... ydave.html

David
1968 36/7988