Roticerrie mounting help

[Hoffbug]

How much flex do you get when mounting a uni body chassis on a rotisserie? I have a Vega that is striped down.. The doors and hatch are still on it... Am I going to run into a sag issue when mounting this by the bumper mounts?

Never used one before.. Just looking for a little direction.

[Ron Ward]

Great question. Your best bet is before installing the shell on the rotisserie to brace the car from within.

[squirrel]

A vega is a unibody, and as long as you're not cutting out any of the floor, etc, it should not have any problems with flexing. A full frame car, if you take the body off the frame, might have issues.

[74NovaMan]

A vega is a unibody, and as long as you're not cutting out any of the floor, etc, it should not have any problems with flexing. A full frame car, if you take the body off the frame, might have issues.

X2

[Hoffbug]

Thanks.. There are a couple of small sections of the floor that need repair.... Its been suggested that I should weld the sub-frame connectors in first before it goes on the rotisserie .. Mainly to make sure the chassis isnt flexed when putting them in and also it should strengthen it a bit

[STINEY]

I'd want to weld in the subframe connectors with the car complete and sitting on the suspension.....in other words, with the total weight on it and the total weight seen by the suspension. Only then would I weld in the SFCs...

[squirrel]

I don't see it making much difference. Although it depends how you plan to put in the connectors, if you have to cut out much floor to do it, then it could cause things to move around. If the connectors are just going on the bottom of the floor, then it would make sense to do it on the rotisserie. Welding upside down is challenging.

[anotheridiot]

yeah, brace the hell out of it. bottom half is tight with the rocker panels, otherwise you just have the roof keeping the car together.

We just made a simple box brace on the camaro, went from the door hinge mounts, threaded a bolt to the striker, then ran cross angle iron joining both sides.

We did the rockers first, then the floor pan and it still moved.

[Thumpin455]

Something a frame car and a unibody have in common, the rockers and floor are the main support structure for both. If you are going to be cutting any of it out, it needs to be done in such a way that the body doesn't flex before or during it being welded back together. Convertibles need the bracing to keep them from folding up, its not a bad idea with a hardtop or post car, but if you will be cutting something big like a quarter panel or part of the roof, it should be done either sitting on the frame or supported so it doesn't move around.

I would do the connectors first, before you remove the suspension. Make the shell as light as possible before mounting it and it will go better. Things moved around on my 65 when I cut into the quarter panel, so I had to replace it with the body back on the frame. I did half the floor at a time making sure it was welded in good before doing the other side, and it still took some tweaking to get the doors to fit decent, but that car was severely rusted and that makes a difference.

[Hoffbug]

Thanks for the advice.. I got the subframe connectors welded in on Sunday.. If that with the doors and hatch closed and the Engine and transmission cross-members still installed isnt enough the thing is probably a POS and should be melted down ;-)

[mike343sharpstick]

On my unibody Javelin I didn't need to brace anything. I put the subframe connectors in up on the rotisserie, and notched them into the floor, I did one at a time, and tacked it in before starting on the next one.
I didn't need to do any floor work on my car, had I needed to do that I would have tacked in some braces. A striped small unibody chassis is remarkably light, so it doesn't pull itself out of shape.
I would love to know the weight of a Vega shell! I would think it's not much over a couple hundred pounds.