During my holidays (from work & house-based tasks) between Christmas & New Year, I've spent a few days in the garage trying to complete the rotisserie/spit for the shell. I dropped out the front & rear subframes and the remaining small items (master cylinders, seats, steering, fuel tank) and fabricated the brackets. With early Minis (I think pre-76?, including the first few years of the Clubman), there is the advantage of using the hole in the firewall & behind the rear seat and making a rotisserie is as easy as using a really long tube through the entire shell. However with later Minis, the hole has been blanked off so individual brackets at the front & rear have to be made.
The front bracket is made to mount to the 8 subframe bolt holes. The rear is made to mount to the shock absorber & rear parcel shelf seatbelt mounts. The end frames were fabricated months ago and the only change I made was to add a round tube to the top of them. I had no help available to lift the shell so I could insert the tubes into the end frames so I had to use my engine crane to lift the entire shell up and slide the end frames into place (The shell alone is still quite heavy!)
Next step is to weld some tabs onto one of the tubes and an end frame so I can use a bolt/locking pin to hold the shell in place to stop it spinning around when it being worked on but I wanted the shell on the rotisserie first to confirm levels & positions of the tabs. I'll probably have 8 holes/tabs so if can be locked into place every 45degrees.
The rotisserie will make it much easier to work on when stripping paint & underbody sealer, and also when it goes to the media blasters & panel beaters. It also stops me having to work under the shell which although I always take many safety precauations, it's not something I like to make a habit of ... just in case.
End Frames :
The top round tube is 1150mm above floor level. There is 1000mm clearance between the top tube and the bottom section of the frame. The shell requires ~900mm clearance to spin around 360degrees.
Front Bracket :
Rear Bracket :
The front bracket is made to mount to the 8 subframe bolt holes. The rear is made to mount to the shock absorber & rear parcel shelf seatbelt mounts. The end frames were fabricated months ago and the only change I made was to add a round tube to the top of them. I had no help available to lift the shell so I could insert the tubes into the end frames so I had to use my engine crane to lift the entire shell up and slide the end frames into place (The shell alone is still quite heavy!)
Next step is to weld some tabs onto one of the tubes and an end frame so I can use a bolt/locking pin to hold the shell in place to stop it spinning around when it being worked on but I wanted the shell on the rotisserie first to confirm levels & positions of the tabs. I'll probably have 8 holes/tabs so if can be locked into place every 45degrees.
The rotisserie will make it much easier to work on when stripping paint & underbody sealer, and also when it goes to the media blasters & panel beaters. It also stops me having to work under the shell which although I always take many safety precauations, it's not something I like to make a habit of ... just in case.
End Frames :
The top round tube is 1150mm above floor level. There is 1000mm clearance between the top tube and the bottom section of the frame. The shell requires ~900mm clearance to spin around 360degrees.
Front Bracket :
Rear Bracket :
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