Tigers List Archive

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Mail From: (email redacted)


When I had to do the underside of my Tiger, I built a rotisserie out of two
engine stands and $20 worth of scrap metal.

I'am not an engineer.

Tubing, angle, and square bar all welded together and slid into the jacking
points. Jacking points must be strong. All this attached to the engine stands
with grade 8 bolts, don' t use the bolts that came with the stand.

With this setup the car can't be turned competely over, because when its
turned the lower portion of the car touches the ground, so it won't get to
a complete 90 degree angle, maybe 80, which was good enought for me.

My undercoating was scraped off during the winter, using a 1200 watt hair
blower, putty knife and screw driver. Used paint thinner and a rag to clean
up what was left. The blower softened it up quite well and the putty knife
took it off easily. Lots of sq ft to cover with a putty knife, but at least
the
heat from the blower helped keep me warm.

My bodyman liked the stand so much he took it to his place when he took
my car. Its so much easier to do everything at chest level. Weld all the
lower sheet metal on while your standing up! No more stooping.

Now I've got to do my Alpine!

Jim

This read-only message was archived from a public mail list.
Mail From: (email redacted)

In a message dated 97-11-23 02:11:56 EST, you write:

<<
I gotta see this!! Do you have diagrams and such that you could sent out
over the internet or even include in a Tiger Tails bulletin??
>>
Allen,

I don't have any drawings and don't even have the pieces here to measure.
My friends using them now for his Alpine. He lives 100 miles away.
I'll ask him to take some dimensions.

I failed to mention that the cars center section has to be solid or the car
might sag. Mine was ok. Some people build braces and weld them inside
the car to keep it true while its on the stand.

Starting at the scrapyard I purchased about 8' of 3 x 2 steel tubing with a
1/4" wall thickness, 8' of 3 x 2 x 1/4 steel angle and 4 pieces of 3/4"
square bar about 18" long.

At the rear of the car I slid the sq bar into the jacking points until they
bottomed out, then backed them out about an inch. Didn't want them to get
jammed in.

Holding the tubing up to the sq bar so that it extended about 4" past each
one, marking it to cut the lenght and the location of the holes needed for
the bars to pass thru it.

Using a torch I cut the tubing to the proper lenght and burned the holes
needed for the sq bar.

With the sq bar still in the jacking points, I slid the bars into and thru
the
tubing. Positioning the tubing about 4" away from the car, I welded the bars
to the tubing, both holes front and back, keeping the tubing at a 90 degree
to the floor. Then cutting off any excess bar sticking out the back of the
tubing.

The assy can now be removed from the car.

The tubing and bar probably would be strong enough to hold the car, but
the tubing doesn't have enough surface area to attach the engine stand plate
properly. So untop of the tubing I welded the 3 x 2 angle bar.

Resting the assy on several cinderblocks with the sq bars pointing down,
I centered the engine stand plate onto the tubing and angle and marked
the best position to drill holes for the bolts. Using a hand drill and a good
bit I drilled 8 holes. On the tubing the holes have to go thru both walls.
Tough job to get them straight, I bent the bit. Would be easier to use a
drill press or have a shop drill them.

Attached everything with grade 8 bolts using several washers to take up the
extra lenght of the bolts.

The rear assy was done!

The front wasn't as easy. Started off the same way, I inserted the sq bar
into
the jacking points, but this time they didn't go in straight, but at an
inward
angle. Positioned the tubing in the same manner, I marked the cuts, burned
and welded.


Because of the inward angle of the jacking points the assy could not be
removed from the car! It would have made a much stronger replacement
for the bumper, but that not what I wanted. So I had to cut it in half.
To do this I used an air powered reciprocating saw with a good quaility
blade. Once it was removed I welded angle bar to each half and drilled
the holes.

It was finished.

The best engine stands to use are the ones that are at a 90 degree angle.
Some of them lean back a little which makes turning the car a little
harder.

One added safety feature I used was to take a lenght of top rail pipe from a
chainlink fence and slid it into the front leg of one stand and then into the

leg of the other one. Then drilling a hole all the way thru the leg and the
pipe and inserting a bolt as a pin. This ties the two stands together and
keeps them from collapsing. It also makes it possible to move the car
around on the stands if you have a smooth surface.

That about sums it up, if you have any questions just ask.

Jim