Build A Rotisserie To Do Restoration Work On The Elan Body.

They Are Also Often Called Body Rotators.
But, whatever you prefer to call them, if you are considering a body off restoration, then building a rotisserie or rotator to work on the elan body is what the writer would call essential.

If the job of removing or stripping every trace of paint on the elan fibreglass body feels as though it will be a daunting task, then you better believe it, because it is.  Some people think they are doing it the right way and begin sanding with wet and dry paper to slowly sand the paint off, well slow is the word, because the job will take weeks or months of tedious work.

Chemical stripper can be used OK if one is very, very careful, you may be alarmed at reading this, but don’t be, chemical stripping can be done relatively quickly if you know how to go about it, but it’s really, really messy, the trick is to work on a small area at a time, then wash and rinse the stripper from the area on the body where the work has been carried out, fail to do this at your peril, as it will show up in the form of paint blisters when the primer & top coat paint is applied at a later date.

The quickest and most efficient way to remove all of the paint plus other crud and dags is to take the body for dry soda blast treatment, it is not cheap, but the job will generally be completed within one or two working days, the end result is a spotlessly clean fibreglass body shell returned back to the raw fibreglass state… and revealing every fracture, hair line crack, and any previous dodgy bog repairs, and that is what is required if a top notch fibreglass repair and paint job is the aim… It is essential to find the bad spots in the body.

The elan body mounted into the just built rotisserie – Making it simple and so easy to access every section and part of the bare elan body, including underneath, the sides,internal of every wheel arch, and also the top.

But after the body stripping job is complete, what then? If the idea of being able to access every nook and cranny of the elan body appeals to you, then what you should be doing is to construct a body rotisserie, this fantastic workshop tool or rig enables the body to be rotated and held at any angle from 0 Deg to 360 Deg and anything in between, and then firmly locked into any position so that all of the fibreglass repair work can be carried out in a simple, frustration free manner, and anyone who has used a rotisserie will back me up when I say that it is an essential tool for working on any fibreglass elan body shell.

Yes, the body can also be rolled over manually in the workshop with the help of a friend, (Been there done that, its a pain) it can be placed on wooden trestles right side up, or upside down, but every time a roll over or change of angle is required, it takes a lot of effort to achieve, but with a rotisserie, all that is required is to unlock the spring loaded locking pin on the multi holed plate and gently rotate the body to the desired angle with one hand, lock the index plate, so that the next job can be carried out.

And honestly, it is just so simple and easy to do, you’d be crazy if you didn’t build one, the rotisserie should also be designed so that removal or installation of the body can be achieved by yourself, just as the writer had to contend with.

The photos below will give you a bit of an overview of how handy the rotisserie is, and also how to go about building a rotisserie. There are no measurements or building methods explained, this is just a quick overview to understand what is involved.
Measurements and plans can be taken from the specs of the elan body and chassis.

Photo above, the elan body is tilted at 90deg to allow cutting and grinding work in order to remove the old original battery box protrusions at the rear (Behind the seats) of the body. To seal off the battery box area, some flat sheet tin was screwed to the body and two or three layups of Fibreglass strand mat was applied with the resin, the fix was simple and easy to do, and looks much neater.

Imagine trying to rebuild the rear edge return lip of the S2 elan cockpit with the body in the normal upright position, that would be a difficult job at the best of times, but with the rotisserie, it is a breeze to do, just roll the body so that the lip is flat, and away you go.

The image above illustrates a length of PVC pipe applied as a former to create recess clearance for the suspension arms to aid installation and removal when the body is on the chassis.

Below is the drilled index plate head and spring loaded locking pin device. The index plate below can be made any Dia, and have any number of drilled holes, but the more holes there are, the more precise will be the angles at which the body can be held at, so don’t limit yourself to just a few holes around the compass.

The front end of the rig, this arm is bolted to the upper tower body mount pads, and the lower mount pads near the steering rack, the fork has to be fabricated with the parts bolted up in the engine bay, and consists of two parts, which means the body has to be off the chassis to allow that.

Brackets and other things are bolted and fixed then tack welded before removing again to do the final welding on the bench, you need to be careful when working and welding around the fibreglass body. As you may notice the wiring loom had not been fully removed at this stage, but it was not very long before it was, make sure to strip the body bare, then you don have to worry about damaging anything.

The complete rig before having the elan body fitted to it, the rig on it’s own is very loose and not so rigid, but once the elan body is securely bolted into the frame, the complete rig is very strong and easy to move around, and makes the work so easy, the swivel wheels have locks so that the rig wont move around while work, such as sanding, etc, is being carried out.

The rear section of the rig, note the brackets on the long square tube, the brackets mate up with the rear most chassis mounting holes as well as the next set of chassis mounting holes, the square tube in this case was 40X40mm, but 50X50 would be much stronger, but there is no need to use heavier tubing.

Engine bay support frame or fork.

Picture above illustrates how the engine bay fork is attached, just four mounting points, and they join where the fork and the extended bar out through the mouth of the body are joined, the split is required so that the body can be installed on the rotisserie, be very careful not to damage the F/Glass body when inserting the steel bits.

This is the first photo of the rig being bolted to the body, the body is raised off the floor dolly with a chain block or hoist, the long tube with brackets is then attached to the body, next the triangle shaped end frame is offered up to the large swivel pin, push the pin into the bush, these parts were machined on the lathe.

It is important to be able to dismantle all of the parts, as it helps during the assembly, and also when you need to remove the rig from the body, especially when you are working alone in the workshop. Everything described and shown here can be assembled and disassembled by one man.

Now the index plate has been assembled onto the head, the index plate has a boss welded to the plate which slips over the swivel, a 5/16″ hole is drilled through both parts and held with a 5/16″ HT engine bolt. The index plate locking pin assembly was fabricated from various parts found under the work bench, the return spring on the lock pin is a twin cam lotus outer valve spring held with some old machined steel spring seats. Once the rig has been assembled, some fettling and settling in of some of the parts may be required, one part that will require attention is the mating of the locking pin to the index plate, it may be found that some of the holes do not line up correctly, a simple remedy is to drill the holes to a slightly larger size, or to ream out some holes with a round file or die grinder.

Please take time to watch the videos below to help to understand more about the construction of the rotisserie. Th run time of each video is about five minutes.
Part:1.
https://elantrikbits.com/lotus-elan-blog/wp-video-streamer/i/vi9b4aaa2096ec0.mp4
Part:2.
https://elantrikbits.com/lotus-elan-blog/wp-video-streamer/i/viaf00e0a763bd0.mp4
Part:3.
https://elantrikbits.com/lotus-elan-blog/wp-video-streamer/i/vi20069aa2ddc6a.mp4
Part:4.
https://elantrikbits.com/lotus-elan-blog/wp-video-streamer/i/viac1b0b0a1b6b0.mp4

Please Note:
If you would like a document which provides the measurement and specs of the Rotisserie, please contact us through the contact form with your details and we will email it to you.
The rotisserie above did not cost very much to build simply because it was made mostly from scrap found around the workshop, and the existing engine stand was used to hold one end of the rig. The total cost was less than AU$100.00 in 2011.

Some people will attempt to employ the elan chassis to mount the body in the rotisserie, but think about that before you do, because the chassis will limit access to several area’s of the body, and you absolutely need clear and unfettered access to all sections of the body (Top & Underneath) if you want to achieve a professional standard of restoration on the elan body.

I would encourage you to build the rig, the one shown here took about a week to build, and the writer can honestly say that several weeks of time were saved simply through the use of the body rotator.

Having completed a elan body restoration the old way without a rotator, and one with the rotator, the latter absolutely wins hands down.