rollover jig

[gluck]

Sensible to Cam advises i would prefer to have a rollover jig to roll the car. They are too expensive to buy and to reimport so i would be pleased to know if it's possible to do one myself.

Is it possible?
Someone did it?
How to do that? (plans, pictures... welcome!)

[rayofleamington]

Could you borrow one or hire one?

[bigginger]

SR built one quite recently - http://www.villagephotos.com/viewpubima ... &selected= - try PMing him and see if he has any plans/help

[lowedb]

Hi,

if you do a search on the subject Rolling a car to do welding, Ray of Leamington kindly posted some pictures of the one I made.

I don't have any measurements as I made it 'to fit' by measuring the car, but you can see the principal.

HTH

[Alec]

Hello Gluck,

the BMC (as was) rally boys used to roll works cars onto spare wheels, using brute force, i.e a few burly mechanics. ( Eric Carlsson was reported to have flipped his Saab by himself when stuck in mud and pushed it out on its roof!!)
You could use a similar principle and roll it onto an old mattress, with suitable precautions against fire when welding, e.g. cover the exposed area with a fire blanket.

Alec

[SR]

ello gluck,if u scroll thru the pages of the weblink andrew kindly provided, u will see the car on its side,this took me around 6-7 hours to make ,but some of that was trial and error as i had no dimensions, only a sketch, but quite easy to make really, for a few pounds,steve

[Chris Morley]

but quite easy to make really, for a few pounds,steve

Steve, if you can make rollers for a few pounds then you'll make a tidy profit by selling them to board members like me!

[SR]

ello chris ,all u need is two rims,4 ,50m lorry exhaust clamps and 3 lengths of scaffold from a builder type mate, minimal cost,steve

[gluck]

ok

So SR convicted me to make my roller. I've the rims it will be a good training (after a first one on old steel plates) before changing the legs!

SR,
Do you have yet the sketch and could you post it here?
Could you take a picture off the rollover?


Yest a last question. I understand how the rollover supports the bottom of the car but how is it done for the top?


Thanks a lot for the help!

[SR]

ello mate ,more pics on weblink, if u PM me your address ill send u a diagram,cheers steve

[Minor]

I was looking at a Practical Classics and noticed an advert. for a Roll over Jig. In fact they had a few different kinds including one that operates with an electric drill to raise the car.

CJ Autos
Mission Street, Haywood OL12 1HY
01706 367 649 / 07831 181 293
Fax 01706 620 082

http://www.cjautos.org.uk

I have no dealings with these people, But I thought this info may be of some use.
Cheers

[rayofleamington]

Yest a last question. I understand how the rollover supports the bottom of the car but how is it done for the top?

My roller (made by Grumpys) taked the car to approx 80° - This limits the stresses on the suspension compared to taking it to 90°

The centre of gravity of the minor is quite low, therefore the rolling frame needs to extend further than that so it won't tip over.

When doing structural work it is a good idea to support the car with additional jacks and props. You can use the roof gutter to fit jacks (using a few layers of inner tube to protect the paint) and there's lots of places on the underside for jacks.
Extra supports makes the car more stable, and also spreads the load so you are less likely to get the car twisted when you cut out serious parts like chassis legs or sills.

[SR]

yes ,im was surpried to see that rollers dont come with gutter support,i made one for my jig,see weblink

[britab1967]

SR

It's been ages since I got any work done on Molly abut with impending redundancy I'm hoping to spend December getting set into working on the nearside of Molly. I've got to replace full floor and sills plus inner wing etc on the nearside (already done this on offside). How much of this can be done on the rollover jig? It's b****y uncomforatble lying on the floor to do it.

Britab

[Cam]

I've got to replace full floor and sills plus inner wing etc on the nearside (already done this on offside). How much of this can be done on the rollover jig? It's b****y uncomforatble lying on the floor to do it.

Tell me about it. I've just done roughly that lot this week lying on my back. Not comfortable at all. Next 'project' will be on a roller!

[britab1967]

You've done all that in a weekend? Fancy doing mine!
I got it the wronga way round, I've done the NS, got the offside to do.

[Cam]

Nah, not a weekend, a week. Started pretty much last wednesday and apart from saturday worked until yesterday, so 6 days really. But I did have to replace the crossmember end and rear chassis rail & part of the boot floor too. On top of the sills, rear inner wing and floor repairs.

Fancy doing mine!

Not just at the moment thanks mate, I'm knackered!

[SR]

id weld as much new metal in as u can while the cars on its wheels,boxing plate ,floorpan,outer floor extention, do the underside of lapwelded floor when its on its side,if its a stripped shell ,it can be rolled easily with 3 people,cheers steve

[rayofleamington]

Hi Britab,
I passed through Rugely on Sunday (driving back from Lancashire to Chasetown) I was wondering if I'd pass some Minors there as it always seemed the kind of place to have one.

I've got to replace full floor and sills plus inner wing etc on the nearside (already done this on offside). How much of this can be done on the rollover jig? It's b****y uncomforatble lying on the floor to do it.

Whether it is on the wheels or on its side you need to be very carefull if you remove a lot in one go!! If the shell twists when the remaining strength is cut out, when you weld it up, nothing will fit properly ever again!
4 doors are very bad for that. Convertibles are a disaster waiting to happen and even 2 door saloons can go pear shaped.

Fortunately I could leave the B-post intact to the inner step and top of the boxing plate (and the doors in place to continually check alignment for peace of mind) when I did the 4 door.
I tried to do only a quarter at a time, so that the b-post would still have something firm at both ends. Having done floor pan, inner wings, A-post and C-post on the offside (and inner wings, A-post and C-post, floor pan repairs and chassis leg on the nearside) I'm fairly sure things are as straight as they were before I started.
When doin the chassis leg (with engine and box removed) I added some more supports for the shell. With the roller, the side-load is only on one side of the suspension, but I'm pretty sure the supporting leg pushes against the other via the front cross memeber (therfore with one leg removed, the weight of the shell will distort things a bit).

When removing a rear leaf spring with the car on the roller, you can tell that BOTH leaf springs are holding the side load - the axle moves firther sideways relative to the body just when you undo the shackle nuts...

hope the resto goes well - and I also hope you are too sensible to set unrealistic timescales!

[britab1967]

hope the resto goes well - and I also hope you are too sensible to set unrealistic timescales!

Yes I am. I know that I'm slower than most on this site, but it took me from April last year until probably July to get the front chassis leg, inner wheel arch, full sills, front & rear floor pan, spring hanger & re-build rear wheel arch; working weekends and occasional evenings.

I'm hoping to spend a couple of full weeks in December so we'll see how much I can get done then.

Thanks for all of your advice.