IIRC weight of a bare 70B body is somewhere in the 1000-1200lb range...? If so, 300-400lb capacity casters should work ok. Ideally I'd like to use pneumatic casters - anyone been down this road, what casters did you use?

Hey - I build (and sell) rotisseries (US Car Tool) and use the 8" polyurethane casters on almost everything in my shop. The pnuematics never seem to last long for me, I even talk customers out of them, unless you are taking the car onto the beach, the 8" solids work great.

I'll have a rotisserie with a 70 Challenger Body in White car at the nats - stop by and you can take it for a walk.

John P.
Nats - sharing space with Marsh Performance spaces C-10, C-11 and C-12 manufacturers midway.

I agree use the solid 8" wheels...Pneumatics seem to roll under when you try turning even though they are rated for the weight & are fully inflated...

Will these polyurethane casters work ok across a gravel driveway?

If they don't you can always lay down some plywood sheets and roll over that instead.

70runner,

I used some scaffolding casters for the rotisserie that I made. Those allowed me to not only lock the wheels from turning but I could also lock the direction of the wheel. That was really nice when I needed to move it around by myself. My garage door was a bit low so I made the ends to allow for the larger diameter wheel but still keep the rig lower to the ground for better overhead clearance.

Picture #2

Last one...

I can attest to Jim's wheel choice. His rotisserie was such a pleasure to use (Jim built it) and manuever, that I ended up with it and it now sits in my garage at home. I've made a few design changes to suit my garage dimensions and lift clearance, but the wheels stayed.
However, the rotisseries we have at work utilize inflated tires and when outside and loaded they roll very well across grass, gravel, etc. No flats in five years, either.


Steve
www.clarkclassic.com

Thanks for the nice words Steve, I'm glad it is getting use now since more than likely it would have been disassembled and not used again for a long time. I think that there are plenty of options as far as wheels go. If you have nothing but gravel to deal with most of the time then go with a pneumatic tire, and if like my case, it was nothing but concrete then go with a hard wheel, not a solid steel wheel but something with a rubber, nylon, or poly material for better rolling resistance. Just do not use a wheel with a small diameter, they will catch on the smallest crack or pebble and stop the rig. Bigger is better... One other mod I made was to weld a small length of chain to ground the car during painting.

Good Luck!

Jim
68 Hemi Road Runner

68jim - slightly off topic, but in your second picture your rotisserie seems to have a mid-support?

Good eye Larry... I did make a center support using some scrap steel and a scissor jack. I travel quite a bit with my work and I was worried about any body sagging issues from sitting on the rotisserie for extended periods. It was probably overkill on my part but the car sat on the rig for almost five years before it came off and finally went to the body shop. It was a rust free car but I had race car modifications to correct. The big ones being the mini-tubs that were installed for slick clearance. It was typical over those years that the work would be idle for months at a time. Once at the body shop they moved it around too much to need the brace and they were done with the body in six months or so.

http://www.clarkclassic.com/mygallery/index.asp?CatID=31

Jim
68 Hemi Road Runner

Jim,

I too have a car to correct the race mods on. Were the flanges of your rear frame rails cut back flush to the rail side on the wheel well area? If so how did they fix it, and do you have any pictures of that area? Also what other corrections did you have to make? Mine is also missing the front splash apron/sheild cut out for headers..

I also need a caster roller frame setup....
Any feedback appreciated.....

Thanks,
Ed b

I have plenty of pictures but most were before I started using the digital camera. My mini-tubs were flush to the frame rails, meaning I lost the flange where the floor is spot welded to the frame. I also lost two of the seat belt achors and that is pretty much what made me do the fix back to stock. I decided to restore one side at a time to minimize any potential flexing of the body, although I really don't think there is a chance that this would happen as the car is really solid. I located a 1968 4dr Satellite donor car and cut out the entire axle tunnel area. Starting on my car, I cut the left inner wheel well section up to the middle of the frame rail. With the donor metal I trimmed down the tunnel to two workable inner wheel well sections. Starting with the left side I separated the frame rail from the sheet metal using a spot weld cutter, then trimmed the outside section of the scrap frame rail to fit the damaged area on my car and tacked it in place. I made one cut through both layers of metal so that the replacement section would fit perfectly to the frame rail on the car. I cut the tack welds and cleaned up the new piece for welding. I cut the existing sheet metal spot welds on the inner section of frame rail while I had easy access, then I fit the frame rail section and welded it in place. I trimmed the trunk floor area so that it was halfway across the frame rail inner flange, drilled a couple spot welds from the package tray gusset to the inner wheel well section. I made a tighter cut to better fit the replacement section but found out that the new section would not fit due to other interference. I drilled the spotwelds and separated the replacement section into two pieces, the inner fenderwell and the trunk floor pan. Next was to tack the inner wheel well in place and cut the two layers together to make for a perfect fit. I fit the trunk floor pan over the old metal and tacked it into place and again cut the two layers together for a better fit. Once that was done then the pieces were blasted and the area to weld on the car was blasted too. The trunk floor pan section was then welded in place and the welds were ground and sanded down. The inner fenderwell section was then welded on the inside only with good penetration, the outside, which will be visible when the trunk is open, was later sanded down and a light coat of filler used to hide the repair. The last thing to weld was the bracket for the trunk lid support bars, those lined up perfectly. Then I did the same process for the other side. Sorry to get a bit winded on this but the total repair time for me working in my garage was about 120 hours of a 4 month period working nights and weekends. I never would want to do this same kind of job with having the rotisserie...

Jim
68 Hemi Road Runner

Hope these help...

FWIW, I worked behind Jim (at the shop) in finishing off those areas and the way he did it was almost impossible to detect. He did an outstanding job on it. I think Jim and I even discussed that where the original and replacement frame sections joined, the stress lines/waves in the rails aligned exactly, as if the rails were stamped out by the same machines!
If you can duplicate what Jim did, no one will know it was ever repaired.


Steve
www.clarkclassic.com

Jim & Steve,
THANK YOU for taking the time to describe the fix. With mine a body guy (member here now) tried to fix it "right" back in the early 90's. He sectioned the rails out of a rust free Sat. , forward of the axle. He actually just gave me a few pictures showing the surgery a few months ago (longer story). The pieces he replaced were the front section of the rails on both sides up to a bit past the seat belt bolt bracket. The flange is missing from the upper flat section just past the radius, all the way to the rear of the old tub. Similar to yours.
It's not to pretty, but solid none the less. I will have to evaluate cost and fix options. Just not sure how far to go. Sure would like it to look as clean as yours when done. That will take some doing.
I will post some pictures down the road and let you know where they are. Might give you a buzz when I get ready....

Thanks again. I see there are a few out there with the same old days hacking to fix.

Ed

Ed,

Since we are showing some old school pictures from back in the day... How's this one...

Looks sweet!

I got a bunch but they need to be resized. Found the original owner this past xmas!

These kind cars are a different breed of "Survivor"

Ed,
My runner is looking very different these days. Check out some of the trunk and wheelwell pictures from the resto shop. Steve did a sweet job making it all pretty after my mini-tub reversal.

http://www.clarkclassic.com/mygallery/index.asp?CatID=31

Jim
68 Hemi Road Runner