I am getting ready to put my 61 Rampside on a rotisserie. I wonder if anyone here has photos of one mounted up on the rotisserie. Also;
- I assume I should take as much weight off the body as possible(?)
- SHould I leave the ramp on to keep that opening square?
- I've read that mounting the rotisserie to the bumper mounting points is appropriate. I've also read/heard that when mounting a car to a rotisserie, you mount the front brackets to the front suspension mounting. I'd like to hear from someone who has done this.
- Do I need to take the back window out?

Drive train is now out, windshield is out, going to drop the rear and front suspension over the next couple of weeks, gas tank and doors will come off. That seems like it(?)

Thanks for any comments/discussion.

Enjoy the Corvair!

Paul Sergeant
CORSA Central Division Director / CORSA Treasurer
Lee's Summit, MO
CORSA since 1975
Member – HACOA, Corvair Minnesota, CORSA, Little Indians, POCI

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pm sent

Sell it to me, and dont worry about it!

Kidding - good luck with the restoration, Paul.

Eric P.
DeWitt, IA

If anyone knows Rampsides on Rotisseries, it's Duane.

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WA. state, 1 mile south of the Canadian border, I am not at the end of the world, but you can see it from here.

I have to wonder about welding a temporary bar in the ramp opening to keep it square.
Fran Schmit did some work on the openings to get his front doors to fit better. He pulled the opening into being square like you might do when building a house.
The frame where it turns upward to go over the rear wheels is a problem spot for rust.
I wonder what one might do to get in the area above the reinforcing plate and below the deck on the right side. I imagine cut a hole in the plate and weld it back in again. I suppose welding would burn away any coating you put in there. Maybe in the photo above he cut out the rocker panel on the right side too but isn't it pretty small over there? Maybe it's the same...
I used a pot like sandblaster from Harbor Freight or Northern Tool to sandblast my racecar. I spent more time working on the sandblaster than I did blasting but to be fair it was very humid out and I should have done more to get water out of the compressed air.

Jim Brandberg
Isanti, MN
CorvairRepair.com

Danny Robertson aka Huntsville put his FC truck on a rotisserie.

If he doesn't chime in, perhaps you could PM him.

Dean F. Gemberling
Columbus, Georgia
Heart of Georgia Corvair Club Webmaster
Springfest Webmaster

1963 Rampside w/305 V8 - Built by Ken Arnold in 1998

That is Ken Sullivan's famous Rampy in the picture above.
I know the guy doing the sand-blasting, and was over at Duane's place several times during that project.
As you can see, 2014 was a few years ago, and I might not be recalling everything correctly, but I am pretty sure there wasn't any bar on the Ramp pocket.

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WA. state, 1 mile south of the Canadian border, I am not at the end of the world, but you can see it from here.

Great photo! Thanks! I have communicated with Duane and he shared some detailed photos of how the vehicle attaches to the rotisserie.

What I cannot tell from this photo if the Ramp is still attached or not.

Enjoy the Corvair!

Paul Sergeant
CORSA Central Division Director / CORSA Treasurer
Lee's Summit, MO
CORSA since 1975
Member – HACOA, Corvair Minnesota, CORSA, Little Indians, POCI

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From Clark's restoration.

Another picture of Kent Sullivan's Rampy sitting on Duane's Rotisserie.
From this angle you can plainly see that a support bar is not needed.
(Photos by Duane, stolen off Kent's website.)

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WA. state, 1 mile south of the Canadian border, I am not at the end of the world, but you can see it from here.

Yes, Kent's RS is an amazing vehicle. It is also (probably) one of the last 64's made as it has (I believe)
the highest vin in the 64 RS registry.

Cal Clark's 61 RS is truly a high end restoration. I judged this truck in the concourse meet at the Sturbridge
convention a few years (?) ago.

I never thought about it much but I would evaluate whether I was happy with the door openings before removing the doors and the ramp. I might be especially careful if I was cutting away structural material and welding in patches. It might be interesting to measure if the openings are square and not a parallelogram.
On Rampsides the rear frame where it starts upward is prone to rusting out. I would think this 30 degree or so angle is mainly what triangulates the ramp opening for proper latch operation and all.
I imagine the steel plate sturdies it up somewhat but is mainly there to reinforce the floor deck when coming in with a heavy load on a two wheeler or something.
As I mentioned earlier my buddy Fran pulled the front door openings around a little.
A uni-body chassis can weaken and sag over the years and best to move them around if desired before welding in patches and sturdying it up. I've had a few good looking convertibles where the doors close fine when it's on its wheels but when on jackstands not so much. I wonder if this condition might be exacerbated with the chassis hanging by the ends.
I wonder if I might compare the body opening measurement before and after hanging the chassis by the ends. Measure twice and weld once? Maybe I'm just overthinking the whole thing.
I repaired the right frame rail on my Rampside but the next owner reported similar rust on the left side that I didn't know about.
My Rampside was rusty. If your's is relatively sound your door openings might be just fine and simply holding the chassis by the frame ends probably wouldn't flex the ramp opening.
It's interesting how little a uni-body weighs when everything is removed. I've moved them around on a cart with 4 wheelbarrow tires.

Jim Brandberg
Isanti, MN
CorvairRepair.com