Car Rigging Preferences

[Chris Bradley]

I was looking into investing in speed rail as well as fittings for the purpose of car rigging mainly. I've worked with both 1 1/2" and 1 1/4" speed rail but I was curious what people's preferences were when it came to rigging. Feel free to include pictures as well as tips. I'm always open to learning from others.

[JD Hartman]

Maybe Sanjay will interject his wisdom.

 

1-1/2" speedrail would be stronger than 1-1/4", but will the extra weight and cost be needed? Do you already own a lot of 1-1/4" fittings and speedrail? If so, from a versatility standpoint, you might want to stick with 1-1/4" car mounting hardware.

 

But I'm not a Grip, so take the above for what it's worth.

[Sanjay Sami]

I use 1-1/2 mostly because its the most versatile tube size. It fits scaff rigs as well as most construction fittings.

And JD is right, its much stronger.

Having said that, if I had to choose the perfect tube diameter for rigging cars it would be 1-1/4.

It is more than strong enough and is more streamlined.

 

I just cant be bothered spending all that money in getting a whole second set of fittings and tubes.

[Robert Hart]

I have gone about it mean and cheap in two ways.

One was to add some extra pieces to an old West Coast style heavy truck mirror, lay in on its side in the window space with a couple of expansion struts as well as the original telescopic stays. There are more modern mirrors these days but you might find one in a scrap yard.

The other was to make two broad plywood hooks contoured to the shape of a light sedan door, inside down to the armrest and outside to the bottom of the door where there is a solid lower structure inside the door to prevent the plywood from denting the panelwork at the lower edge.

The plywood should reach the door bottom edge but be clear of the sill panel below the door. It is only good for the car you choose so be sure what sort of car it is to be and stick with it. My particular specimen was for a Toyota Echo two-door hatch. It rides quite well as it is but with four crewies weighing it down it will ride softer,

The inner surfaces of the hooks need to be padded with thin firm stick-on foam strip to protect the paintwork. This needs to be kept clean of sand and road grit which may work underneath. Both hooks are spaced as wide apart as the lower window edge will permit.

There are three 30mm by 50mm pine ties, one on the inside below the window bottom edge with a camera attach point, another on the outside about the same height below the window edge with a camera attach point. The lowest tie has a hole drilled through it allow a padded gauge-plate hook and tiebolt with a wingnut to tension onto the lower door edge.

The pine ties are attached with five long coach hex-headed screws at each end. This is necessary because drill holes into end-grain strip a lot more easily than across grain or on the radial. You also need to use glue on the joints so that there is no flex of the structure. The glue has to be added into the joints with the screws backed off and the gaps opened, the mount assembled to the car so that the joints firm up in exact compliance to the shape of the door when the coach screws are pulled down and the glue sets.

Do a dry run with the screws tightened first to be sure that the hooks will slide off the door when you want to dismount the rig.

This arrangement has to bonus of allowing the door to open and close with camera mounted. For the mount I chose a Manfrotto geared head. These can be had on eBay for about US$400 last I checked. However a Miller DS10 head with a longer stud and a wingnut would function equally as well. This arrangement permits cross cab interiors, car to car and interior to exterior views. It is not as versatile as a fancy rig but you can drill as many holes in the wood as you want for camera positions.

Edited April 15, 2017 by Robert Hart

[Robert Hart]

Here is the plywood mount. I couldn't load the image here and dvinfo.net/forum seems to have gone down so I have loaded to reduser.net. Here is the link.


http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?156963-CAMERA-SUPPORT-THE-BACKYARD-BUILDER-S-WAY&p=1724963#post1724963

You may need to be a logged on user at reduser before the image or its thumbnail may show. Sorry. That's as best I can do.