My new camera rig

[ghostpilot]

I've been thinking of building my own rig for the past month but spent 2 weeks of that time deciding if I wanted to do a over car suction cup mount or an undercar magnet mount. The bad thing about the suction cup mount is that I know how anal people are about their paint, so that was out of the question. The only bad things I could think of with the magnet mount was ground clearance, but I only need about 13/4" to be fine. The other bad thing is how I could find a place to mount securely to the frame or lower core support. I ended up solving that issue with U bolts so I could adjust where the mounting points are. I figured that this would be my best bet and would keep me from screwing up bodywork/paint. I made it so I could take it apart to fit in the back seat of my car and store away without taking up to much room.
The unit erected


The 150lb pull magnets

The pivit point for heigth adjustment

Disassembled

[le0n]

very very neat, those are some serious magnets

i can wait to see some shots from it.

question: is the pivot point strong enough to withstand a decent amount of wind or turn resistance on it the "roll" axis?

suggestion: some sort of pin to lock the pipe in place after you've clamped the u-bolt. the u-bolt will prevent the majority of back/forth sliding issues, however, it won't prevent the roll issues. a few evenly-spaced holes drilled into the pipe and one drilled into your foundation plate should do the trick. just something to make sure your camera doesn't make sweet love to the unforgiving pavement.

[ghostpilot]

Thanks for the compliment, sir.

I did lots of thinking on this project and I really don't want my camera meeting the ground face to face. lol. The pivit point is sturdy enough. As far as worring about the wobbling around it shouldn't be an issue at all because the car is only going to be moving at no faster than walking speed. The U bolts hold suprisingly tight and I tried and could make them budge when tight. I waiting now about shooting a new Camaro and possibly a Ford GT and Lambo.

[le0n]

very cool, you've covered you bases then...

by the way, nice dragster; upgrading the engine?

[ghostpilot]

Thanks, yeah it broke a rod last time out. Luckly it didn't spin a bearing. The machinist is also shaving the heads and puting higher compresion diamond pistons in and said it sould be good for another 100hp. So it should put the ol 604 at around 1300hp. Them motor is out of the mustang cause we took the C4 out and replaced it with a power glide and the headers wont clear the tranny pan so were waiting on a new set.

[le0n]

^^ that is some serious ground-stomping power. one of my highschool friends had a powerglide trans in his chevelle...

the mustang "roof scoop" caught me off guard yesterday, i was like: "what on earth?"

i realized what i was looking at a few seconds later...