Lincoln, Neb. -- Doug Kielian, owner of Auto Kraft Body & Paint, said it took the sight of a beach ball, a cement truck, and a need to improve an inefficient piece of equipment to come up with his idea for the "Roller Hoop" rotisserie.
With recent increase in the value of collector cars and classics, the need to do a better job more efficiently on the bottom side, was just as important as the rest of the body during the restoration process. In order to do that, the car had to be flipped upside down, so he invested in a restoration rotisserie available at the time.
Unfortunately, the rotisserie had its limits "It could only attached to the ends of the car, which caused some stress and strain to the body shell because cars were never intended to be held out on the ends," he said. "It was taking up extra space in my shop because it was attaching to the bumper mounts, and the best you could do was rock it back and forth; you couldn't really turn it all the way over and over without extra bracing affixed to the body ."
Kielian added that it took a half day just to load the rotisserie on a trailer to take cars to get sandblasted, not to mention that the man doing the sandblasting got irritated with the struggle of working with the end mount style of rotisserie.
"I knew there had to be a better way to do this," he said. "I had to create something that was able to support the body shell so that it didn't have a lot of stress especially when cutting out rusted or damage structural parts to be repaired or replaced on the body of the car, something that didn't take up as much space, and something that was easier to load on and off the trailer and get sandblasted."
The brainstorming started in the summer of 2005 when Kielian said he saw kids in a pool playing with a beach ball. As the kids tried to grab the ball from the top, it kept spinning in the water but wouldn't move. "Immediately, I started thinking that I needed something round that spins and stays in one spot, so that is when I had the idea of the two circles around the car spinning in one spot, like them kids trying to grab that ball in the water."
Later that same day, he said he passed a cement truck and watched as the barrel on the truck rotated. "The two things got my head turning, and I started thinking," he said.
"A bicycle has wheels and spokes that are thin, and can support even a big guy on those skinny wheels and tires, so why can't I put a car body inside the wheel put spokes on it to hold the car, along with a device that it sits and spins on."
When the brainstorming transpired to action, the first "Roller Hoop" rotisserie was born. It was November 2005. With jigs that attach to the suspension mounts and upper body, the car "wears the rotisserie," he said. "Like you or I would wear a shirt or jacket, it is part of the body shell, not an extension onto the car."
Eventually, he developed a base that allowed the Roller Hoop to be stationary and spin and could be fitted with wheels so it could move around a shop or onto a trailer.
Kielian said he has taken the Roller Hoop to a number of different shows, and it is always an attention getter. "People will say things like, 'Wow, you came up with that! you're a genius, and you're going to make a million dollars.'"
"The fact of the matter is that I am just an average body collision, restoration craftsmen," he said. "The caveman was the genius; he invented with the wheel, I just reapplied it to the restoration industry."
