Ryde _Or_Die

I have a car with a roll cage welded in. I am going to try and cut the welds and pull the cage out to put in my car. How do you guys get these things in/out? I mean its an 8 point roll cage. How many points do you have to have to be legal for sub 11 second runs? Thats in case I have to cut it at all to get it out.

bkapold@aol.com

You'll either have to pull off the hatch and or take out the seats.......Fun isn't it?

5 point whoa

take of the hatch, the seats take too long to put back in

Ryde _Or_Die

The seats are out already. I can do both, no problem. What I'm more worried about is this is not a bolt-in cage. It was made in the car I am assuming and welded down. I'm kind of worried that I won't be able to get it in my car.

Liquid Anarchy

iTrader: (2)

I'd think you probably won't. If it were weld-in, it brobably became loaded as it was being welded in. I'd imagine when you get all the welds ground off, the metal will unload and won't line-up... but that's just what one would think 20minutes out of bed.

5 point whoa

LOL. I think your right though, it would prolly warp and bend a little bit

Ryde _Or_Die

Well when I put it in my car I'll be drilling holes and bolting it in so if it doesn't line up perfectly I can "pull" it down flat anyways. I'm really worried about not being able to get this cage in my car. If I cut the welds and can't even get it out of the car I would have to just bolt it back in the car its in I guess and sell the car as a whole.

Evil Aviator

It the cage is designed correctly, you would have to cut apart the donor car's body to get it out, and then there would be no way to get in into your car.

Also, before you go through a lot of work, you will need to make sure that whatever you do is legal for your class of racing. I know of a good local shop for SCCA-legal cages, but I don't know of one for drag cages (different requirements, especially on the mounting plates). I think you should check with your local drag racers and see who knows how to install a legal cage in your car, and someone who specializes in RX-7's would be a plus. Plan on spending about $1,500 for an unpainted cage.

Ryde _Or_Die

Well I own this car already. It is a $1000 cage made down in Miami. I am selling the car complete but if no one wants to buy it I am pating it out, and trying to get the cage out. Do you know anyone that wants it locally evil? Its a nice cage; 8 point chromoly.

Re-Speed.com

iTrader: (3)

Evil is correct. You need to make sure you can "put" it in the other chassis according to the rules you race with. The SCCA has very specific rules regarding putting a cage in a car the came out of another. Some guys cut the roof off the new shell to get the cage in. The only way this will be worth it is if a new cage cost outweighs the money you would spend on a new one. Can you do the welding and maybe body work yourself? Could you replicate the cage cheaper?

A side note for you. I recently tried putting a cage in a first gen that came from another car. All I was going to use was the main hoop and halo hoop. I barely got it in the car. One inch longer and it would not have gone. I even smacked the windshield while trying. You will not get the entire cage in without removing the roof.

I decided to scrap the cage and purchase a main hoop and halo-a pillar tubes from Kirk and start with that. Much easier.

My thoughts would be to part the car out and then sell the shell with cage. If it is a decent cage someone will buy it to start a project.

-billy

Evil Aviator

I can ask around, but you aren't going to get much for the body/cage if it is not SCCA legal. If it is not SCCA legal, than you still may be able to sell it to someone who just wants to use it on the street. You may also want to get a copy of drag race rules and see if the cage complies, in which case you could sell it to a drag racer.

Other questions:
Is the roll cage painted?
Does the body have a sunroof?
Does the car have a title?

Edit: I just remembered that chrome moly isn't legal for SCCA anymore, either, so that pretty much puts you in the street class, or maybe drag racing. Sorry, I don't know anything about drag racing.

Ryde _Or_Die

It has a clean title in my hand right now. The cage is painted with rustoleum black because chromoly rusts easily without it I heard. And it does have a sunroof. And the body is rust free.

Evil Aviator

Title is always good.

Sunroof is bad, but racers can work around it. Sunroof may be good for a street car.

Paint on the cage is good.

I think you should check with your drag race buddies to see if they want to buy it. I only know two people who drag race, and they race domestics, so I probably won't be much help finding a buyer on this one.

Ryde _Or_Die

Hey they can throw in a V8 or whatever if they want. Will be fast as hell. It is already stripped down to the metal inside and painted black as well. But I do have the whole interior as well. What if I parted it out and sold the chasis real cheap, think you could find a buyer easier?

Evil Aviator

Well, like I said, all the people I know would want an SCCA cage, so I would probably not be able to find a buyer no matter what you do. However, you may be able to sell it to a drag racer or street racer. I think the advantage of parting it out is that the individual parts are worth more than the car as a whole. Anybody who is building a car with a cage probably doesn't care whether the car is stripped or not, as the stripping is easy compared to the other mods. Well, chiseling out the sound deadening material isn't much fun, but I don't think it is worth your time to do this based on the amount of money you would get for the chassis.

A friend of mine has a 1Gen RX-7 drag car with a V8. It's pretty cool because the rear end is so light (8 gal fuel cell) that it smokes the tires with ease, and the V8 has enough torque to overpower the brakes, lol. He just got it runnning, and hasn't had time to take it to the track yet for times, but it will probably do pretty well in the 1/8th mile. I keep nagging him to enter it in the next Nopi burnout contest because he would have won easily last year.

Ryde _Or_Die

How can I check to see if its SCCA legal?

Evil Aviator

The SCCA roll cage specs are in their General Competition Rules (GCR) Chapter 18, but I am not aware of any place on the internet that has these rules for free, so you would need to buy the GCR.
http://www.scca.org

I would give you a basic run-down, but the construction requiremts are rather complicated.

I don't have the current rules, but I believe that as of this year, SAE 4130 is no longer allowed in the touring classes along with ERW construction, unless the car already has a logbook. You can check this with the GCR, as I am not entirely sure. If you don't want to spend the money on the GCR, you can try posting in the Race Car Tech section of this forum, as you will proabably get a good answer there, and maybe somebody will know of a link to GCR 18 online.

Oh, and chrome-moly is SAE 4130, aka "alloy steel tubing" in the SCCA GCR.

5 point whoa

good luck, hope you can get rid of all your stuff