Interior is still in process, and my buddie's Model A is coming along nicely. Like the step notch?

 

Just wanted to say thanks for posing all the pics. I hope this thread helps some of you in making a cage or atleast know what to look for when you have a cage built.

Did a 79 F150 today, just interior 4 pt. Took about 5.5 hours. Very simple, the customer already had the interior stripped and pretty clean.

Took a few shots.

 

ok i was able to snap some photos today of the final product. The ENTIRE interior was put back in with very little modification. sorry the pictures arent good quality. i really wis my interior looked like the last picture.

 

Just a question: What other purposes does a rollcage serve other than stiffening chasis and keeping the driver safe?

 

Mainly to keep the driver safe in an accident. Also serves as a Chassis stiffener and makes it easier to dial in the suspension. I guess it looks cool and is difficult to paint. Makes a nice head basher in a street car if the hoop is to close to the head!

 

Finished a 94 Supra 5 point roll bar with a swing out driver's door Saturday. Cars are crowed like 3rd gens except the roofs come off.

Working within the confines of not cutting any plastic or carpet restrictions, I believe it came out pretty good. Customer was very happy and it meets all of the technical needs of NHRA. Next it is paint and padding.

I forgot to get a picture of the door bar installed, after car is painted I will post.

 

Pics of my FB that I just picked back up... Custom roll bar by Piper Motorsports in Manassas, VA...

Dan

 

Thanks for posting Lt. Very clean and looks like it fits really well. You should be happy.

 

Added a few more pics of the 4130 Chrome moly cage I am currently doing for a drag car. It is a Supra though, sorry! I am in the fitting stage right now. making sure the whole cage fits befor I start welding. I have to pull the the entire back half out so I can tig weld it and then place it back in to weld in the front half. Doing it in 3 stages since I am not dropping it through the floor so I could weld completely around all of the joints in the rear. Supras are good for this since the roofs come off. Since I am mount the A-pillar bars on the rocker, this method seems to work best.

Still need to add the rear X, horizontal bar in main hoop, dash bar, A-pillar cross over bar, and swing out door bars. That will be in the next 2 days. Than I have to fit the dash back in.

 

Been messing around with the 4130 cage still between other jobs. Have the main hoop welded up now. Did it outside of the car to make sure I was able to weld continuously around all of the tubes. I can weld the rest in the car.

The 1/2"x1/2" square and the 1" round tubing in the hoop is there to keep it from deforming while the welding procedure. Keeps its down to a minimum.

All the tubing is 1 5/8"x.083" and weighs maybe 30lbs so far. I expect the whole cage to weigh in about 65lbs.

 

Is it legal to fully gusset a cage on a production car? Here are a couple pics. One is Mazdatrix conv EP and the other is the old Frey racing EP. They both have gussetted cages in different places. Can the front bars be gusseted to the a-pillar? How about the halo above the windshield and above the door? How much stiffness does this add?

 

Anyone?

 

Sorry, Yes. Production does not follow the IT rules for attachment points and gusseting. Gusset away! Makes the chassis stiffer and sometimes easier to fix bodt damage.

 

It will add a lot of stiffness if you connect in the cowl area, pillars, and top of windshield. This area needs all the help it can get, don't try to keep the A-pillar bars close to the pillar either. If you are going to connect them with gussets think of the area as an I-beam(taller is stronger). Just try to keep things out of your line of sight.

 

Quick question for you cage guru's.

Should I cut the hole for the fuel cell before or after cage install? I'm also cutting for the rear fiberglass fenders as well. The only thing left is to get the tar out, sand blast and prime....now if we just had some production car cage builders in the metroplex.

I'll post pics when the cage is getting built.

Thanks, Paul

 

If the car is gutted and is on flat ground with the load going through the normal suspension points you could do it either way. Just make sure you know what you're cutting through, on an FB the spring perches are just inboard of the shocks.

 

Yes, I'm going to try to leave the "roller" suspension on the car during this entire process if I can. I've seen some FB's with the spare tire area only cut out, others a lot more metal removed.

 

cagedruss,

is this rollcage for the miata hardtop friendly @ least??? i'm really curious to find out...

 

Yes it is. There is actually more room inside the hardtop than the soft top. Less interference with folding mechanisms. All SCCA SM's have to run a Hardtop, I have one here for just the purpose of fitting the cages.

 

Question about tubing thickness.

Can support bars (not part of basic cage per GCR) be a thinner wall tubing? So if the standard cage is 1.5x.095", can you use 1.5x.060" for a petty bar etc?

 

Damned if I can find it now in the GCR. There use to be a paragragh somewhere that stated all tubes had to be the same size and wall thickness. I know of a few cars that add thicker main hoops that are required and the minimum for everything else. And there are a few out that use lesser material to save weight because SCCA techs check only the main hoop. I do not recommend or condone the use of lesser material in a cage that could be checked, could be a very expensive risk. A petty bar is not a required bar unless it is in a car that can't utilize rear bars. Get a clarification from a tech in your area. We are really not the source for that unless we can find the rule. Remember that you the car owner, is responsible to prove your car is legal if it scrutinized. Maybe someone else can shed some light on this!

 

Thought national SM rules allowed cars to run w/o hardtop...just not a popular option for aero reasons.

 

Thanks Russ,

Thats what I always thought. My brother in law came up with this bright idea for redoing his AS car, from somebody that does cages for WC cars. I couldn't find anything in the GCR either. He was going to call SCCA for clarification. I figured I would ask how you guys that build cages interpret the rules. My thought was why bother to save 10-15lb on a car that weighs that much. My EP cage will be 1.5 x.095 all the way

 

You caught me, I was talking out of my other hole and didn't bother to look it up. I spent to much time with SM guys and they are believed that you needed a hard top. My bad, thanks for the correction. On a small track I would be tempted to run with out the hard top on a sunny day to get the roadster feel.

 

Until the national rules came out, most regions required the hardtop. There was a bit of hubub when they were released and the top was made optional. The only instance where I can think of it being necessary to not use a hardtop would be with a very tall driver.
You're right, bet it would be fun to drive one without a top.