danswofford

Does anyone know where I can get roll cage tubing bent with a mandrel bender in Northern or Central California?

Slalom4me

Is San Diego too far away? If not, it couldn't hurt
to check with them for your needs.

AUTOPOWER INDUSTRIES, INC.
3424 Pickett St. San Diego, CA 92110
619-297-3300 619-297-9765 FAX

.

gkmccready

Ask Tony at www.tcdesignfab.com ... he's in the Bay Area, but he normally designs and installs his cages. Not sure if he'd be happy just bending for you but it's worth asking.

Personally, I'm happy to pay somebody who's a better welder, and understands cage design to do the work... I wouldn't really trust myself to get the cage right such that all the forces went the right direction in a crash.

trackboss

Cages are formed with benders specifically designed for the job. They are not mandrel benders, yet they form bends without crushing the tubing unlike a pressure bender. You can have someone bend tube to your specs, but without having the car there and fitting the tube it may need to go back for adjustment. I've fitted lots of tube for cage work and it takes quite a bit of time if you want it perfect.

-V

Mallory

Try Maier Racing. If they don't have teh machine they can point you in the right direction. Good guys too.

http://www.maierracing.com/

Eric

davidfarmer

there are a bunch of race shops at Sears Point. Surely some of them do cages.

danswofford

So, after I bunch of calling around it turns out that true mandrel benders are very hard to find. A mandrel bender pulled some ***** through the bent pipe to pull it out to full dimension, absolutly no crushing. It appears that most race car tubes are bent on benders that are not mandrel types. Muffler type benders usually have radii that are too small and do crush the pipe. Radii of 7-8" work well and only minimumly deform the tubing.

I've built two cars to NASCAR cage spec and we didn't have a mandrel bender. I'm building my car to NASA spec and it calls for a mandrel bender so I started looking into it. But realistically I don't think most cages really are built with mandrel bent tubes.

trackboss

The rules need clearing up. The only time mandrel benders are used in automotive applications is for things like exhaust tubing. Continue to use proper cage benders as you have for your stock cars. I have never ran accross a race car that has had a mandrel bent cage. It is just not realistic. Cages, are handbuilt items.