I worked off and on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Saturday I finished the main roll bar.


It is bolted in with 16 bolts and is removable for powder coating and interior work.

I ground all the welds, I know this is not a legal cage, I am NOT trying to be legal. It is for show only.
I will finish smoothing out the joints as I go along.
I also bent the main hoop for the roof this Sunday, It involved alot of angles to get it following the contour of the Tee roof, From the side it is invisible and really hungs the groove on the top the the front window. I will finish it tomorrow and then start on the down pillars .
I will run 2 side bars, one low and fixed and one high and hinged.
I will also run one bar through the firewall to just behind the A arms.


I have been using a combination of Tig and Mig and really prefer the mig because it lays down alot of weld metal fast, not always a good thing because of distortion.
I found you have to clamp everything to keep it from moving. I have a nice 1/2 inch by 4 inch by 4 foot aluminum flat stock that I lay out what I want then clamp the bars to it for welding and cooling.
I also found a torch can be used to heat the pipes and fine tune by walking them into place and then clamping to cool down.
A bolt in cage is far more work then welding it in the first time. With bolting everything has to align after welding. A welded in cage will have alot of stresses in it trying to pull the car this way and that.
A bolted in cage has all the stresses worked out and it wants to stay where it is put.

 

wow that looks great nice work!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Nice work

Its gonna be interesting to see it boltet in.

 

Thanks but when I said finished it is not. I already welded the mounts for the main hoop to it plus I need 2 mounts per side for the side bars. I will also do a better job of grinding the welds and polishing the pipes before a heavy heavy coating of powder coat.
With powder coating the finished product is only as good as what lays underneath, it does not hide imperfections.
When finished I mean all bending is finished and the stressed removed so it actually lines up with the mounting plates in the floor.

 

nice

Are you planning on adding 2 more points?

 

Very nice job! I am amazed at how good the bends came out. Excellent design as well.



Steve

 

Awrite, damnit, where's MINE??? I expect one in the mail by Friday latest, my doorstep next week Wed....deal???


MONEY you say???


send me a bill.....


GENE

 

Impressive Work Indeed.!!!!

 

This is only the roll bar part of the cage. I will add 6 more points. The main hoop is almost finished and I am getting ready to start on the down pipes by the window pillars. These will be hard to tie into the frame. I will cut holes in the firewall the run 2 pipes up front also.

 

Thanks Steve The bends are easy with the tube bender I am using. NO collapsing whatever and 1/8th inch accuracy at the same time.
I am finding that any tube that walks out a bit is easy to put back in place with heat. I find you can bend a perfect hoop and then when you start adding pieces it walks. I find the torch quickly walks it back into place and by clamping it while hot and allowed to cool clamped that it stays after cooling down. With bolt in you need 1/6th accuracy so the bolts can be inserted and started, with 1/16 you can pull the holes into alignment. 1/8th would be too much.
By the time I finish this cage I will have it down pat and then what am I to do with this newfound skill????

 

Thanks Gene. Your credit is always good with me.

 

I'm cheating like crazy. The welds are ground and I move the pipes into place after welding with heat. No matter how well you fit the pipes welding distorts them, they move , the perfect flange moves up to 3/8 inch after welding and cool down. I reheat the area, move it back into place and clamp it securely until it cools and then it holds the setting.
At least when the 10 point cage is done it will not have residue stress left in it distorting the loading carrying of the pipes, all pipes will be neautral and content with their position.
A welded in cage has all the stresses built in and could actually twist the car with this build in stress.
Weld a few pipes together and see where they end up. Bet you it is not where you started. With a bolt in they better end up right or it will not match the flanges in the floor where they need to align for the bolts. Getting 32 or 40 bolts all to align when welded and flanged together takes alot of work and all stress must be out of the pipes or they won't hold their postion to lign up.

 

Weld a few pipes together and see where they end up. Bet you it is not where you started


Oh i know,my job title at work is mechanic/WELDER.Working for a municipality theres always something you have to weld or fab up during the day to keep the equipment running.Still great work norval.

 

I have played with welding up stuff up north a bit, and found no particular troubles doing it, for instance that differential in my work van came from a car, and I managed to stick weld on the new /used brackets/shoes/shock mounts from the old diff, and now about ten years later, they still hold...about the larges stuff I ever welded....successfully that is...

but down here, a welder buddy is allways talking of the walk and warp stresses when he jigs up something, maybe just square tubing from 16 ga to 1/8 inch, sometimes even 1/4 inch, but the amount of clamping and support he does is more than just the welding....he does TIG or stick from same machine....
has no MIG....

Johnny lays down a perfect row of dimes damn near every time...aluminum, steel, iron, stainless. you name it....

ME, I just don't have the talent, not for lack of trying either, I just haven't got the fine motor hand skills to get that arc in the right place and hold the line....

gimme a saw/sawzall/hammer/nailer anyday....

GENE

 

Beautiful

 

Great Job!!!

Can't wait to see how my rollcage is going to look like.. However - I won't build mine myself...

 

Wow. Nice work. I like it. Great job.

 

Very nice, I'm interested to see the fit of the side hoops. If I ever put a cage in mine, it's gotta be invisible.

-Chris

 

Beautiful work as always.

 

Looks very well made. I say chrome it!