Cage installation

[benebob]

Was playing around with the bent steel pipe sitting in the garage beside the racer last night. Looks like it'll fit nicely. Now I just need to get the gas conversion kit for the welder and a gas bottle. Can't find anyone local willing to lease one though. Looks doubtful for an apperance fully done by reading but might get the bar in by then.

Questions I'm coming up with.
1. Should I paint it before installing and then just clean the areas to be welded or wait until its in to paint?
2. Any thoughts on making a seat mounting system that we can switch seats easily?
3. It'll need to have holes cut into the dash yes the dash is back in and looks good at 1/3 of the weight of a stock one. Any ideas on making nice clean cuts large enough to feed it down then an epoxy or something to clean it up afterwards?

[SVXRide]

Ben,
Paint after you're done welding...are you sure the cage will still be "certified" if you weld it up? I thought you had to have the cage welded by a welder with the right certifications in order for any sanctioning body to accept the cage.

Hole saw!!

You might be able to get by with heavy duty pit pins to hold the seat in - they'd have to be hardened to make sure they're strong enough such that they wouldn't shear off in an accident.

-Bill

[dynomatt]

Paint after welding.

What seat are you using? What quick adjustments do you need, and how long is "quick"?

I can take as many photos of my cage and seat mounts if you want to show you one way to do it...it's probably not the way I'd do it again if I had the choice, but it's the way I've got.

The only other rollcaged SVX I'm aware of is also here in Australia, but it's rubbish.

Matt

[benebob]

Right now a plastic summit racing seat (kinda like a dune buggy seat). Looking to put in a Kirkley Aluminum seat in the near future. Maybe next year.

Pics would be great!

[benebob]

Originally Posted by SVXRide

Ben,
Paint after you're done welding...are you sure the cage will still be "certified" if you weld it up? I thought you had to have the cage welded by a welder with the right certifications in order for any sanctioning body to accept the cage.

Hole saw!!

You might be able to get by with heavy duty pit pins to hold the seat in - they'd have to be hardened to make sure they're strong enough such that they wouldn't shear off in an accident.

-Bill

I'm not planning on doing all the welding, just tacking everything in place. I didn't see anything about "certified" welder doing it just that it must meet certain standards for weld penetration and so forth. It took me a good 20 minutes just to test fit the roll bar. Not the easiest thing to get in there to say the least. I'd prefer to do all that stuff rather than pay shop time for it. Remember, the great state of North Carolina certified me as a welder 15 years ago so I'm sure I could always argue that I'm certified. I just drove to NC to do the welding.

Hole saw won't work as the dash needs to come out to weld down there. Its the whole fitting things back together I'm concerned about. Don't want it to look like the Battlestar

[sperry]

Considering the point of a cage is to save your life, I wouldn't cut corners. If you're not 100% absolutely sure you know what you're doing, take it somewhere. Hell, if you haven't at least "helped" a pro four or five times on cage installs, I'd take it somewhere even if you do know what you're doing. A bad cage will make the car less safe than no cage.

Also, depending on the club/sanctioning body/class you're racing under, the cage will have certain requirements to be legal. Like you said, it's not so much that the welder is "certified", it's that the cage meets the minimum rules... such as pipe material/size, number of mounting points, basic layout, number of bends in a pipe, etc.

Here's some pictures from my WRX cage being installed to SCCA Showroom Stock rules: http://www.seccs.org/forums/showthread.php?t=5589

I sent it to a shop that builds/tunes professional racecars, and *they* sent it to a shop that specifically builds cages because they want to make sure it's safe.

[TomsSVX]

Ben, I have a tank of 75arg and 25co2 if you need to borrow it. Its a typical mig mixture for mild steel(as long as thats what your cage is made of). Just make sure I get it back in time to make another X-member for reading(someone needed the one I had).

Tom

[SVXRide]

Originally Posted by sperry

Considering the point of a cage is to save your life, I wouldn't cut corners. If you're not 100% absolutely sure you know what you're doing, take it somewhere. Hell, if you haven't at least "helped" a pro four or five times on cage installs, I'd take it somewhere even if you do know what you're doing. A bad cage will make the car less safe than no cage.

Also, depending on the club/sanctioning body/class you're racing under, the cage will have certain requirements to be legal. Like you said, it's not so much that the welder is "certified", it's that the cage meets the minimum rules... such as pipe material/size, number of mounting points, basic layout, number of bends in a pipe, etc.

Here's some pictures from my WRX cage being installed to SCCA Showroom Stock rules: http://www.seccs.org/forums/showthread.php?t=5589

I sent it to a shop that builds/tunes professional racecars, and *they* sent it to a shop that specifically builds cages because they want to make sure it's safe.

by "certified", I meant that the welder understands the specifics regarding how the cage has to be welded and can actually create welds that are compliant.
-Bill

[benebob]

Originally Posted by SVXRide

by "certified", I meant that the welder understands the specifics regarding how the cage has to be welded and can actually create welds that are compliant.
-Bill

What you don't think I can do that? I've done some quite capable work in the past. Just been quite a while. I'll have help. Our helper just got done working on a Spec Micrappy!

[dynomatt]

Ben,

Here's the base of my main hoop...sorry it's taken so long.

See how it meets the side sills and the front of the rear seat.

Uber strong.

Matt

[rallyingrob]

i like what you've done matt.......
but i'm wondering...did you seam-weld the factory sheet metal under the box?

what i'm wondering is if those seams were welded up and extended (maybe even all the way from side to side) would it add enough to make the effort worthwhile?
or would it just be not necessary/wasted time/effort.......?

my concern would be the box cleaving straight down through the floor due to the point loads since the box is oriented "on-edge" and could possibly split the factory seams and punch down through.......

rob" mr paranoid"m.

[benebob]

Thanks Matt, I feel tons better about my tack welds too now! I think we'll stick with ours the way it is but I think I'll take a piece of 12 gauge steel across that diagonal like you're lower piece. I definately like that concept! Still at the 5 point stage but I'm ironing out the fitment up front

[benebob]

For your viewing pleasure. We now have an 8 point cage in. Still need the door bars but we're getting closer. Come to reading any you'll see it!

[TomsSVX]

for my veiwing pleasure... I will only see it in my rear view

Tom