Roll cage progress

[jeff denton]

Looking Good!!
Are you using a tube notcher? I was well into my rollcage before I got one, now I can't be without it...
Thought I'd share with the world Speedway GT's door bars in finished form. With safety in mind, we decided to just build a brick wall. Written on one brick is "the Pinto stops here."
(actually, the "brick" look is just paint, Steve needed it to be bricked for these pictures to show to sponsors...)

[Travis]

Originally posted by jeff denton
Looking Good!!
Are you using a tube notcher?

Yes, I'm using a notcher though it's not obvious from the pic. An odd angle I suppose. It's good to see that your car is starting to look like a GT again. It didn't look much like an Opel in the earlier pics

-Travis

[theenico]

I usually just drop in occasionally and lurk, but I figured I'd post some pics of the cage I built for Cherokee

[theenico]

More pictures

[RallyBob]

Nice work....

Keep them photos coming! I love seeing other people's work, especially fabrications. Always gets the creative juices flowing.

Travis, you're about due to post some more photos of your Solo GT, right?

[Travis]

A few shots of the base of the main hoop at differing stages

-Travis

[Travis]

Pics of the rear platform and the tubes to the main hoop. I still need to add the diagonal across the rear section as well as across the main hoop

-Travis

[jeff denton]

It's looking good, Travis. Slow, maybe, but we do what we can, huh?
Since you showed me yours, I'll show you mine. We popped the body off again last Saturday, lately it takes only five minutes to have all exterior skins removed, about fifteen to put it back on... actual roll cage progress is nil, it is finished, we're working on exhaust system and body lowering lately. Rules call for minimum 3" ground clearance, we are there!!

[onepocket]

With the addition of the roll cage, any idea how much weigth is being added. Has anyone weighted before and after.

[Travis]

Depends on the size of the cage

1.5" x .095" 1020 DOM is 1.426 lb per foot

-Travis

[jeff denton]

Oh, yeah. The weight issue. One evening the crew had too many beers and brought that up so we did some very scientific figuring with tape measures and triple beam and a sharp pencil and figured out how much we added to the weight with all that rollcage. At that time it was 106 pounds.
While gutting out the poor GT we saved EVERY scrap and made a pile which we will weigh someday, maybe. I bet that pile weighs over 300 pounds. Heck, one door hinge must weigh twenty, huh?
We are beginning the chassis set up phase on Speedway GT, plan to set each wheel on the compu-scale at a real race car shop next week to analyze exactly where the weight is and where to add some. Yes, we're confident the car is too light, by the rules with 1.9 liter engine it must be no less than 1860 pounds. It is fun to have to add weight, you can put it where you need it!
Here is a picture of the body when it is off. The skins you see in the photo, all together, weigh about a hundred pounds, we figure.
Keep your photos coming, too. I'm seeing some very nice and well planned fabrication out there!!

[theenico]

Depends on the size of the cage

1.5" x .095" 1020 DOM is 1.426 lb per foot

-Travis

I used a little less than 50' of 1.5" x .095" in Cherokee's cage which puts it at roughly 70 lbs.

[RallyBob]

I used a little less than 50' of 1.5" x .095" in Cherokee's cage which puts it at roughly 70 lbs.

Wow! Only 50 feet of tubing? I guess I tend to get carried away, I always end up using 80-100 ft, no wonder my cages take so long to build....
Then again, a GT is a lot smaller internally than a Manta or Ascona, so I can see the straight runs are not nearly as long. I'm gonna have to find a way to make more HP to make up for all that extra weight!

Keep posting pics! It's looking good.

Bob

[Travis]

I've made a bit more progress on the cage. Here are a couple pics of the passenger dash area. The lower bar passes through the firewall and follows the frame up to where the front suspension bolts in. The three upper bars converge at a flange bolted to the firewall in the top of the heater box area. There will be an under hood bolt-in cage that connects to this flange, as well as the lower bar at the suspension and the top of the cross member. I'll also have an X configuration in front of the motor connecting the top of the crossmember on one side to the frame on the other.

-Travis

[Travis]

Here's where the lower bar passes through the firewall and connects to the frame.

-Travis

[jeff denton]

You're moving right along, Travis.
Here's how we did the bars through firewall, they attach to the frame right between the suspension mounting bolts.
The second picture shows how the frame horns ahead of the suspension is cross braced to prevent any folding up there should we accidently or purposely ram into the rear of a Pinto...
Keep up the nice work! I like how nice and clean your work is, I don't see any icky welds there!!

[N61WP]

Travis,

looking good! Can you tell us about how much the total cage weights?
Jc

[jeff denton]

Something didn't go. I'll try again. Oh, the picture was too big. Ok, so here is how the bars go thru firewall and to the frame.

[jeff denton]

And here is the frame horn bracing. The bar going across the upper hoop kind of hides the lower one that gets the job done here, but it is what ties it all together.

[jtb]

Hi,

Hey, I'm only two years out of date for this thread.
Anyways, just thought I'd add some pictures of my roll cage mods. The car came with an existing roll bar, but I wanted to add a few things. I ran a bar behind the stock gas tank, tied into the rear bumper mounts. This makes me feel a bit safer, and less like a pinto driver.
I also ran some door bars. They just terminate at the floor - I couldn't figure a way to run a dash bar and the stock dash...
This is also a street car pretending to be a race car, it may see some autocross action. The "not-quite-a-cage" should offer me some protection while stiffening up the car.

jtb