Finished the passengers side of the cage tonight

[norvalwilhelm]

Well not quite. All bars are in, most welding done. I have to pull everything out to finish welding the tight spots, grind all welds, polish the bars and powdercoat.
I have 3 bars on the drivers side to finish up and then it is powdercoat time.
I intend to then work on a good spreader bar up front.
These are some of the fittings I made. These are for the drivers side, the passengers are already installed
There are threaded inserts for the tube, 2024 aluminum hinge with adjustable threads, lock nuts, male and female tube inserts. I made all these parts before building the cage.

This is a poor shot taken from the drivers window of the rear

This is the front where the bars meet the down tube

This is a shot of the 3 bars, the high overhead bar, the high bar and the low bar, hard to see the low bar.

This is the joint where the bar disconnects and swings out to let the passenger in. I will use proper sping loaded pin for this joint, I just used tha allen bolt for now.

This is the bar swung open to admit the passenger. It opens all the way, closes very nicely and no matter how hard you slam it it will not go past where is meets the other bar.

What do you guys think????

 

[6 Shooter]

Very Interesting !

How do you think it would fair if it took a hit?

 

[Fuelie]

Hi Norval,

It looks great. You have really put a lot of thought into getting the assembly to be quite ergonomic and not very easy to see from outside the car. This should stiffen up the car quite a bit.

I like all the custom fittings that you made for the tubing ends on the swing outs...nice work.

This is going to look great when you have it all powder coated and installed in the car.

Keep those updates coming, its great!

Take care,
Brian

 

[norvalwilhelm]

How do you think it would fair if it took a hit?

I don't want to ever find out.
One of my cages was put the ultimate test in a mustang. The guy took on a cement column wide open in third. Pushed the motor part way through the firewall, folded up the driveshaft and broke the rearend.
The passenger compartment remain intact and he limited away with a sprained ankle.

 

[norvalwilhelm]

Hi Norval,

It looks great. You have really put a lot of thought into getting the assembly to be quite ergonomic and not very easy to see from outside the car. This should stiffen up the car quite a bit.

I like all the custom fittings that you made for the tubing ends on the swing outs...nice work.

This is going to look great when you have it all powder coated and installed in the car.

Keep those updates coming, its great!

Take care,
Brian

Thanks Brian I thought alot on how to hide the cage, I don't want to infringe on already limited interior space, I didn't want to turn the wife off, I didn't want the cops looking over from the next lane and seeing this massive tubed car and I want it removable if there is a problem.
Also weld joints do not need the space if you can take the parts out after tacking and weld them completely outside.
Most clearance is in the 1/8th inch range so it hugs the interior.
I also don't want the wife or myself climbing over bars. The mustang turns my wife off when she has to climb over a bar.
As for the hardware I am lucky in that I can fabricate anything I need. I did think ahead of what I would need to do the job and just started turning out all the pieces. I did most of them before actually building the cage so I wouldn't have to stop all the time and make pieces.
I hope to finish basic construction in a week or two and then take everything out, reweld sections, dress up the welds, polish all joints and powder coat over the chrismas holidays.
My son has access to the factory where he works so we can go in with anything we want and powder coat it, taking our time and really putting a heavy coat on everything.
I will start a spreader bar after the cage is totally finished.
I bought dynamat xtreme and new carpet so that will go in before the cage is installed for the final time.