Progress on my roll cage

[norvalwilhelm]

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.

 

[Fuelie]

Norval,

That looks fantastic! I am amazed that you have created a bar that hardly shows from outside the car.

Keep posting more pics and udates as to what you have done and the rationale behind the structural design.

Will the remainder of the cage be a bolt in assembly also?

Take care,
Brian

 

[norvalwilhelm]

I am trying to get everything bolted in and bolted together. The reason is I want to powdercoat the finished product, I want it removable in case of an interior porblem and a bolt in cage can be held tighter to the interior because welding is not a problem. With a weld in cage you need 360 degree welding and that requires room.
From the side the cage is almost invisible.

 

[MidShark]

Norval
Excellent work! Looks fantastic!


Dick