S14_Kouki

my cage built by me

discosteak

Earlbeck gases and technology in Baltimore MD

WhiteGLX

Full NASA/SCCA legal cage for road racing. 1.625"x0.120" tubing.

__________________

***NASA HPDE Instructor***

artdrifter

That weld looks pretty skarry. Do it right the first time or let the cage fail.

McCoy

A 20 year old expert on welds I see

FWIW... it may not be the prettiest weld, but that weld (as do all the rest) does have penetration and will hold up better than any bolt-in cage, which is all I wanted.



Here's what a 'skarry' weld looks like...

teamsprock

Trying to keep this thread alive! Here's my cage so far. Will probably add some more bars and gusseting. Either a kidney bar or another full bar to make for X door bars, although these are very easy to get in so the kidney bar may be the best choice for me.

C-unit

anyone has any tips on painting the top of the cage???

teamsprock

I think I am going to use POR and a foam brush. SHould be able to get into some pretty tight spots. But I'm with you anyone with tips on painting it I would also love to know.

!Zar!

Hard to make it out, but how well does that fair for head room with a helmet on?

__________________

teamsprock

Not too bad, the seats and Bride rails help out a lot. I think if you have seats like my Old Recaro's you may have some troubles. With a helmet I am about 5" away from that bar.

jay pee

damn all those weld on cages are sick ..my gf baught me a bolt on 6pt just so i can tandem at events...still saving to get a weld on roll cage though

atutt

If you're welding the cage the proper way. While the cage is still sitting through the floor, you paint the tops... Then finish everything else.

No they aren't. They are really quite iffy. I'm actually concerned. (Not being a dick. I'm actually concerned)
Not only to the welds look horrible, I see a crater or two (great place for failures). It also looks like the wind blew the gas away or he forgot to turn it on. (Orange-redish like dust looking stuff). No gas coverage areas are another great place for failures. deposition rates are all wacky as well.

Teamsprock. I think you should do some serious practicing. Those welds look really iffy. I would be concerned. If you would like some helpful advice you can PM me. I'd be glad to help you.

Otto347

Well how bout a 30 year olds opinion. That weld looks like dog shit.


1.625x.120 DOM

__________________

MunsonAuto

As far as painting the cage goes, don't use POR15. The stuff smells and will linger in the car for ages. I've been in a caged STI that was POR15'd over a year ago and it still distinctly smells like the stuff.

I used Rustoleum indoor/outdoor gloss black and a regular 1.5" brush. $4.99 for a pint and I covered my entire "6point" cage. No brush strokes, lays out very flat/smooth and looks great.

Here's pics of my cage build-up:










dusty...arghhh












Cage finished...finished painting a few hours prior to these pics..










Cage built by Kale's Custom in Essex, VT.

__________________
www.tannermunsondrifting.com

Otto347

Damn, doesnt look bad for brush on

__________________

jay pee

yeah sum of the welds do look kinda questionable just didnt wanna bash on any1 but hopefully whenever i save enough for my cage the guy does a good job welding. since ill probably be paying like 2grand if not more for it. its really hard to find a good welder cuz every1 swears up n down they r pro at it lol

Pure_JDM

I'll be welding in my own cage within the next few weeks, and am really considering going a different route in the backseat of the car (That's right, backseat...). However small and cramped the backseat is, I still want to retain it, as I have a 2 year old little girl that loves to ride in daddy's car. I am going to cage the front similarly to others already here, but instead of an X bar going through the backseat passage to the trunk, I am going to attempt to send a bent one down hugging the rear window, terminating in the trunk on a rear strut tower cross bar. Has anyone seen this done, other than the padded bolt on in the previous page (hypnotiks)? Another huge issue I have with bolt-ins is I am 6'3", and have yet to find a bolt-in that's very friendly to my head room. They all sit too far forward, as mine will be a few inches further toward the rear of the car. I was an engineering major, as well as a welder, as well as an experienced caged builder (I built one in a buddy's 95 wrangler extreme-modified rock crawler). I'm confident that I can bring something new to the table here, but know it's going to take some time, and a hell of a lot of patience, as this is my daily driver. I will keep this thread updated on my progress in huge steps, and will most likely make my own thread showing the build up. Any remarks or tips from experienced fabricators are more than welcome. I have read all tips in this thread, as well as many other builds and fabs (big fan of blu808's creativity and skill).

DJPimpFlex

^^ What your intending to do has been done before (on my car ), and I don't recommend it. Bends in the rear down tubes make the cage illegal for FD, SCCA Ect. You can definitely make a strong cage with that design though. My car came with the cage already welded in, so I'm not going to fuck with it, but with the rear bars having bends and the firewall penatration, its not legal for FD or SCCA.

Here are some pics.

__________________

franklin93zx

I want a cage in my z so i can look like a boss

RPSil13

anyone know?

__________________

blu808

When I build my cages I double box them. where the tube goes through the top part of the box and is welded to both the bottom box plate and the top box plate.

__________________

Pure_JDM

I dont understand why yours wouldnt still be legal though... Even if your rear bars cant have bends, you still have the same X bar terminating to your strut towers. Wouldnt this be a legal cage, and your two bent bars just be "extra"? Or is this not how it works? Im completely unaware of the rules, which I'm about to hunt down a copy and read them...

Either way, I agree with you, your cage appears to be very structurally sound and a strong design.

Pure_JDM

update^? and one last question regarding the diagonal bar... Can it be bolted in, rather than welded? I figured I would use a Clevis or some form of it to bolt in the diagonal on track days, once again for the simple reason of keeping a backseat during the week.

DJPimpFlex

well first and foremost the cage can not penetrate the fire wall and mine clearly does. Second the rules state that the cage must have rear down bars with no bends in them, regardless of the cross behind the driver. Honestly its a fine cage, but if I were to do it myself I would have gone with a more standard design. This has just a bunch of showy parts that weigh extra for no real reason. W/e it was cheap.

__________________

AngeloAJC

lechu84

and ready to finish up paint.

EASTSiDe 2 WESTSiDe

damn i want a cage lol @ wrapping paper

lechu84

^lol yuh we had a bunch laying around after the holidays.

Pure_JDM

That's funny. I looked at the pic before the caption and thought you had made an entire cage out of wrappingpaper tubes and paint tape. Haha. I'll be posting up some pics of progress this weekend!

lechu84

kinda looks like PVC piping.