Some Saab 900 cage pics

Work has begun to right some, but probably not all of the wrongs with the semi-caged 1984 900 shell I bought 2 years ago. we still have some sill bars and a-pillar to wheel-well kickers to put in.

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She's screamn' fer eet!
Rallyho
Mike White
http://www.facebook.com/rallyhomotorsports

John, you said there was a simple (cut and weld) way to make this stiffer? Care to share?

second shot shows the WAAAAY too low dash bar we cut out.

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She's screamn' fer eet!
Rallyho
Mike White
http://www.facebook.com/rallyhomotorsports



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/13/2006 12:09PM by Rallyho.

Hey Ill sketch something later, I have to go screw Scanwest out of some money
(for some reason they still order specialty parts from me after nearly 18 years, and no complaints so far!!)

Oh fuck the piccies final;ly loaded.
Get some more sawz all blade, Mike time for some serious revisions, the design is nowhere near meeting current RA, NASA or Canajian rules.

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John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

This is looking to be a Saab story in the making.......

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JohnLane

Volvo 260turbo AKA The Fire Breathing Monster
Overkill is consistently more fun

Well then let's hear some ideas guys. Why will my tech inspector puke when he sees this?

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She's screamn' fer eet!
Rallyho
Mike White
http://www.facebook.com/rallyhomotorsports

i like your door X

that is what i am doing.

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__________________________

i'm in texas panahndle,
full of gas and oil wells
to slalom.

http://bcdracing.com//pics/rally/rally.html

Rallyho Wrote:
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> Well then let's hear some ideas guys. Why will my
> tech inspector puke when he sees this?
>
> Rallyho
> Mike White

Mike I have no idea if the Tech-nerd inspectors will puke but your cage should do more than just meet the rules, it should help the car work better AND live longer.
That HUGE hatch is bigger than an Xratty's and its a big HOLE.
Here's is a drawing of a gentle suggestion, it should look familiar cause its what I arrived at on my 96 after seeing the way Ford useed the cage to disperse stresses and loads coming into the shell where they are the worst: via ths shocks.

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John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

FUCK!

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John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

FUck again

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John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/15/2006 12:46AM by john vanlandingham.

Yup, I've seen that before. it's a good idea. So, you hole-saw down into the wheel well, drop a tube down onto the top mount, weld there, weld to the wheelwell, then re run my rear bars to this vertical tube?

So let me ask you this, is there more force at the shocks or the springs? Cause the spring mounts are where this cage ties to now.

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She's screamn' fer eet!
Rallyho
Mike White
http://www.facebook.com/rallyhomotorsports

The springs just push, they CAN'T increase stress.
Think of this: Push up really hard on a spring of XX in/lb and what does it do?
It compresses according to its poundage.
Unload it and what does it do?
It SPRINGS back.

The DAMPER can ONLY slow down a spring and it CAN slow the force of the car hitting a bump while the car is going a bazzillion mph from what would be upwards of 15 m/sec to some really slow amount.
It CHANGES that energy into heat.
Those are the biggest forces entering the car or "structure" (remember I used to ride bikles, all you have is a tube frame).

You know you can jack a GOOD west coast 900 and then pop the doorhandle and the door will JUMP up and be 5/8" above the opening, the body has twisted and it isn't even hitting anything, just jacked up and its own weight is tweaking it.

The shock will have to slow down very sharp blows which come in, and then slow down the spring which just got compressed all the hell and has a huge amount of energy stored in to and all the force is right there in the mounts.
That's why the mounts front and rear rip out and you never see spring mounts (look at the upper rear mount on the 900 ACK!!! Ack ack!!) protest (when the shell is sound.)

As for hole sawing, I think I'd open up with a jig saw fairly large area (Drill some holes at the 'corners' of your accress port, easier to aim for than a line scratched in the undercoating) kind like in the drawing then run a test tube to the stub surrounding the upper pin mount and see if you can make it WHEN YOU HAVE YOUR BACKSTAYS MEETING THE RULES, and enlarge as needed.. When all done welding all round (nifty access port, eh?) then skin over it with anything to keep the mud out of the car.
My Frod is done this way and it is STIFF and light.
The car effectively becomes a tube frame thang, with the skin and the rest of the body shell as a bonus.

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John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

Very informtive explaination!
I've probably read your rants about this a half dozen times on SS and never figured out WTF you were saying :-)
Thanks!

-Martin.

See, that's the problem with the farking interweb...it's generally not as good at conversation as talking. Those of us who know and have met John in person understand the way he types his "rants." If you don't, the typed medium makes it sound like he's dissing/pissing on/otherwise thumbing his nose at stuff.

This is a good example and Martin, your comment is poignant. John has shown me this exact setup in person at least twice, and we've discussed it a number of times...and I STILL had some holes in my knowlege base.

Oh, that and there are some of us who knew John when he really WAS crazy!!!

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She's screamn' fer eet!
Rallyho
Mike White
http://www.facebook.com/rallyhomotorsports

John, are you saying that there should be some "lower" bars running forward from the shock brace down to the base of the b-pillar bar?

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She's screamn' fer eet!
Rallyho
Mike White
http://www.facebook.com/rallyhomotorsports

Yes on the bar from the turret to B-pillar - on the factory Escort MkV there was an additional bar that ran from the turret to a center bar which bolted to the rear beam, and then back up to the B-pillar again. Fancy





Notice on the cutaway all the tubes terminate ath the TOP of the turret, not sure why the lower turret to B-pillar bar on Merrill's car is welded at a lower spot...

Skye

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