So about transferring a cage from one car to another...

Is that kosher? Feasible?

I still haven't really really inspected the underside of my Legacy to see if it's repairable but a quick glance showed some torn metal around one of the front A-arm mounting points(unibody, not the replaceable subframe), that is worrisome. But somebody at Hood said maybe I could lop of the roof, remove the cage, and drop it into another legacy chassis. That would be a time saver, $$$ too. Then I could do some cage upgrades for more headroom and steering wheel clearance.

It would be great if I could work on it over the winter and have it ready again for OTR.

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Brap Brap.

Yes you can swap a cage. I've cut roofs or actually cut the cage apart. Either way works. Post some pics of the damage. It is usually worse looking to people who aren't used to repairing that kind of damage.

If I did this (ripped trailing arm AND toe link mounts from the frame):


Then did this:


And then back to doing this:



It's always possible to fix things you think look destroyed.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/02/2011 11:00PM by BillyElliot.

!!! SHIT. I will get some pics then! Thanks guys.

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Brap Brap.

Quote
BillyElliot
If I did this (ripped trailing arm AND toe link mounts from the frame):


It's always possible to fix things you think look destroyed.

"Tennessee, Tennessee, ain't no place that I'd rather be, baby won't you carry me back to Tennessee."

back in the bolt in cage days a modded an integra cage for my toyota celica

better times?

Ok. So I got the engine and trans out and finally took some photos.





Good door jamb:

Notice the wrinkle in this jamb-







Maybe I should go to dirtfish?


Personally I think finding a new chassis and doing a cage swap would be simpler and more time effective for me. I don't have a rotisserie, and I'd have to find a new shell to get parts from anyway.

I need 3 new doors, a new roof, hood, and all the bent stuff in all those photos.

John, the front struts look straight. Not a bend in sight. The pass side top mount was ripped free.

I imagine these are the areas people spend time seam welding too huh?

Here is a link to the rest of the pics: https://picasaweb.google.com/chriscaylor/RADRALLYWRECKAGE?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCM_bzsy9ucjqxQE&feat=directlink

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Brap Brap.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/23/2011 05:16PM by biggreen96.

Chris, bummer indeed. And yeah now you see the violence inherent in the system.
Especially since you didn't stitch weld.

In Ford's 70s rwd Escort book and 10 years later in the rwd Sierra Cosworth
page one, paragraph 1, first line talks about strengthening the shell.

I don't think it was an accindent they started there.

They said "an limits accident damage...."

Isn't it amazing those gawddam ears are OK? They were done out of the same sheet as all the ears we've seen bending on the rears.
That says "it ain't a load of unusually soft steel". It has to be in the shitty geometry of the knuckle combined with something else.

It does look like a reshell is needed, you cwertainly ought to be able to carve up the shell enough to easily extract the cage and plant it in another Le-gassy..

Do you know what you did to flip? I haven't heard.
Tell us.

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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.

I just remember a trail of parts for about a 1/8 mile before we got to you on the roof, so something exciting must have happened.

New shell.

Lop the roof off at the pillars, cut large chunks of floor around the mounts and remove. Then you can trim everything back to steel. You should be able to gently cut the cage at the 1/2 later/main hoop joint. Cut the door bars and A pillar supports out. Set the main hoop in,leave it loose. T ack the front cage to it. Drop the front legs thru the floor if needed and weld the main hoop roof joint. Raise the front legs and weld cage in place. Install door bars. If you trim everything closely you will lose about 1/4 inch of cage front to back. OR neatly cut the roof off the new shell at the bottom of the pillars. Weld a piece of exhaust tubing across the door openings to prevent shell sagging first. Either way works.

So much for the Dirtfish sponsorship....

Quote
alkun
I just remember a trail of parts for about a 1/8 mile before we got to you on the roof, so something exciting must have happened.

And it was resting in the middle of a reasonably long straight, that's what corn-fused me. You're 'spossed to stuff and flip screwing up entrances to corners, not the middle of straights.

Well Gobble gobble gobble......

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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.

As I remember it, we went off on the outside on a right hand corner. We drove on the embankment for a while, we were curving back towards the road. I looked down to read the next note, the drivers side front hit something solid, throwing us back onto the road on my door. We then rolled over on to the roof and headed down the road for a ways like that.

Quote
Billyee
As I remember it, we went off on the outside on a right hand corner. We drove on the embankment for a while, we were curving back towards the road. I looked down to read the next note, the drivers side front hit something solid, throwing us back onto the road on my door. We then rolled over on to the roof and headed down the road for a ways like that.

There was no curving back toward the road Billy, Sorry. We were pretty much boned. All morning I was conservative with my 5's and 6's and then after that service we kinda thought, hey, I could commit more to those because the notes seemed okay. They were pretty consistent, we hadn't had any bad scary note incidences/inconsistencies. That section I think was: R6 R5 L5 long into R4 over crest. But that R4 was there too soon. I don't think I should have put LONG in there. Or maybe the R4 should have been a R3.

At any rate, the tail got away from me, we went wide, slammed the drivers wheel and door into the embankment @50ish(between where Adam and George are parked), caught some air, came down hard on the passenger front, mangling that wheel pushing it back into the well, ripping the tophat and taco'ing the LCA. I guess we slid on your side for a little bit( it's the most mangled by far) and came to rest.

LATCH AND LINK can go to HELL and BURN. I spent 25 of the longest seconds in my life trying to escape from those shitty fucking belts. At 1:30, 45 seconds after I had starting getting free, I was still not in a safe place. If we had been ahead of Dave and Terry in the order, the day would have ended far worse. I really really wish we would have rolled up into the bushes. I could have relaxed...

Here is the vid:



Thanks everybody for your help and support, I wouldn't be coming back if you folks weren't so rad. See you at OTR. I think I'm headed up to Big White too so we can BS there as well.

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Brap Brap.