Thanks Alex!

here are a couple more, from last night


Huge thanks, to Dan Norkus and Alex Staidle for their help. Friday night was the first night I haven't left this project frustrated. Felt good to make progress.






Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/29/2012 01:42PM by aj_johnson.

Looks good! Keep it up.

Another productive night last night. Sorry for the crappy pics. Cell camera was all I had. Plus I thing I had the shakes from over a week of 4.5-5 hours of sleep a night and way too many red bulls.

Added the rear strut bar and x in the back stays.



Quick shot of the roof X


Everything is just tacked into place. But I'm at a point where we can drop the cage and final weld all the bars that I've put in. I shouldn't have to do any more welds up by the ceiling after this.


Starting to look like a cage!


couple more crappy pics






I've logged well over 60 hours getting the cage to the point it's at now. The learning curve was frustrating. The first pieces you bend are long, multiple bend tubes that will kick your ass if you screw up one measurement or bend. Cardboard templates are a life saver. Having a refrigerator sized box you can cut up to fit main hoop is crucial.

On top of which I think Dan and Alex saved my morale on this one. The day they came and helped was the first day I haven't left the shop ready to light the car on fire.

Dan, I think I could cut the time i've put into this one by at least 40% if we were to do another one, we'll see if I have any desire to even look at a car by the time I'm done.
I'm taking a night off tonight to spend with the wife and kids who just got back from visiting their grandparents for a week. Tomorrow, some of the other rally cars are headed to Oregon trail so likely no progress till next monday or so.

whoes doing the welding to finish it up?

---

First Rally: 2010 First RallyX: 2004 (a bunch)
Driver (0), Co-Driver (7)
Organizer (3), Volunteer (3)
Cars Built (2.5), Engines Blown (2) Cages Built (0) # of rotations (3.5)
Last Updated, Apr 9, 2023

Supposed to be Kable (sp?) doing it tonight, but the wife and kids came home last night and I haven't seen them for over a week now, I'm going to have to cancel. I haven't talked with Dick yet, but odds are good there wont be any more work on the car till next mon/tues after Oregon Trail.

yea that sounds about right with them leaving. I think you still need the lateral support bar or what its called and perhaps a supporting bar between the mainhoop and the a pillar bar at the 45 degree angle or so. Wish i had a name for that bar...

---

First Rally: 2010 First RallyX: 2004 (a bunch)
Driver (0), Co-Driver (7)
Organizer (3), Volunteer (3)
Cars Built (2.5), Engines Blown (2) Cages Built (0) # of rotations (3.5)
Last Updated, Apr 9, 2023

Quote
Gravity Fed
yea that sounds about right with them leaving. I think you still need the lateral support bar or what its called and perhaps a supporting bar between the mainhoop and the a pillar bar at the 45 degree angle or so. Wish i had a name for that bar...

The "goes from the base of main hoop up to the X bar and backstay junction bar"? Yeah needs a catchier name.

---

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.

Pulled a few bars out and fine tuned the notching last night. I wasn't really happy with where things were ending up, mostly due to the fact that I need a few more degrees bend in the pass half lateral. Rather than be pissed off pulling the bar out and royally screwing it up, I moved on to the drivers side door bars. These are just resting in place, using a lightly tension-ed come along to test fit.



Started the main hoop X but it was late and I'm going to have to start getting fancy with the notching.

Nice work for your first cage. It gets easier. Also must be nice having 4 doors to get to joints.

Looks WAY easier to work on with the rear doors off . I'm down to work on it again with you. I'm on call this weekend but I will try come Saturday anyway. Probably won't be until 1pm or so.

Dan, you've missed out on a bunch of grinding. I'm pretty sure I could recycle my boogers for scrap at this point.

Got a few more cage bars done last night only 4 more bars, a ton of welding and a bunch of gussets to go. Most of these bars are just clamped in place.




I'm not 100% sure about a decision I made last night. I would like at some point to box the front strut towers and install camber/castor plates. There is just no chance I can afford the plates right now. I don't want to have to cut out the entire front bar, and strut support bars to do so. So I fitted the the tower bar through the rain tray to the towers. Theory is, when i box the towers, I can weld them right up to the existing bars and not have to cut anything out.






Can I bend these gusset bars that go from the main hoop to the half lateral?



Sorry about the shitty pics

Just tuned back into this thread. A couple things stand out.

1: Nice job!!! Bar placement is very good. Really good for first timer actually.
2: Make sure the front tower bars allow the wiper linkage to rotate and be changed out if it breaks.
3: The rear lower support bars coming from the upper door bar. They normally come from the bottom of the main hoop, not the middle. They don't offer much support up there, block access to the rear seat area if you wanted to carry a spare there or some such. I'd change them if you still can.

I like the growth in Idaho, you guys are doing great.

Quote
heymagic

3: The rear lower support bars coming from the upper door bar. They normally come from the bottom of the main hoop, not the middle. They don't offer much support up there, block access to the rear seat area if you wanted to carry a spare there or some such. I'd change them if you still can.

I like the growth in Idaho, you guys are doing great.

Thanks, Alex and Dan have been a huge help and I cant thank Dick enough for all of his help.

There is loads of room for the wipers, the pic just doesn't show it.

Rear support bars: the angle down seemed so extreme that I was having a tough time visualizing what it was doing or supporting.
My thought process was
I have these two pieces of scrap that are the right size,
having the bar tie into the door bar seemed to provide more support as far as strut tower deflection
plus it provided a continuous support for the door bar in event of a side impact.

It seemed to be the stronger solution. Would you still change it? What is the reasoning for running it to the base of the main hoop, other than access?

Also, do you see any issues with where I'm thinking of placing the main hoop to half lateral support bar/gusset bar? Any issues with bending it? or should I shorten it and make it straight?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/15/2012 10:21AM by aj_johnson.

Let me think about the helmet protector bar for a wee bit here.

The rear bars...I'm not saying you need to move them only that I would. I've seen guys run the lower bar straight back along the sill to a junction and then up at an angle to the struts. Allows the best access and uses up small scraps. You can certainly leave it the way it is if you want.

You might be getting a little tight on dimension A with the main hoop to half lateral (helmet protector protector). Minimum of 300 mm to attachment point of a-pillar support (WRC bar).
Looks good though.

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Grant Hughes