hehe, i got enough tubes to make something serious now, lol! ya'll watch out! (keep lookin' back for more updates over the next few days)

looking good, i'm about to order a 8 pt bar myself since i'm sitting on 11.53 with traction issues.

i gotta do more bars too.

i'm just gonna do enough to go 10.00 for now...i'm not into adding too much more weight if i don't need it(i'll be doing a couple of overkill things on this, just for cool factor), and i don't particularly care for the way the competition engineering halo's fit...and i can't afford anything else, so i'm gonna hold off...i don't really mind taking it apart to do it again later honestly...it's all part of hotrodding, lol!

ill run ya

They fit better than Jegs. They all have to be cut, and some need to be spread some. At least Comps come with enough extra to put the main hoop where you want it. They are made for no dash though, so that may be a challenge. I've installed 3 from Comp and 2 from Jegs. Had to bend them from both places. I had to go with Jegs because Comp didn't make one for my GA, neither did Jegs , but they made one for a Beretta and it worked. What kind of welder are you going to be using? I bought a Hobart 140 and have built 3 cars with it. A very good welder for the money, and it works off of 115 vac with a 10 ga cord.

i'm using a little 110v miller...this is only getting the main hoop and door bars(and rears of course, but no halo/a-pillars for now)...this kit looks better than my dad's, he used the jegs kit. i was under the impression that the jegs kit WAS the comp. eng. kit, but after seeing this, i don't think that it is....

Might as well go with a 10 or 12 pt now, They don't cost that much more. Get rid of the chassis flex for more consistant 60s. You can leave out the door bars if you still drive it on the street, or make them swing out, removable. It"ll cost more to upgrade later.

hehe...i bet you would...
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i'm actually on a bit of a time crunch with this deal, so that's why i'm doing it this way. i don't like how the pre-bent kits (any of them, not S&W, not Alston's, not CE's, not Jeg's, nobody's) fit for the a-pillar and halo area. i'd rather do it this way and add in some custom bent pieces later....when i have more time to get it done the way i want, and can afford to pay someone to spend a few hours bending up some nice stuff....

Ah yes. Adding about 70 pounds to the car will keep you away even more
I need my entire cage with a 110v welder. I used .023 wire cranked up to the highest setting.

I wish my workbench looked that clean.

Nope, Jegs makes their own kit in house. Most of the Jegs bars are 1 1/4 except what is manditory to be 1 5/8. When I bought the first kit, it stated 1 5/8 12 point kit, when I got it, it was mix and match. I called raising heck with them, and they told me to send it back for a refund if I wasn't happy. With me paying shipping both ways. Needless to say, I spend my money with Summit now.

A 1-5/8" bar without the halo and a-pillar bars won't be legal.

My full cage originally started off as a Jegs kit but I've modified it since then to make it better however I still don't have the bars going through the firewall.

yeah, i noticed that the bars were bigger, the notches were nicer, the bars were longer, they included gussets, and the door bars have a nice bend in them...i'm gonna put those in differently than the directions suggest, gonna see if i can make them fit in there to allow me to get my big butt in and out of there a little better...
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haha, very funny...i guess you missed the post where i got a new motor

mine is 1 3/4" x .130"

You're right Stephen. It takes a 1 3/4 for 6 and 8 points to be legal. Been a long time since I did one of those.

gee, i started out with a pile of straight tube...where did i screw up?
sure is handy having a bender handy, none of that well thats how it came stuff, but thinking in several dimensions is somewhat of a pain.

yes it is, and i'm gonna make sure to come up and play with that bender when i do my a-pillars...but i'm gonna really take my time with this piece and i think it'll turn out really super nice...we'll see.

lol, you pick THE hardest bar to want to use a bender on lol, If it comes out like that 4th gen, I think it will be ok

welcome to being a race car

good point.. i ordered the 8 point last night without thinking... by next year i should be turbo'd and shooting for bottom 10's/high 9's at near 135 if not over. i'l need the 10 point for 9.99 or 135 which ever comes first

i'm just trying to be like you

I gotta say that the S&W kit is the best fit kit you`ll find pre-bent, I wouldn`t think twice about another one if needed.

i don't like the halo...i want one bar that goes from the main hoop, all the way down the a-pillar, to the floor, then a crossbar across the top of the windshield.

i got a little done today. i ran out of wire half-way through welding up my first 6x6 plate, so i had to make a parts run early on. this bar is FAR more work than ben's nice wolfe-racecraft bar, but i think this is gonna turn out really good. here's a couple of pics of what i got accomplished:

got the main hoop and over the seat bars tacked into place...it's amazing how much time it takes doing all the prep work







a good one showing just how far back i was able to put that main hoop, nearly invisible from the side. don't worry, it's still only 5" from the back of my helmet, well within NHRA specs.

did you remove teh gas tank for the rear bars? i am gonan do my bar and am worried about that

nope, and haven't on the other two i did that the bars went to that spot as well.

cool cuz i dont wanna pull the rear/ then the tank just to install a roll bar. Then have to pull rear again to put the 12 bolt in whenever i get that piece of hardware

Hey Guy's forgive me if I'm wrong but I thought all welding on cages had to be stick welded? not wire. just a question thanks Dave

absolutely not. SMAW welding is strictly prohibitted by the NHRA actually. Mild Steel can be MIGed or TIGed, and chromoly can only be TIGed.

my hoop is not visible from the side at all so you could have gone back another inch no problem. It took me and a buddy about 14 hours start to finish to put in my roll bar.

Looks really good man! Could you take some pics of the floor plates close up to show how you positioned them for me? Also how have you been welding those plates in? Weld a few inches at a time and jump around on the plate? Any problems with blowing through? Did you countour the plates by heating them up and bending them to get the right shape? Thanks for the help.

i did have a problem blowing through on one of the plates...i've had best results by turning the heat down and just really pushing the wire into the weld and go about 3" at a time. the blowing through was with the heat too high and you can tell the heat was too high by how flat the weld got.

as far as forming them, i didn't worry about heating them up, i just beat them into shape...was a trial-error style fitment...

:drools: makes me wanna build a wheels up 1320 beater...

well when i finally get my head outta my butt and figure out where i wanna go with my motor im be caging mine... just cuz it looks cool... and whether its a straight line beater or corner carver it should help

Looking Good Matt...It amazes me everytime I see something like this, You have come along way in a shrt time.Very impressed. One of these days we might have to hook up and to this to mine.

hey why did you put the rear bars there? and for the other guys post some close ups of the plates on the floor.
I see that you labeled the pass. side, good to keep your directions straight lol

Auto Weld also makes a nice kit. I had to add some angle to the rear bars, but otherwise it fit like a glove.

my logic was that it's directly over the springs and just aft the shocks...

here's some pics guys:







more bars:








all four back in for fitment:







i realize that some of the welds on the not-so-necessary bars aren't the prettiest, but they'll hold the bars well and add all kinds of integrity to the car, so don't pick too hard. the necessary bars all have excellent looking welds and will pass tech without a problem.

more pics with it all back together for real will happen in a few days...back to work in the morning.

Why are you keeping the back seat? Extra weight and no one can use them.

cool factor...they'll come out if i decide that the 30lbs they weigh is enough to justify pulling them out...

Ok .. Do not forget to put the tab in to hold the harness.
And it looks great Matt.

hehe, yeah, i know...it was midnight last night...i had to take a break. i still got a couple of inches of wire to burn to get it all squared around.

HUH? those bars are over nothing.....well ok just a piece of u channel that's sort of spot welded to the floor, but all it does is hold the tank up the rails are further over

those are on the corner of the rail in the back, but i added a crossmember in for a anti roll bar, but the tube is over the rail. Obviously its too late to change that now lol, but it does look good. If you go to a fuel cell in the future you can put a square tube crossmember under there to help stiffen that up. also you can wrap your sholder harness around the bar if you want, with the factory seat it wont matter, but if you weld a tab on then attach the belt loop and change to a race seat, it might stick through the seat....just a heads up. I would put something to keep the straps in place if you wrap them.

That looks frigin awesome man! Great job. Pics show it off well and I do second keeping the rear seats for the cool factor. These pictures will help out a lot when next year or over the winter I install my roll bar. When do you plan to take it to the track to see what the new motor will run?

rich, honestly, i was just going off my dad's car as that's where his bars land. i see what you're saying, and when the car does start to go that route, i'll definitely make sure to put the extra bracing underneath.

gtpro700, the next scheduled race is the 28th of this month. i gotta get this finished up and get the transmission out, and back into my 1991 dodge d250 before then so i can get the car to the track. and i gotta see what's up with the ignition on this car as it's goin crazy, droppin' cylinders left and right and generally pissing me off.

If you need any helpMatt let me know

matt...looking great. thats one of the hardest parts of building legal race cars. cant wait to hear how it runs at the track now. beautiful work.

Ok you are in better shape than us...atleast your engine is running lol. did the misfiring occur before? also what ignition parts are from which car?

I think I was just about to find the limit of the stock main caps, which are supposedly the weakest ones gm made lol

dang things were walking all over. it has billet caps now, and nitrous rings so maybe it will run with the big boys now!

Very nice looking!


Is there any reason NOT to put a roll bar in a 'fast' car that only has 2 seats to begin with? ie; any hassles street driving with one?

climbing over the door bar is the biggest pita. also, if your head is near any bars, its a good idea to wear a 5 point harness and helmet whenever you drive it to the grocery store or whatever. and thats a pain since it limits visibility and movement to the point where its hard to back the car up. 5 point harness takes 10x as long to put on also.

i'm not looking forward to the harness thing. Cool factor but my gosh its gonna be a pain i bet

If I actually get to it, maybe I'll just do the main hoop and rear bars until I need to have the door bars.

what sucks for me is the car can do 11.40's as it sits on a good day but with another 100lb from a 8 pt bar, it will struggle to hit 11.5's haha. oh well. got nitrous for that problem