i read a many a post on here and had my instructions handy and this is how it turned out. would yall mind taking a look and tell me if u see anything wrong, its kind of hard to see but it comes with-in about an inch and a half from the roof and theres about a half an inch between the oem door handles and the bar for the door, dont think that makes a difference but i figured i would throw it in there.

 

Looks good to me. Although you may want to find a new place for your fuel cell.

 

The first pic will not pass

The plates and bars must be fully welded

I would grind out the welds in the first pic, they dont look very good
The rest look fine thou

The side bars must be between your shoulder and your elbow when seated
They look a little high but its hard to tell without a person in there

 

needs more welding without a doubt, most of the bars and plates aren't welded around the entire outside area. Also that fuel cell is a death trap in there without the proper firewall. Pick up a NHRA rule book and you'll see what I mean.

 

thanks for the replies, i understand about the firewall needing to be installed, still looking into how to fab that up. if i decide to put carpet or some sort of floor covering back in the car, will the tech guys make me pull the material up in order to inspect the front floor plates or do you think they would just look at the other welds and let those go. if thats not the case, i don't have access to a mig welder anymore, can i get by with stick welding the sides of both front plates that are missing their welds.
if i can get that fuel cell mounted in the original gas tank position(under the car) can i cut a hole for the filler neck inside the car, which would probably fall somewhere between the two rear bars, and not be required to install the firewall.

 

It doesnt look too bad. A little clean up here and there like others have said. I was expecting a lot worse when I clicked on the thread.. haha.

One thing... Are those door bars installed correctly? Something looks strange with them. And it looks fairly difficult to get in and out of... Almost like they are upside down... No offense meant by that. Thats the first Ive seen door bars like that though.

What kit did you use too by the way...?

J.

EDIT: After looking at the pics more, I guess thats really the only way the bars could go... It just looks weird. Looks like it would be easier to crawl under than go over. haha. They might fit flipped over...Ive seen door bars that hug the sill after the occupants arm area.

 

The diagonal bars welded to the tranny tunnel should also have plates under them. There's no support just welding them to the sheet metal.

 

i don't particularly care for the bent door bars, but it's gettin' there! whose kit is that btw?

 

its a s&w kit with the pre-bent door bars for the oem door handles. to be honest with you i don't know if they are installed correctly or not. they pass between the shoulder and elbow when seated in the car, and it is a little difficult getting in and out, but i'm not that fat yet. the kit didn't have enough 6x6 plates to weld under the tranny tunnel bars, so i called hawks and asked and they said it didn't need any.
so what about the 2 missing welds on the plates that go to the firewall in the front. do you think if its covered they won't pull back the carpet or whatever i use to inspect the entire plate. your comments are greatly appreciated.

 

The door bars look to be upside-down. They look like you will not be able to get in and out of the car. The idea is that they go AROUND the arm rest in a manner that still allows you to slide over the bar and into the seat "FAIRLY" easily. May want to call S&W and confirm that. Should look like this only with bars bent around the door pulls.
http://www.swracecars.com/shopquestion.asp?id=339

 

from what i can remember, it seems like i tried doing it the other way, flipping it i mean, and it didn't pass between the shoulder and elbow when sitting in the car. i don't really have any trouble hopping in, i'm really just trying to make sure it will pass an inspection. not really trying to win too many beauty contests with it, just don't want someone telling me i can run down the track.

 

While "most" tech inspectors won't ask for you to pull the carpet back....remember it's your azz that it is there to protect!! Maybe someone else here can help chime in about the door bars, but I would prefer them to go to the floor area instead of in the radius of the door opening. I have mine going to the floor, but that is so that I can tie into them when I do the hoop and a-pillar bars. From the structural side though I am not sure, hopefully someone with a better background in structural analysis can chime in.

 

i see how u could go straight to the floor with out having any door panels, there is nothing in the way. if i did that , i dont believe there would be any room to mount the seat, after clearing the arm rest the bars would be sticking way out. i do like the way you have yours though.

 

Now that I know its an S&W kit...those door bars are def. not right. As long as you weld them to the hoop where you have them, they will pass between your shoulder and elbow no matter what. But they arent supposed to hump upward. Its going to get old trying to climb over that alot.

Do some searching on here... I know there are a handful of threads with roll cage pics and I remember seeing a bunch of S&W kits. Some trimming is usually required, so dont be surprised if you need to work with them to get them to fit.

OH... and the other thing I was going to suggest. You might want to give them a call to double check that you got the correct door bars. Make sure you didnt get a set of door bars for a different car. It can happen....

J.



Actually here is another... that looks like they are oriented like yours. But it doesnt look as hard to get in and out of... You might have just needed to trim the bottoms some and slide them down...

 

after seeing those pictures i see that at least i have them right side up, but they are definitely slid up to high on the firewall. i should have trimmed them down and put them in the floor panel. for me the hassel of doing that may not be worth it. i just want to be able to run at the track.

 

Tubes usually always need to be trimmed since tube location is not always 100% for each installation. The location of the front mount on the floor doesn't have to be as far forward as possible. It can be right at the front of the door frame with your feet sticking past it. A roll bar is designed to protect your body, not your feet.

You need to weld all the way around the 6x6 plates. That's the purpose of having the plates so there's a lot of weld holding the tubes to the sheet metal.

Try climbing over an X bar regularly. At least with a single door bar, you can install a swing out kit to allow easier access.

 

man havent you guys ever watched dukes of hazzard, i'll just jump through the freak'n window, o.k. i got it, finish the last twelve inches of welds, and yall dont like the bar height, i tried thats all i can say.

 

Jeff dont get worked up here... You asked for feedback, and you are getting some good feedback... Its not that we dont like the door bar height...just looks like its a pain to hop in and out thats all. Nothing wrong with Bo Dukin it either! Weld the doors up and you'll have one stiff chassis thats for sure! haha.

Bottom line, if you like the door bars where they are, leave em. If you want to go through the trouble of cutting them out, and moving them around...go for it. Its your car after all.

If its comfy to sit in the way it is, but you dont like having to climb so high, you can always do as someone else suggested and install some swing outs.

I think you did a good job getting the cage most of the way done. The welds that I can see look pretty decent, and you know where you need some attention. Sounds like the project is going fine...especially for a first time roll bar builder.

J.

 

i didn't mean for my last reply to come off as getting worked up, i like hearing what u guys have to say, you guys are the ones with experience, thats why i post here.

 

No biggie! Glad you are getting constructive feedback atleast

Let us know how you make out with finishing it up and snap us a few pics of the progress.

Good luck!

J.

 

I can't climb through my window. My Lexan is permanently attached and doesn't roll up and down. It's only those roundy round guys that run with no side windows.

 

Ok, being late to the game I’m not going to say anything all that shocking.

So here is the basic deal, are you interested in passing tech or are you interested in it being done right?

The fact is that it’s a 6pt bar that will be good to 9.99 at most tracks and doesn’t need to be certified. WRT tech, they’re going to look at it, see that it’s 1.75” tubes and the basic layout and that’s it, you’re fine. They won’t look at the plates if you have carpet/trim in the car… nutshell, you will pass tech (unless you pissed someone off and they don’t want to let you pass tech, but then they’ll always find something.

OTOH, WRT to done right (and if you ever end up trying to upgrade it to a 10pt you’ll have to go through and fix these, they should fail during a cage certification):
- Door bars- I don’t know why everyone is after them, depending on where you are when you’re sitting in the car they look fine, of course, they were intended to be trimmed and you could have gotten away with a setup that would have been much easier
- You really should have a 6x6” or larger plate at any point where the bars connect to the unibody. The reason that you’ll technically get away with what you have for the most part right now is that you’re not required to have the diagonal down bars from the main hoop or the passenger side door bar. That being said, that first plate doesn’t look to be at least 6x6 and it should be welded all around _especially_ on the rocker panel seam side, that’s where you are going to get strength. Same deal with the plates where the trunk bars come down, usually I would try to tie them into the welded body seams where there is some strength, and you shouldn’t have the gaps where floor has the contour.
- I would like to see the diagonal down bars tied into a multiple layer seam, if it was me I’d take the ends off the tunnel and tie them into proper plates above where the rear subframe is connected to the other side of the floor pan
- Yes, the welds are kind of messy, like others have commented, and I would imagine that you would get hassled for a couple of them if you were going for a 10pt cage inspection, but, if you want to fix them you’ll have to cut them out and re-do them. Any signs of grinding the welds to clean them up are grounds to automatically fail tech.
- In the side view it looks like the main hoop might be leaning forward. I’m betting it’s fine, but the rules only allow a few degrees from straight up and down. If someone is going to be picky they might check, usually I recommend to mount it so it’s parallel to the pillar that it’s next to so you don’t even notice it (might not be straight up and down, but that way there is nothing to catch your eye’s attention.
Like I said, throw some carpet/trim in there and you will pass tech, at least the way it is usually enforced, and I’ll even go as far as it’s a pretty good job for first roll bar, but technically it shouldn’t pass, but only for reasons that usually aren’t checked except in a full cage inspection.

 

thanks for the reply mark, yes i'm just looking to pass tech for now, i won't ever break into the 9's, somewhere in the 10's will be plenty for me so i'll get the floor covered(probably would look better than plain metal anyway) and put some sound deadening material in there and let it ride. thanks again.

 

Good post mark. Sums it up pretty nicely!

I figured he'd be ok at the track just passing tech. I havent gone to the track much, but if nothing is obviously dangerous, its usually ok for the cars that arent running super fast. Atleast from what Ive seen.

J.

 

i've heard of guys doing their roll bars in pvc pipe, covering them with insulation, and passing tech, now thats dangerous.

 

no one gets away with PVC pipe and passes tech today, MAYBE 30 years ago it might have happened once.

 

i'm guessing you never ran your car in hattiesburg, ms before. i've seen covertible mustang with the top down, no roll bar, 4 people in the car, drinking a bud light at the lights, and make a 10 sec pass. the track has been sanctioned since then and they have tighten up quite a bit.

 

One of the local tracks which is now closed (unrelated, land was sold to a developer building a retirement community) got tired of my brother “pedaling it” all night and then running one fast pass at the end of the night getting him kicked out as the track closed and the tech inspector finally told him “Don’t come back until you have a roll bar in the car, I don’t care if you make it out of PVC or toilet paper rolls, as long as it looks legal from 10’ away…”

 

Here is a couple ideas for the fuel cell.

You do need to put a barrior between you and the fuel. And roll over vent.

As stated... looks like a PITA to get in but it's not our butts

Anyhow..here's the cell pic's~