AlkyIROC

If you've followed the thread in the racing forum, you'll know that I'm changing my roll cage. When I tried to get a chassis certification last month, many of the welds were not good enough. It would have taken a lot of work to grind out all the bad welds to redo them plus I didn't like where I positioned a few of the bars so I decided to just cut the whole thing out and install a new cage.

I ordered the main hoop, halo and A-pillar bars from S&W. The straight tubing I purchased locally because I wanted more than what a basic kit provides and shipping costs to send all that straight tube across the border would have been ridicules. The downside is that I ordered the straight tubing 2 weeks ago and they're having shipping problems and the tubes may not arrive until the end of next week. I still had quite a few pieces left over from the old cage and other projects so installation of the new cage started today.

I didn't like the way the A-pillar bars were bent so I decided to do it a little different. This different way is an acceptable cage fabrication and makes positioning the bars much more easier.

Enough chatter. Here's pics of today's installation. The car is a little wet. I managed to get it back into the garage just before the rain/snow started.

AlkyIROC

AlkyIROC

Shagwell

Looking good. - Remember to do the door bars last.

AlkyIROC

Everything in the above pictures has now been painted gloss black and looks really good. I'll clean off the paint where the rest of the bars are going to attached then repaint.

It looks like I'm going to use up most of the old cage for extra tubing in this one. I've devised a way to incorporate a funny car cage using the extra pieces. Best guess is that 146 pounds I took out will be close to 250 when I'm done.

Because I still think I'm going to be short of 1-5/8" tubing, do you think there's going to be any issues if I do the rear X brace with 1-1/2"?

The rear tubes will be 1-5/8". There will be at least one short 1-5/8" vertical support under each tube. From the sides of the main hoop will be 1-5/8" tubes joining the rear tubes roughly where the vertical supports are then a 1-5/8" cross tube between the rear tubes completing a loop for the side tubes. The rear X brace shouldn't need to be 1-5/8" since I'm adding in those extra 1-5/8" tubes from the sides.

I did a google search for "funny car cage" and found lots of web sites showing different configurations including the tubing at the rear. Since the main rear tubes and the main hoop diagonals are the only real requirements, how I configure the rest shouldn't be a problem.

Over engineering again. Wait until you see how I do the funny car cage

I installed the window net before I painted the cage last night. The forward lower mount isn't done because I need the door bars installed first. In the second picture, you can see the dash pad back in place. It's only sitting there for now. Looks like it's going to fit over the dash bar but I need to make a new support to hold it up again.

AlkyIROC

Cleaned up another piece of the old cage to reuse and made a roof diagonal bar. I didn't have a long enough straight section to reach corner to corner so I used a bend to turn the tube back towards the top of the main hoop opposite where one of the rear bars is going to go. I painted most of it and tack welded it into place. I'm going to need to cut off the tack welds and reposition a little more but here's how it's going to sit.

The idea of a funny bar cage is being shelved. Once I got the roof diagonal into place, I sat in the car to see how much room I would have. The funny car tubes would make it difficult to almost impossible to get in and out of the car. The only way it would work is if I angled the main hoop back and moved the seat back 6-8" or cut off the rear crossbrace and moved the seat back which would mean a longer steering shaft, moving the brake and throttle pedal back etc. It's just not worth it. The funny car cage isn't required for an 8.50 certification and it adds a lot of extra weight with the additional tubes. That means I still have the bent A-pillar tubes to use somewhere else if I can. Maybe I can use them to go through the firewall.

Shagwell

My over head X is only 1-1/4" tubing(maybe 1-1/2", can't remember off-hand).

You should be fine with using the 1-1/2" for the rear X, I'd have to check the book to be certain, but I don't believe there are any specific requirements(iirc, an X is not a requirement anyway).

If you're not already 100% set on the window net mount, put a 3/8 rod end on the upper net rod and weld a nut to the main hoop to bolt it to. That way, when you release it, it just swings down/back and doesn't lay in(tangle) a messed up pile on/around your harness belts.

I'm going to be adding some more pipes when I get ready to put the blower motor in.

edit: pic removed to eliminate clutter. Link to my camaro's photobucket album in post #18.

AlkyIROC

I don't think there is a spec for the rear X bars unless you're building a 25.5 car.

I plan on doing my rear bar setup similar to what you have except the tubes coming from the sides of the main hoop to the rear bars have bends so they'll join up closer to a 90* angle to the rear tubes instead of having a sharp cut to join them.

That tube on yours coming off the main hoop and going down that's part of the RH rear of the funny car cage. Where does it go? Is it attached to the crossbar, goes all the way down to the floor/subframe etc or does it attach to the RH front downtube of the funny car cage?

What's the specifications for driver protection with the funny car cage? How far forward do the forward tubes need to be? Equal to the driver's chest etc? The only reference I can find in the rulebook is under altered and dragster cages. The helmet must be a minimum of 3" behind the forward bar. Maybe I'll remeasure and still be able to do something since my seat is tilted back so I sit in more of a slightly reclined position. Following those rules, my torso wouldn't have as much protection.

My old window new system used rod ends to allow it to drop down out of the way. I already see that I need to refabricate the current setup. The way I have it now, even with the top taken off, the front of the bottom rod doesn't drop down. The rear of the bottom mount needs to be on some sort of pivot and the rear of the top rod would do well on a pivot. The way I did it before was to weld a bolt to the main hoop, slide the rod end over the bolt and use a nut to hold it on. Welding a nut to the main hoop could be just as simple and wouldn't have the end of the bolt sticking through.

AlkyIROC

I added in a top cross bar as the top front of a funny car cage. It's the recommended distance away from my helmet. Sitting in the proper position, if I tilt my head down, it won't touch the bar.

I also redid the net mounts to a hinge system. I didn't do the lower mount yet until I see what's going to work best. I think just a simple tab for the rod to slide through will work best. When the net is unlatched and drops down, because of the angle of the upper mount bolt, it swings outwards. This just means I need to put the net up to close the door. To make it stay in the car when unlatched, the rod would need to be bent roughly 6" away from the mount. If I do this now, the latch won't line up. I'd have to install a longer rod to make it work like that.

I need to cut out those main hoop diagonals and reposition them lower on the main hoop. They're in the way of how I want to run a tube behind the headrest.

Shagwell

Yes, the pipe that runs in line with the funny car hoop connects between the main hoop and the cross-bar (which is fairly low in my car). - IIRC, the rule is 2" in front of your helmet but it may be 3", similiar to open-wheel cars. I mostly just shoot for being far enough forward that I can't possibly hit it with my helmet on, strapped in and no kneck restraint(just for fitment purposes). As required with any over head pipes, I have SFI approved padding on both sides up top and in the back(although the kirkey wouldn't let me head get there anyway).

I used a rod end/spherical joint as the net pivot, that way it can swing various angles from the pivot point. My net rods are 3/8 tubing. The lower has threads in either end and simply has two small plates welded to the cage which the rod sits between to bolt in. The upper is threaded on one end for the rod end and has the latch on the other. - You could easily use a female threaded rod end on a solid rod as well, or just weld the sperical end directly to the rod.

The car is at my ol man's house with the motor out right now(again ). I'll shoot by there this evening and get some pics.

50bmgshooter

iTrader: (4)

is that knee {dash} bar going to be legal? as far as I know all the "point" or "down bars must be in one piece!
I think you should have ran the bars down in one piece then added the dash bar in between
I know you said its acceptable but it definitely looks like a weak link to me.

Shagwell

Yes, it's acceptable. Some full chassis kits have the pillar pipes sectioned at the dash pipe. - If welded poperly it is every bit as strong as one piece bars, plus if he X's the doors, it will be even further braced anyhow.

It's kind of a hind-sight 20/20 deal anyhow. I think knowing what he knows now he would have got the pre-bent bars that were meant to go through the dash instead of the ones that were meant to be infront of it. - Oh well, it will work fine and be legal as is.

AlkyIROC

I didn't like the shape of the prebent bars and was looking at alternate ways to mount them. With the prebent bars, I could have put the lower mount high up on the firewall to tuck the upper part closer to the A-pillar then added another downtube to go straight down from it. Although this would have worked, it required welding more plates to the sheetmetal and because of how I have the electrics panel mounted on the passenger side, I would have had to modify it again to put the tube in.

Putting the A-pillar bars in like I did is an acceptable way of doing it. You need to upgrade the dash bar from 1-1/4" to 1-5/8" and the ends of the tube need to be capped off.

I stopped off at the metal supplier today to pick up some more small tubing for gussets and my order just arrived. I screwed up the order but it's not a big issue. I ordered 1-5/8" and 1-1/2" tubing but should have ordered 1-5/8" and 1-1/4". It's all .134" wall as it should be. They also sent it in 17' lengths instead of the standard 20' length. The two 17' lengths of 1-5/8" I had cut to three 5' lengths each plus the extra 2' left over which I can still use as new tubing instead of reusing some of the old cage. The 1-1/2" was cut into quarters so four 4-1/4' lengths which will be fine for what I need them for.

The difference from 1-1/4" to 1-1/2" will add a little more weight but will never fail an inspection for being larger than required. The 1-1/2" will be needed to X the door and to put the X at the rear. The rear won't be too bad considering I was originally going to do that with 1-5/8" anyway. The 1-1/2" won't look as small as the 1-1/4" would have. I don't think I have enough left over 1-1/4" to do the doors so I'll upgrade those to 1-1/2" also.

I'm still guessing the new cage will add 250 pounds to the car. My race weight this year may be back in the 3100 range.

I was thinking about using a rod end today on the rear end of the upper window rod. That would allow it to pivot inward as it's dropped down and may be just enough to allow the door to be closed. If I have a spare one in my garage, that will be part of tonights projects.

So your front and rear inner tube of the funny car cage both go down the the lower 1-5/8" crosstube or does the front tube just join up to the rear tube just before camera level?

iroc a 86 berli

man looks good, for 4 days u got alot done!

AlkyIROC

Not really. Since last Saturday when the bulk was welded in, everything since then has only been tacked in. I also had the advantage of already having the front floor plates welded in from the previous cage. I spent last week removing the last of the old cage and making new plates for the main hoop. Still lots to do. I can see most of this weekend will be spent welding. The more prep work I get done now, the better it will be. Cutting, trimming, notching takes time. Considering how many ideas have changed in the last few days, I'm glad it wasn't all welded in at once.

I took out that forward upper tube for the funny car cage. For the second time, the idea is being shelved.

I tacked in the rear tubes and one side tube then slid a cross tube up between the rear tubes tonight just to see how it would all fit. The leftover pieces of the 1-5/8" 17' length are 32" long. If I keep the rear X bars between the rear tubes on the main hoop, I can utilize them to almost the exact same spot I had the X bars before on the frame rails. I'm going to put a short upright from the frame rail to the rear tube roughly where the cross bar goes. The X bars can attach easier to the upright than directly to the frame rails.

All these tubes covered in silver paint are parts of the old cage

Notice that there's no seal lip around the rear window. Those holes along the lip is where I pop riveted the rear Lexan window in place. Paint the rivet heads black and nobody notices.

iroc a 86 berli

oh, i hear ya. the final burning in takes a while. i forgot to wear long sleeves when i did my, and had skin peeling off! i thought the notching and fitting is the hardest part.

anyways looks stout enough, i can see shelving the funny car cockpit for now. whats the blue hose running to the roof?

on the lexan window, is it like a one piece deal? like the decklid and window.

AlkyIROC

The blue line is the parachute cable. You can see it going to the release lever in the above pictures looking in through the T-tops. I haven't reattached the lever yet. I was waiting to see where some of the tubes were going to go and maybe relocate the handle. Actually, the way I have the roof diagonal now, it would be cleaner to run the cable across the roof diagonal and down the passenger side rear tube. Drilling a hole on the other side of the parachute mount isn't difficult. Just means I need to change the mount bracket on the roof before attaching the mount for the lever. Attach them both to the roof diagonal would be simple.

You can see an aluminum channel running across the back. The Lexan is first pushed up under the top of the roof then slid back into the channel. That's as far back as it goes. I'll fabricate supports along the rear bars to hold the Lexan up into place since it's very thin and flexible and won't support it's own weight. You can see one of the Dzus fastener mounts at the edge. There's 2 on each side and 3 across the aluminum channel. A deck lid is cut out of a sheet of aluminum and is held on with the Dzus fasteners. The deck lid extends up over the aluminum channel so you can't see the channel when the lid is on. I run a strip of foam tape across the front edge of the aluminum so it doesn't scratch the Lexan. I mounted the factory spoiler onto the deck lid and from a distance it still looks like a factory car. Most real race cars only look factory. Close up you can see how much they've been modified. Go look at a tube chassis car some day and see how the body is hung off the chassis to give it the appearance of a real car.

All the tubes currently in the car now total 110 pounds and I still need to put in the door bars, sill bar and rear X.

Shagwell

Rear pipes are looking good! I'd run some of the smaller pipe straight down between the rear pipes and the frame rails right at the coil-over mount tube.

Yes, both the rear and the front pipes of the funny car cage tie to the 1-5/8 cross pipe on the main hoop.

My chute release is mounted on the roof diagonal as well, cable running down the passengers' side rear pipe.

I took a bunch of pics yesterday evening, but didn't get home in time to up-load them. Actually, I went over there on the bobber thus it was then a unanimous decision to ride up the road and have a couple cold ones. I will load them this evening when I get home and post them up. Might be a good idea for me just to do a "my outlaw car" thread and post them all in there so as not to clutter this thread up.

edit: Nevermind the thread idea, not feeling like doing a big write-up on my turd. Here's a link to my camaro album:
http://s455.photobucket.com/albums/q...tlaw%20camaro/

AlkyIROC

Good pics. I'll have to flip through that later tonight

Wheee! Window net mount version 3! Bent the upper rod to follow the contour of the halo bar and installed a 3/8" rod end onto it. Cut off the old 5/16" nut and welded a 3/8" nut to the hoop. Window net now falls inside the car when released.

Cleaned up and tacked in the other rear side tube and cut the rear verticals. They're only placed in for show as they may need to be removed to weld up all those tubes and the verticals are not completely fitted yet.

Doing some trial fitting, it looks like I'll have enough 1-1/4" tubing to do the door X tubes. I'm not sure what I'll use the 1-1/2" tubing for yet. Maybe do the rear X right out to the outer part of the hoop instead of using the shorter pieces of 1-5/8" tubing and keeping the X between the rear tubes. Join them behind where the halo attaches.

roughskinjrz

looks intense, good job man!!

Shagwell

Looking good Stephen! Trust me, you'll love the net being like that. It's considerably easier to mess with.

I didn't get any really good shots of the back. I was a bit lazy and didn't feel like pulling the rear window out(pretty sad since it's only dezeus'd in).

iroc a 86 berli

stephen. cool i figured it was something along those lines. i see what your saying about the aluminum channel for the decklid, looks pretty functional. i bet ditching the stock glass saved u 100lbs at least?

****, your car looks insane, got any vids of it running down the track, or even at ur house? i wanna hear that beast! that rod, piston and block didnt look cheap, what did it spin to? or was it detonation?

Shagwell

No vids of this car yet. Just getting it sorted out with the carb/n20 motor, then in goes the big boy. We've had some really craptastic luck as of late with racing.

That short block had concrete issues. Meaning evidently the crank was sprung from when it "met" the retaining wall in the old car. The crank checked good on both ends with a dial gauge, but evidentally was sprung in the middle. It shook the cap off the rod and punched it through the block at about 7kish.
Three gallons of coolant + 9 quarts of oil in front of the rear tires @ 100mph = 2-1/2 circles. I stopped within 1' of the opposite wall, pure luck. That's where the "donut king" references on the drag racing forum originate from.

iroc a 86 berli

yikes! well at least it didnt meet the retaining wall again, and trashed another car!

AlkyIROC

The channel is actually h shaped. It's designed to hold a spray skirt over wheels of a trailer or across the back of a truck, normally hauling a camper. The channel is pop riveted to some angle iron which is welded to the seal lip.

I still have the rear window and deck lid in my back yard. I never did weigh it but 100 pounds is probably pretty close. Although it's weight over the rear, I still try to reduce total weight no matter where it is. Even a very nose heavy pickup truck can yank the front wheels sky high if the chassis is set up properly.

After weighing the car last spring, it's nose heavy with 1786 front and 1256 rear. The new cage may change that around slightly. I'll have a heavier dash bar and more tubes at the rear. The goal would be to get a 50/50 weight ratio but that's almost impossible to do unless I can move the engine back at least 6". Rule of thumb is to have the front of the engine inline with the front spindles. I've never had the car 4 corner scaled. That's the best way to set up the shocks.

I picked up some .032" sheet aluminum yesterday to put back in as a floor. .032" is the minimum thickness allowed for aluminum. If using sheet metal, it's 28 gauge. A 4x8 sheet of aluminum is around 4 pounds lighter than 28 gauge. Not a huge saving but much easier to work with. The sheet metal that was in the car was something like 22 or 24 gauge so I'm going to shave more weight off just from that. So far total cost for all the metal I purchased to redo the cage is very close to $1000 CAD. I've reused a lot from the old cage and may have a little bit left over from the straight pieces I purchased locally but I have a lot more tubing than what would have been supplied with a 10/12 point kit. The cage is going in the way I want it, not the way a kit wants you to install it. The next best thing would be to buy a tubing bender and custom make every piece. Rounded ends on the rear tubes going straight down to the frame rails would be so much nicer than a straight tube cut at a sharp angle. Buying a tubing bender and a couple sets of dies just to do one cage isn't justified.

I did very little to the car tonight. Just cleaned up some stuff in preparation to load the car onto the trailer tomorrow to take it into work and finish the welding. At least there's zero chance of rain or snow finally. Once all the tubes are in, the rear floor needs to be put in and sealed up, cage needs to be painted, windows reinstalled and a few other things need to be put back in like the fire extinguisher, CO2 bottle, rear seat brace, etc.

We're supposed to be racing in a week. If I don't make it for May 9/10, the next local race is June 6/7 however I'll probably head to Edmonton on May 23 or 24 to make qualifying passes to get an IHRA license. Without a chassis certification, there's no sense getting an NHRA license yet. By the time I can get a chassis certification, the season will have 2 months left in it. Of course If I manage to dip into the 8's from the head change this winter, I may have to find some way to get a chassis certification earlier because by then I'll need it even for IHRA. I'd really like to make it for May 9/10 just to get some shakedown passes to see how much more power the engine may be making before doing an out of town trip. I can always throttle stop the car to run slower if required but then it takes all the fun out.

First priority is to get this cage finished. I should have lots more pictures by the end of the weekend.

AlkyIROC

Interesting. Just thumbing through the NHRA rulebook on the specs about cages. The rear tubes have multiple specs.

So technically if I want to, I can yank out those 1-5/8 rear tubes and replace them with the 1-1/2" tubing that I have and also do the rear X bars in 1-1/2" which will be over specifications. The main rear tubes would be a little bit shorter so a bunch of the angles will be different. The current 1-5/8" tubing for the rear bars is 5' long and just about go to the ends of the frame rails. The 1-1/2" tubing I have is 4'4" so 9" shorter which will bring it up the frame rails a few inches.

I'll recheck things tomorrow. For what it would take to make the changes, I'll probably just stay with the 1-5/8".

AlkyIROC

Found another alternate spec.

The 1-5/8" door bar can be replaced with a 1-1/2" tube if used with an X.

That being the case, I may leave the rear tubes as they are use the 1-1/2 tubes as the door bars.

AlkyIROC

Well, did some measuring and the 1-1/2" tubes were too short for the door bar. The door bar got the 1-5/8" tubing and I had enough 1-1/4" to do both door X bars although they're not identical. The driver side has the X forward of center and the upper tube then goes up to join near the sill bar. It allows easier access in and out of the car. The passenger door X bar is closer to a proper X but not exact.

The 1-1/2" tubing was used for the rear X bars and you wouldn't even know it's not 1-5/8" unless I told you. The welder I have doing all the welds was impressed with all the tubes. He really enjoyed welding it all up. When you look at it now, the term "Monkey Bars or Jungle Jim" fits. It does look very impressive. I can't imagine all the extra tubing in the car if I installed a funny car cage.

All the tubes are in place. The final welding will be done tomorrow. Weight now is approximately 182.25 pounds. I use approximately because I didn't add up every ounce. I rounded many of the numbers to the closest 1/4 pound. I didn't add the weight of the corner gusset tubes at the front and rear of the halo bar and there's going to be a couple of pounds of MIG wire by the time it's done. Weight is probably closer to 190 pounds and much of that increased weight will be at the rear. The final number may go up slightly if we figure out a way to run tubes through the firewall to the top of the strut towers tomorrow. Race weight this year may be just above 3100 pounds. Those fiberglass doors are looking affordable now just to reduce weight.

I installed some tabs and fabricated mounts for the bottom window net rod. Worked out better than I thought. It's a permanent attachment and by pulling a couple of hair pins and taking the bolt off the pivot at the top, the window net can be completely removed from the car.

No pics today. I forgot my camera at home and I left the car at work for tomorrow.

AlkyIROC

Cage is in and I have pictures. We didn't put the forward tubes through the firewall. It's just too difficult.

Now I need to paint the cage, put in the floor, etc, etc before next weekend.

AlkyIROC

AlkyIROC

customblackbird

iTrader: (15)

wow rock on. looks sick. good job

hows getting in and out of that beast lol

Shagwell

I would normally have said to keep the X bars low to where they only come up maybe 8=10" on the pillar, but since you went with a sectioned pillar, it's probably stronger/better the way you did it. I like the spring loaded window net idea.

Over-all it came out very clean and looks to be very solid. Good luck with your racing this year.

My doors are CF, they're ridiculously light. You can easily pick them up plastic windows and all on one finger.

iroc a 86 berli

jesus ****! that thing is stout! should pass cert with flying colors.

customblackbird, whats with the lock guy?

AlkyIROC

I finally got an Email back from the regional chassis tech about the smaller tube door bars. If I had gone with the 1-1/2" tubes, both the door bar and the X would have had to be 1-1/2" tubes. Good thing the tubes I had were not long enough.

Getting in and out is a little easier than my last cage because I positioned the X in the driver's door more forward. I would have loved to have mounted the upper X bar lower on the A-pillar but felt a higher triangulation closer to the dash bar would have been stronger.

The spring loaded window net idea came from a racer in the Maritimes. He built a T-bird and used that idea and I liked it myself. When I pull up on the net to latch it in, the spring gets compressed and the net is always under tension. I can push outwards on the net slightly and it snaps back into place. The rear of the bottom rod goes through a similar tab and just has a washer and hair pin to keep it on. There's no way it would fall out anyway but still needs to be retained.

Other than requiring a funny car cage, I wonder how much more is required for a 25.5D 7.50 certification? The car should easily pass a 8.50 certification but I don't know if I'll get it done this year. If I dip into the 8's or run 150+ mph then it needs to be done. If I don't reach those numbers, I can still run with no problems under IHRA rules and at the regional NHRA track slow the car down to 10.0. If I can get by without needing the certification this year, it will get done next year for sure.

Here's a picture of the old cage so you can see how much different the door bars are. This was from a few years ago but the cage never changed

Old cage door bars


New cage door bars

AlkyIROC

The battery is mounted inside the Taylor box. The back half of the tin is done. Good thing I kept the old tin to use as a template for the side pieces. They're still not an exact fit but the caulking fills in all the gaps and holds most of it in place. This aluminum is so much easier to work with than sheetmetal and it won't rust. I still need to trim the front of the center section over the driveshaft tunnel and fill in the areas at the front of the wheel tubs plus reattach the passenger side floor. It was originally welded to some of the old tinwork that I cut out. There's no support under it right now and it's easy to bend when kneeling on the passenger floor. I'll have to put something under the floor to brace it and support any weight.

Yes my ground cable attached to the cage tube is orange. I didn't have any heavy gauge black left over.

Shagwell

Looking really good.

From past experience I highly reccomend sanding the aluminum and painting it black(IMO, flat black). F*@# polishing that crap all the time to keep it from oxidizing, and F*@# feeling like sitting in an oven wrapped in tin-foil out in the summer sun.

I run group 27 batteries mounted in the same location. No alt though, so dual batts. I'm 99% sure that I'm going to have to add balast to make the 3k minimum anyway.

To meet 25.5 you have to add some of the under seat diagonals, the funny car cage, and the main hoop and a-pillar pipes must tie directly to a crossmember linked to the frame. IIRC, the front strut pipes become a requirement as well.

AlkyIROC

No tubes under the floor yet. The main hoop is basically sitting on the crossmember. Most of the 6x6 plate is welded to the crossmember. Since I'm a long way from needing a 7.50 certification, I really don't have to worry about it. If I really want to go that fast, it will be in a tube chassis car. Just getting down to 8.50 from low 9's requires a huge amount more HP or a lot less weight.

My battery is a group 31 truck battery. It's only 650 CCA but has a 180 minute reserve plus I still run an alternator. If I ever get around to installing the belt driven vaccum pump, the alternator goes.

The black car is hot enough especially in a 2 layer fire suit. I painted the underside of the Lexan T-tops just to keep the sun off me.

Looks like we may not be racing this weekend. Late spring breakup still has a damp and cold track and the new/repaired timing system still hasn't been fully tested. It's suppose to be cool and raining all week but the weekend looks not bad so far. Sunday the track will be open to get an Annual Tech Inspection (ATI) and maybe to do some shakedown passes down the track but there's no guarantee there will be any timeslips.

At least that can give me more time to get more stuff done to the new cage although I think I can still finish it before the weekend.

More pics later. Anything specific anyone wants to see of the cage that I haven't provided a good view of yet?

customblackbird

iTrader: (15)

berli... the lock guy is just cool and i like his dance. lol.

AlkyIROC

I finally got around to finishing all the tin work today. Weather has been miserable so I had no ambition to go out in the garage. I won't be going to the track on Sunday even though I'll probably have the car ready to go. There probably won't be any track time anyway. The pits are mud right now.

As soon as I touch up some of the paint I scratched putting in the tin, I'll take a few more pictures showing the front of the tinwork and the rear window supports. Other than that, just a few things to reinstall like the CO2 bottle etc and it's done. Nothing pretty. Won't win any best engineering awards and I'm not building a show car. Make it functional. Cosmetics doesn't do anything going down the track. I need to cut off the fuel shut off cable bracket and relocate it. I have it mounted too high up the door tube and my foot hits it getting in and out of the car.

AlkyIROC

The white plastic straps on the halo bar are holding the Jaz rollbar padding to the bar.

If you look closely, you can see one of the two supports holding up the back Lexan window. The window is secured to each support with two Dzus fasteners.

The corners in front of the wheel tubs were a little tricky. Using some non corrugated cardboard, I made some templates and use to cut out the aluminum. It actually turned out better than I thought it was going to be except for the piece that sticks out onto the floor. I needed that to help secure the piece and cover up a gap in the floor. The corner sections are all on the outside of the crossmember, brace, framerail. This is to keep all the rocks, dirt, rubber from collecting on lips or edges like I had with the old design.

iroc a 86 berli

looks good, be sure and let us know your new race weight! im curious as to what the new cage added. what gauge did you say the sheet aluminum is?

AlkyIROC

Aluminum is .032" which is the minimum allowable thickness. Sheet metal can be thinner but weighs more and is harder to work with plus it rusts. The car isn't watertight and does get caught in the rain sometimes at the track. A drawback of not having an enclosed trailer to park it in.

Switching from a heavy gauge sheet metal to this lightweight aluminum probably cut 10 pounds alone.

Add weight here, take out weight there. It might be close to the race weight of last year. Over the winter, I also took out 20 pounds by changing the steel center section of the 9" to an aluminum one and the steel spool was changed to aluminum. I'm not sure how much weight change the head swap did.

Even if the weight is more, the design of the cage will add a lot more stiffness than the old cage. Maybe it will now be enough to get the wheels planted. After adding in the rear sway bar, the car doesn't have a problem going straight down the track. At least I'm hoping the car's weight ratio will move closer to 50/50 although to get it balanced like that, a lot more weight needs to come off the nose.

Shagwell

Looks like it all came out pretty clean. Congrats on getting the project finished, nows lets see some new numbers!

AlkyIROC

Yesterday's race was called off because of the late in the week bad weather. Too cold and a very wet pits. They spent Sunday finalizing the timing system repairs and cleaning up the area. Apparently a few cars did go down the track but there wasn't any racing.

I spent the day finishing up a few things. Installing the CO2 bottle, changing the oil, securing wiring under the dash, fixing the AC in my truck etc. Good thing I stayed home. I managed to finally sell my old 9" with the ladder bars still attached to it. I've had it for sale for just over 2 years.

Next local race is in early June. There an out of town race in a couple of weeks but I don't know if I can afford to make the trip. Need to get a job to pay the bills first so no unnecessary expenses for a while.

I guess that's it for pictures. Cage is done. I don't even have them on my racing web page yet.