Im in the process of begining to install my competition engineering 8pt roll bar.

and from looking at the pictures of the cages on this site, it looks like my main hoop i have tacked in is positioned futher to the rear of the car than most, i did this with the thought the hoop wouldnt be visisble through the side windows.

Are there any problems this might cause? i should still be withing 6" of the bar so the rules should be ok.

also if anyone has any detailed pictures of the mounting points of the bars it would be nice to get a good idea where everyone has placed there plates for te mounts...

Thanks,
Greg

 

ha, bored on saturday night too huh?

Thats ironic, Im instaling my CE 8pt tonight as well. As far as the main hoop placement with regards to regulations, I cannot say. Im putting mine appx. 1" back from the door jam. I dont have any pics. There are a few posts on here with various roll bar/cage pics, and I believe there is even a detailed install on here in a T/A.

I would like to add a question to this also. Im wanting to put the rear braces all the way back in the "well" area where the rear frame is. Should I avoid this or is it cool? Ive heard on here its best to get them as close to the rear shocks/struts as possible, but I figured it sould be ok considering Im welding them right over the rear fram rails.

 

My main hoop is welded onto the hump behind the front seats and you can't see it through the side windows. My seat's also positioned back so I'm within the rule distance. The first pic is when I just had a simple 6 point bar. When I ripped it out and put in a full cage, the main hoop was mounted in the same position.

 

Iroczguy.. I have ALOT of pictures of my install. Mines a 10 point S&W cage but still..

I put the main hoop close to where stephen did but more to the sides (spread apart more) you'll see in the pics.

Then I laid the top of the hoop back towards the rear some. Just make sure your still within the 6" limit from bar.

Here's my pics. It's 2 albums, both has 2 pages of pics..

Webshots - Images of 10 point S thats where I was fitting everything

Webshots - Images of Finishing up the S thats where I started welding everything up.

In the 1st link/pics don't laugh at the crappy welds. It was flux core tacks. My plan was to tack it all up with my flux core welder then call a pro to come out and mig weld it all... The pro welders wanted too much money, so I just bought a mig and ground all the flux core sloppy tacks off and mig welded it myself. Came out about $75 higher than getting someone to do it and I have a hobart 140 mig that will last me many years

 

thats awesome i appreciate the help and pictures guys, i have my hoop up on the same hump as stevens with just a minor amount of tilt to the rear basically the same exact angle as the door jams.. ill get pics when i get a chance..

Thanks,
Greg

 

how much dyno mat did it take to do your car?

 

I'm curious about your a pillar bar's coming down from the main hoop. Is that S&W's design or did you rebend that? Or is it just an option... because I'd like to go with S&W possibly but I want the bars to go through the dash, and run along the a-pillar all the way down.

 

I tried that but found it wasn't practical. The only part of the interior in my car that's still factory is the dash. The only way I could get it to work was to cut the ends off the dash pad. See above picture. Not something I'd recomment for a street car with full interior.

Cutting a hole through the dash for the A-pillar bar to run through will be a trial and error fit. If you don't get the hole right the first time, you'll be making it a lot bigger.

 

Crazyjim....That's S&W's design.. They use to be the straight bars with the 45* bend, but I guess they re designed the kit and bent the bars up to clear the dash better.. I had a set of the straight types from another cage kit and tried to use them through the dash, but found for my needs it was going to be more trouble than it was worth. I would have had to take the full dash out of the car, put bars in, put the dash back in, cut dash pad, and put it back, so I just used the odd bent S&W pillar bars that came with my kit.

For me it worked great. The bars as you seen angles under the dash and to the floor pan, so it gives great leg room.


85silverbullet.... I used 2 products. One (1st layer on floor) is peel n seal. It's a roofing product but its just like dynamat but awhole cheaper. You can get it at lowes or home depot. The rolls come in 6" wide x 25". I used 6 of those rolls to do the whole car, and inside the doors. The next product I put over top of the peel n seal is called reflex. It's a 3 layer sheet. Thick alum foil, plastic bubble wrap, then another layer of thick alum. foil. It comes in alot of diff sized rolls but I bought the 4' x 25' roll and had probbly 1/4 of the roll left after I done the whole floor pan with it.

 

thanks for the replies... I'm actually going to be running almost no interior with a custom aluminum dash. I've been up in the air a LOT lately about a cage. I really want to go chromemoly (weight is a big issue with the car I'm building) but the only company I can seem to find selling cm is wolfe. I've also had issues finding a cage I like. I'm REAAAALLY thinking heavily about custom building one. Chromemoly sticks (20 foot lengths) are around $100 for .83 wall. I'd need around 4 of them for a cage. And a buddy of mine got his tubes bent for his 33 ford coupe for just over $100. The only draw back of this is he said some of the tubes weren't bent strait, they were twisted, etc. and it made it a real P.I.T.A. to install. Also my car would have to be towed to the benders house and we'd have to spend all day measuring and bending.

What do you guys recommend? Any other companies besides wolfe selling CM cages?

 

S&W does.... Spohn Performance, Inc.

 

If you're really set on CM tubing then get a proper chassis shop to build you a custom cage. The weight saving isn't very much but it will need to be TIG welded together. The tubes are the same diameter as MS but CM tubing can have thinner walls.

You'll need more than one size tubing. The main hoop, halo bar, door bar, A-piller and rear support bars are 1-5/8" in a full cage. The rear cross bar, main hoop diagonal supports, knee bar, forward bars through the firewall, X-brace for door bar, are all 1-1/2"

To custom bend the tubing, you'll need a mandrel bender. Those cheap pipe benders will not work. They pinch the tubes.

 

I was kinda wondering. Should it be a problem if I have my bar/cage welded together in pieces? The thing is I dont have access to a welder, but what I was thinkin was since I already fit the main hoop, just get someone to tack weld it in for me then I have all the time in the world to cut and grind for the rear struts and door bars. KEEP IN MIND though that this is not a daily driver at all, its probably had 20 miles put on it since summer '05. It would just really help if I could do it that way, but I didnt know about the hoop sagging, or the slightest chassis flex moving the hoop.

 

I know all this haha. The CM can be .083 wall while the mild steel has to be .134

I already have a guy who will weld it, he's an awesome guy, and great with a tig welder. He's just apprehensive about getting the welds all the way around. When he welded his he did it a bit differently. He also knows a guy who can bend the tubing, it's the same guy who bent his. Here's a pic of his cage:




Also, the weight saving's is about 40% That's a lot if you ask me. I may be wrong on the number but I'm pretty sure it's 40%

Plus if I buy a pre-made cage I'm going to have to buy at least one length of CM anyway to add to the cage. Because I'm adding a few more items.

btw... if you want to see his entire car buildup... it's about the most thorough and accurate car build up you'll ever read hahaha. He spent I believe about 3 years and approx. $65,000 on it.

http://www.ocmhz.com/33_coupe_1.htm