finnally getting the car done. just tig welded a 6pt comp engineering roll cage. its really an 8pt but im not putting the door bars in until i kno it wont be a daily driver. cage is 1 3/4"x1.34 DOM tubing, tig welded at all joints and tig welded to the 6"X6" 1/8" thick steel plates. plates are mig welded to the floor etc. all in all it wasnt that bad to install, took about 4 days with painting. massaging the 6"x6" 1/8" still plates without a torch was a pain in the A$$!!! i think it came out good. hoop plates are directly over the rear stock subframes and are welded right to them. the rear bars are welded to the rear shock mounts which is the strongest point(just wack it wit a hammer ull see) thats the strongest part to the rear subframe, most ppl just weld them farth back but thats just thin sheet metal not the thick shock mount steel. the pass side rear bar had to be moved up since the cars have that super thin metal support that mimicks the contor of the rear cargo area, in reality its only 22 gauge stamped steel just spot welded so the carpet fits flush... so its not strong at all.

the tunnel mounted bars have been placed there for a reason, i just installed a jegster tunnel mount tq arm and the tunnel mount is 1/8" thick steel brace that bolts to the tranny tunnel from underneith. this brace is strong and spreads the load evenly over the thin tranny tunnel metal. i went a step farther and welded the plates so the last 2 bolts of the tunnel brace go through the cage plates and sandwich the cage plates to the tunnel metal and then the jegster tunnel brace undernieth. this should increase the ridgity of the tq arm/tq arm mount brace as well as the strength of the cage. and tranny tunnel.

the cage is then painted with POR-15. the car floor is blue bc the car used to be blue... now black. also the seams and stock subframes have been stitch welded under the car as well as the rear shock tower mounts (can see in pics) for more strength. rear stock subframes have also been stitch welded to floor for increased strength. i had already installed custom thru floor subframes that can be seen in the pics.

let me kno what u think!! im happy wit it. its really solid

 

more

 

sum more, last are it completed

 

last one

 

So, when are you going to start on my car?

No, I'm serious...

Mike

Where are you located?

 

Looks STRONG man STRONG.....nice job on the plates and the placements of the bars, very nice.

 

I'm hoping you meant to say MIG welded. Those welds look huge for TIG welding.

 

lol thanks guys, u smack the cage and theres nothing i love it!. um im in northern new jersey. still i have a custom STB brace to fab up with my 383 HSR outa 1.5"x0.95" DOM tubing when i get the motor done. i just TIG welded the strut towers all the way around and welded all the seems in the enge bay and mean all of them lol. i love TIG welding! no smoke or spatter its amazing. i got no probs doin sum work for you

stephen 87 iroc... yea they are big bc i did 2 passes on the welds. i did my research and was told to weld the first pass to get the most penetration/strength and then weld again for increased rigidy etc. these welds are acutally not big at all my cam kinda blew them up. this was also done on my 130amp chicago electric TIG thats about the size of a ghost busters lunch box lol and with only about 3 weeks tig welding experience with just messing around. still tho i had sum ppl look at it and they said it was good, they were impressed with the "roll of dimes" welds i had at every joint

 

I only ask because if you were closer, I would definitely drop my car off for a 6/8 point roll bar. Oh well...

 

lol hmm i see. yea that would be one hell of a drive... but ud be able to feel the difference on the drive back lol

 

well id say its not the best looking TIG work but hey if it is strong then o well good job!!! Youll get better I love TIG welding they say that tig welders are the artists of the welding world and its the only artistic thing i can do lol....keep up the good work...

 

thanks, wat would should the tig weld look like on a .134" thick cage anyway? got any pics? i was welding and adding metal for best penetration, then sum extra metal for strength at the weld. i was also making a larger weld puddle so the welds would be a bit beefer.

 

Nice cage overall, the welds aren't the best but they def. look strong enough. TIG is my favorite form of welding too, I like those little suitcase welders. Give yourself a year and you'll be welding alum. and titanium with ease. Later.

 

lol yea i was tigin again tnite i did my other strut tower and i just reinforced one of my front LCAs. i cant seem to weld aluminum... i tried since i had sum aluminum mig wire but my TIG welder doesnt have a switch from DC to AC for aluminum welding. i also only have the red tungstons 2% thoriated. i def want to weld aluminum tho.

this is the reinforced LCA. my 1/8" thick steel wasnt long enough to do wat i wanted so i just settled for this. i think it will do the job tho

 

just welded up the supports for the summit racing plastic drag seat. and for the 5 point simpson racing 5pt harness. bars are 1/4" solid steel and brackets for the seat are roll cage gussets lol. i had to make floor seat mounts for it but they dont look great lol so im ashamed to put pics up of them lol. they are basically 2"x2"x16gauge steel with grade 8 3/8" bolts welded just like stock and then welded to the floor.

i also decided to strengthen the cage/ rear or the car more by adding a support of 1"x1"x .125" steel bar that is welded to the rear subframes right above the gas tank (seen is the frames hacked to slide the bar into that are the supports for the gas tank) and the bar is stitch welded tot he floor. this does the same thing as the cross bar on the roll cage where the rear bars attach to the plates above the gas tank. just that this is hidden and cant be seen but also attached to the ACTUAL subframes (right at the spring pocket)

wata think?

 

In the A-arm picture, did you weld that plate under the endlink bolt hole? How are you ever going to get the endlink out?

 

What are the 1/4" bars for?

 

I'm assuming it is to prevent the shoulder straps on his harness from moving back and forth along the bar. However, all the ones I have seen are lower than he has made them.

 

Did the same thing when I built my rollbar.

 

im gonna put an 8 point cage in my car to, but i dont have enough money for seats just yet so im going to just use the original seats that are in them. im sure somebody else has done this already, but does anybody have any pics of this and how it will look?

 

Just curious are you cleaning the painted surfaces before you weld? You should have a 1/2" to an inch of bare metal cleaned around the weld for a nice clean bead. Looks like some of the beads are just contaminated with paint or other things.

You will get better results with good prep work.

 

the Aarm sway bar link can be gotten at with a boxed wrench while u use a wrench or socket/air socket on the top nut.

the 1/4" bars are to hold the shoulder straps of the 5 point harness. i did make them alil bit taller but i just wanted to have enough clearance, they are only about 1 1/8" in height off the bar. i was acutally following evilcartmans setups since i was basically using summits verson of his seats. i had saved his pic a while ago bc it was wat i planned to do. hes looks great. good job man. but i have to ask... how did u attach the seats to the floor? i had to build new floor seat mounts from scratch!!!! AUGH i wasnt counting on that. i had gotten the summit aluminum universal seat mounts too but they are too short and the stock mounts are too forward! u got picks of what u did?

michaelsparks88... im not sure my hoop sits kinda far foward but compared to the stock location of the seat mounts it should be ok. i will be keeping the passenger seat stock since im sure my passengers dont like waht i like. they will be getting a 5point RCI harness tho. im sure ethy look fine but not as cool as racing seats/drag seats, just preference i guess and money.

BMR sales.... i actually did grind the paint off about 2" worth... thats what u see around the welds, thats not reflection... thats the grinding wheel to take off the paint for a better weld. also grinded the 1/4" bar down to a bevel edge so i weld for more strength. welds are ok was alil difficult to get around them tho and it shows

 

I made up new seat brackets as well. Didn't take any of the driver's side one but here's ones for the passenger which is different. The driver's side one is all flat since the floor doesn't have that big hump.

Started out with a couple bars


added a couple more plus 4 little uprights on the back side and tacked it together


then welded it all together. Didn't really bother making anything adjustable since no one else drives my car.

 

I so need to do this soon

 

lol wow thats umm one beefy seat mount. wat size steel is that lol.

now i kno mine isnt the most beautiful, but it works and i was frustrated bc it wouldnt mount up to the stock mounts. the seat is the plastic seat and i used the aluminum universal mounts that allow me to adjust for height and angle. no one will dive it but me but still i have that option. thats the pic of the brackets that attaches to the bottom of the seat.

http://store.summitracing.com/partde...part=SUM-G1150

i then just made these 2"x2"x 16 gauge brackets that i welded to the floor with grade 8 bolts welded to them from underneith just like stock. this is wat the aluminum brackets bolt to. they work good and are stronger/thicker than the stock. looks bad i kno bc its painted all over the place lol but i painted it and its all black bow. i used the rear stock bolts but just the one closest to the tranny tunnel and then i drilled a hole and mounted another grade 8 bolt next to the stocker at the bottom of the pic. so i used the stock brace for the front and made new braces for the rear. it works so watev and u wont see it under the carpet. also it addes almost no weight. the stock seat is 38lbs and this seat with aluminum brackets attached and the 2 steel mounts i made weights 16lbs total. its ugly but u wont see it and looks better when its all painted and the same color lol

 

I copied the seat brackets off a buddy's car that had a chassis shop do all of his work. Needed something to sit as low as possible cause I'm 6'3" then with a helmet on it's really close. Think I made it out of 3/16ths flat stock which was just a hair thicker than what the chassis guy used. Had it laying around so used it. Really doesn't need to be that thick but what the heck lol.

 

no it does look good tho. nice job. i had the summit aluminum mounts so my seats sit up really high as well. im 6'1" so my head is kinda close. i can lower and raise the seat by only so much. should be interesting to see if my helmet rubs on the ceiling lol. wat is the rule on the helmet being a certain distance from the top of the hoop? 3" or something. i dont think id make it lol.

wat driveshaft safety loop u got? i can see th bolts in ur one pick... they look like mine. i got the jegster one

 

Think the helmet is suppose to be below the level of the bottom part of the main hoop tube but don't quote me on that. Think it's different for roll bars and roll cages but I've never been asked about it. As far as distance away from the tube, umm can't really remember. The DS loop is the Lakewood one, Summit part number LAK-18020. It's kinda tight and had to do some tweaking to it for it to bolt all up. I'm thinking of adding one in the rear attached to the torque arm so if the driveshaft does start flopping around, it wont poke a hole in my floor

 

I'm also 6'3" so I know what you mean about lack of headroom LOL. I used similar steel for my custom mounts so I could use my Corbeau Forza seats. The seats are so low that they are practically bolted to the floor. I also had to build in a steeper angle so I leen back and my head just barelly clears the headliner with my helmet on. There is more headroom on the passenger side due to the dip in the floor pan behind the seat. I can post pictures if you want.

Mike

 

yea post them.

im gona have to look at the comp engineer roll cage instructions... i can get my fist between my head and the headliner when im seated. so idk

the jegster loop is a nice piece. its the cleanest and it bolts easily to the floor. i had no fitment issues with it prob with it tho is that its all one piece so its strong but it doesnt dissasembble. the second driveshaft loop is a cool idea but i wouldnt attach it to the tq arm... the arm will move up and down so will the driveshaft so taking out the driveshaft will be a pain!. ive seen broken driveshafts the rear part isnt a prob tho... they usually just bump on the ground and drag.... and just fall out of the tranny lol.

 

The rear loop on the torque arm is fine, think even Spohn has it as an option. I've seen a 2 piece done so you can unbolt part of it to make it easier to get the driveshaft out.

 

oh i thought u mean with the stocker tq arm. lol no ive seen them. i would def make it so it could dissasemble.

the more i look at the bracket u made... it seems that my seat is farther back than urs by a good bit. and my seat still came off the roll bar like 4". and ur seat braces on the roll cage arent much bigger than mine... hmmm. u must be licking the steering wheel lol.

 

Do you have your seats tilted back a bit? Didn't lean mine back too much but wish I did. I'm not really close to the steering wheel at all just a nice comfy driving position.

 

um i have the aluminum adjustable seat brackets set at level right now. it allows for like 2" adjustment up and down and angled. the seat has a natural molded tilt so i set it level and im like halfway in the driver door window lol but im perfect arms length from the steering wheel. im gona post pics so u can see of the seat install, i just finished last nite and put the passenger carpet back in.

 

hello everyone, reviving this old thread. i got tired of moderator STEPHEN always correcting me when i stated i installed a 6pt roll bar!! LOL .... really it was a 4pt with tranny tunnel bars.

SOOOOO I WENT AHEAD and started installing the door bars with swing out kits. installed the passenger one tday. gona get the next one in, in a few days.

 

more... sexy eh? lol