Roll Cage

Well I’m happy to say that I’ve FINALLY completed the roll cage in my car. HAHA, it’s about time I finished it up as I started this project in 2004!! Sometimes I questioned if it would have been better to pay someone else to do it so that I could get on to working on more fun aspects of the car! But I’m glad I did it myself because I ran the bars right where I wanted to them and where they fit best (taking into account with me sitting in the car). With all things said and done I’m very happy with how it turned out.

This cage started life as a Jegs 10 point kit specifically built for a Ford Fairmont complete with a halo. I eventually ended up adding 2 extra bars to make it the full 12 point setup. Note: I still have 2 main hoop braces that need to be welded in thus making it the full 12. I would say that the kit fit “ok” but it needed help in a few areas. For a do-it-yourselfer without access to a tube bender buying this kit saves a lot of time.

For a long time I was content to have just a 10 point cage without the front end tied into the cage. The reason being was the front bars that tie into the front shock towers go right through the dash, the heater box (not that I’m going to use it much, but I still want it there and functional) and through the hood hinges. Those were three issues what were very important to me, but not having the front end tied into the cage seemed like a travesty of epic proportions! Considering the horsepower I’m going to be generating, the weight of the engine and the flimsy sheet metal subframe holding it all together, I figured I’d tweak the front end of the car the first I’m I dropped the loud hammer.

So, I came up with what I though was a creative solution. I decided to run a bar under the dash through the firewall, into and through the wheel well area and then into engine compartment connecting into the shock towers. I started measuring things out and came up with a game plan how to make it happen. I just so happened to have a pair of door bars that I made but didn’t use because I wasn’t happy with the angle, and those fit the bill perfectly. You would almost think I custom made them just for this application!

About the only issue I had with doing this was how close the tires would get to those bars when in a full turn and with the suspension fully compressed. I managed to route the bars in such a way that they sit so far back in the corner of the wheel well that the tires don’t even come close to touching them when mocked up. A non-issue.

I was happy with how they turned out, but I’ll be the first to admit they are a compromise to just running the bars through the dash (due to the bend in the bars). I think going though the dash results in a stronger, more rigid cage, but like I said before I didn’t want to hack up the dash, heater box and hood hinges to do that.

In the back end I ran the rear bars to the back of the trunk which really doesn’t connect them to the rear suspension. To solve this I ran some vertical bars up from the rear suspension mounting points up to the bottom of the rear bars to tie them together. I added a horizontal cross bar for rigidity.

Another big compromise that resulted from the rear bars was that I ran them through the speaker cutouts so now there isn’t a good place to put any speakers. That’s ok though, I think I’m going to go radio delete with this car anyway!! HAHA, what music could sound better then that glorious BDS 8-71 blower winning along with a Milidon fixed idler gear drive!!!

Without a doubt the biggest casualty of the roll cage was the inability of anyone to sit in the back seat. When I welded in the main hoop cross bar from the back seat area I thought to myself “No one is going to want to sit back here!!! There is NO room!!” The mini-tub job made it impossible for the stock back seat to fit back there anyway so I’m going to have to figure out what to do with that. Even if no one wants to ride in the back seat, I still want to have it there for looks. An added bonus is that the back seat doesn’t weigh much so it’s not really a weight issue.

Also I deviated from my original plan of paying someone to TIG weld the cage and busted out trusty Lincoln SP135 MIG welded and did it myself. I have gotten SO much practice using that welder lately that I was confident I could make a strong weld that would be up to the task. I’ll admit that a professional welder probably could have made a few welds look better, but I wanted to be able to say that I did it all myself.

Here are a few pictures to show you what I did.

Peace
WesleyJ
Matthew 28:19

Passenger door view

Trunk view

Wheel well with front bar to shock tower.

Front bar connected to shock tower (Note BDS 8-71 blower and demon 735 blower carb)

Front bar connected to shock tower. I still need to weld up the area I cut out.

Passenger side view of cage with door open

Front bar run under dash.