Cage pic thread.

[S14_Kouki]

my cage built by me

[discosteak]

Originally Posted by dsc4130

were did you go to school for it? im really interested in professional welding?

Earlbeck gases and technology in Baltimore MD

[WhiteGLX]

Full NASA/SCCA legal cage for road racing. 1.625"x0.120" tubing.

[artdrifter]

That weld looks pretty skarry. Do it right the first time or let the cage fail.

[McCoy]

Originally Posted by artdrifter

That weld looks pretty skarry. Do it right the first time or let the cage fail.

A 20 year old expert on welds I see

FWIW... it may not be the prettiest weld, but that weld (as do all the rest) does have penetration and will hold up better than any bolt-in cage, which is all I wanted.



Here's what a 'skarry' weld looks like...

[teamsprock]

Trying to keep this thread alive! Here's my cage so far. Will probably add some more bars and gusseting. Either a kidney bar or another full bar to make for X door bars, although these are very easy to get in so the kidney bar may be the best choice for me.

[C-unit]

anyone has any tips on painting the top of the cage???

[teamsprock]

I think I am going to use POR and a foam brush. SHould be able to get into some pretty tight spots. But I'm with you anyone with tips on painting it I would also love to know.

[!Zar!]

Hard to make it out, but how well does that fair for head room with a helmet on?

[teamsprock]

Not too bad, the seats and Bride rails help out a lot. I think if you have seats like my Old Recaro's you may have some troubles. With a helmet I am about 5" away from that bar.

[jay pee]

damn all those weld on cages are sick ..my gf baught me a bolt on 6pt just so i can tandem at events...still saving to get a weld on roll cage though

[atutt]

Originally Posted by C-unit

anyone has any tips on painting the top of the cage???

If you're welding the cage the proper way. While the cage is still sitting through the floor, you paint the tops... Then finish everything else.

Originally Posted by jay pee

damn all those weld on cages are sick ..my gf baught me a bolt on 6pt just so i can tandem at events...still saving to get a weld on roll cage though

No they aren't. They are really quite iffy. I'm actually concerned. (Not being a dick. I'm actually concerned)
Not only to the welds look horrible, I see a crater or two (great place for failures). It also looks like the wind blew the gas away or he forgot to turn it on. (Orange-redish like dust looking stuff). No gas coverage areas are another great place for failures. deposition rates are all wacky as well.

Teamsprock. I think you should do some serious practicing. Those welds look really iffy. I would be concerned. If you would like some helpful advice you can PM me. I'd be glad to help you.

[Otto347]

Originally Posted by McCoy

A 20 year old expert on welds I see

Well how bout a 30 year olds opinion. That weld looks like dog shit.


1.625x.120 DOM

[MunsonAuto]

As far as painting the cage goes, don't use POR15. The stuff smells and will linger in the car for ages. I've been in a caged STI that was POR15'd over a year ago and it still distinctly smells like the stuff.

I used Rustoleum indoor/outdoor gloss black and a regular 1.5" brush. $4.99 for a pint and I covered my entire "6point" cage. No brush strokes, lays out very flat/smooth and looks great.

Here's pics of my cage build-up:










dusty...arghhh












Cage finished...finished painting a few hours prior to these pics..










Cage built by Kale's Custom in Essex, VT.

[Otto347]

Damn, doesnt look bad for brush on

[jay pee]

Originally Posted by atutt

If you're welding the cage the proper way. While the cage is still sitting through the floor, you paint the tops... Then finish everything else.



No they aren't. They are really quite iffy. I'm actually concerned. (Not being a dick. I'm actually concerned)
Not only to the welds look horrible, I see a crater or two (great place for failures). It also looks like the wind blew the gas away or he forgot to turn it on. (Orange-redish like dust looking stuff). No gas coverage areas are another great place for failures. deposition rates are all wacky as well.

Teamsprock. I think you should do some serious practicing. Those welds look really iffy. I would be concerned. If you would like some helpful advice you can PM me. I'd be glad to help you.

yeah sum of the welds do look kinda questionable just didnt wanna bash on any1 but hopefully whenever i save enough for my cage the guy does a good job welding. since ill probably be paying like 2grand if not more for it. its really hard to find a good welder cuz every1 swears up n down they r pro at it lol

[Pure_JDM]

I'll be welding in my own cage within the next few weeks, and am really considering going a different route in the backseat of the car (That's right, backseat...). However small and cramped the backseat is, I still want to retain it, as I have a 2 year old little girl that loves to ride in daddy's car. I am going to cage the front similarly to others already here, but instead of an X bar going through the backseat passage to the trunk, I am going to attempt to send a bent one down hugging the rear window, terminating in the trunk on a rear strut tower cross bar. Has anyone seen this done, other than the padded bolt on in the previous page (hypnotiks)? Another huge issue I have with bolt-ins is I am 6'3", and have yet to find a bolt-in that's very friendly to my head room. They all sit too far forward, as mine will be a few inches further toward the rear of the car. I was an engineering major, as well as a welder, as well as an experienced caged builder (I built one in a buddy's 95 wrangler extreme-modified rock crawler). I'm confident that I can bring something new to the table here, but know it's going to take some time, and a hell of a lot of patience, as this is my daily driver. I will keep this thread updated on my progress in huge steps, and will most likely make my own thread showing the build up. Any remarks or tips from experienced fabricators are more than welcome. I have read all tips in this thread, as well as many other builds and fabs (big fan of blu808's creativity and skill).

[DJPimpFlex]

^^ What your intending to do has been done before (on my car ), and I don't recommend it. Bends in the rear down tubes make the cage illegal for FD, SCCA Ect. You can definitely make a strong cage with that design though. My car came with the cage already welded in, so I'm not going to fuck with it, but with the rear bars having bends and the firewall penatration, its not legal for FD or SCCA.

Here are some pics.

[franklin93zx]

I want a cage in my z so i can look like a boss

[RPSil13]

Originally Posted by RPSil13

When a cage is boxed in like so, does the bar go through the box or does it sit on top
sorry for the dumb question, but i havent seen anyone address this

anyone know?

[blu808]

When I build my cages I double box them. where the tube goes through the top part of the box and is welded to both the bottom box plate and the top box plate.

[Pure_JDM]

Originally Posted by DJPimpFlex

^^ What your intending to do has been done before (on my car ), and I don't recommend it. Bends in the rear down tubes make the cage illegal for FD, SCCA Ect. You can definitely make a strong cage with that design though. My car came with the cage already welded in, so I'm not going to fuck with it, but with the rear bars having bends and the firewall penatration, its not legal for FD or SCCA.

Here are some pics.

I dont understand why yours wouldnt still be legal though... Even if your rear bars cant have bends, you still have the same X bar terminating to your strut towers. Wouldnt this be a legal cage, and your two bent bars just be "extra"? Or is this not how it works? Im completely unaware of the rules, which I'm about to hunt down a copy and read them...

Either way, I agree with you, your cage appears to be very structurally sound and a strong design.

[Pure_JDM]

update^? and one last question regarding the diagonal bar... Can it be bolted in, rather than welded? I figured I would use a Clevis or some form of it to bolt in the diagonal on track days, once again for the simple reason of keeping a backseat during the week.

[DJPimpFlex]

well first and foremost the cage can not penetrate the fire wall and mine clearly does. Second the rules state that the cage must have rear down bars with no bends in them, regardless of the cross behind the driver. Honestly its a fine cage, but if I were to do it myself I would have gone with a more standard design. This has just a bunch of showy parts that weigh extra for no real reason. W/e it was cheap.

[AngeloAJC]

[lechu84]

and ready to finish up paint.

[EASTSiDe 2 WESTSiDe]

damn i want a cage lol @ wrapping paper

[lechu84]

^lol yuh we had a bunch laying around after the holidays.

[Pure_JDM]

That's funny. I looked at the pic before the caption and thought you had made an entire cage out of wrappingpaper tubes and paint tape. Haha. I'll be posting up some pics of progress this weekend!

[lechu84]

kinda looks like PVC piping.