I'm putting in a stable energies bolt in cage. I have it dry fitted & was wondering how to bolt thru the longs. Do I run an 8-9" bolt thru the longs (bottom of pan to cage foot) or cut a small access panel in the longs inside the car. Then I could use shorter bolts(1").

Wonder if you could use rivnuts might have to check with race governing sanction on rules. Even with a bolt in cage I would be tempted to weld some nuts to a plate then drill holes so the nuts are inset into longs then tack the plate to top of longs. You could then put the carpet over the plate to hide it.

Dasnowman is correct. The Safety Devices (distributed by Stable Energies) bar for our cars is not a truly "bolt in" cage. It has nut plates that need to be welded to the sills, after holes are drilled for the nuts to sink into. Once the plates are welded to the sills, then you can bolt the cage to the plates.


John (FourBlades) just completed a lot of this work on our car. He should be posting pics soon. Send him a PM and I'm sure he can send you pics.

Do NOT drill through both halves of the longitudinal and run long bolts through. This is incorrect, will not pass tech, and may even compromise the safety of the car.

If you have questions, call Stable Energies. They are very helpful, and know these cages well. If you do not have the nut plates, they can get them for you for a decent price.

Back in 1998 when I put in my bolt in cage, it came with several (4) steel plates with 4 nuts welded to the back of each one. The instructions said to install the plates with the nuts down and tack them into place once the cage was more or less installed. This meant I had to drill some holes for each nut (4) on the plates. That is when I found my 73 did not have any ducting in the rocker boxes!!!!!!

The hardest part was getting the car LEVEL both side to side and front to back so the side boxes would have no twist, etc. It took me about a whole day of blocking, jacking, shimming and such until all was right. Then the cage was assembled with the various pieces held together with duct tape and the feet and the pads installed. I tacked the pads down and then removed the cage tubes and welded them in. I primer and painted them and then put in the tubes. Afterwards there was no movement at all.

If you are missing the plates you can contact Stable Engeries and get them. I did 6 years ago when I did mine.

I picked up the bar used so I don't have the plates. I'll try to make them with some plate steel & weld nuts first. All else fails I'll give SE a call

Call Joe or Lourette at Stable Energies & tell them I told you to call. They will be busy today unpacking from Hershey

Like the others said.

Mock it all up dry to get the nut plates positioned right.

Make sure to bolt it to the shoulder belt holes while doing this because that sets the angle of the roll hoop right.

It took me about 10 hours to prep, drill, mess around adjusting and then weld in the plates for just the roll hoop.

Make sure your v brace fits tight to the firewall also or when you tighten the brace that goes in the engine bay you will have issues.

John