I have seen a few pictures here of some very nice weld in roll cage installations. But....how do you paint that sucker once it is in?

Mask off everything, and shoot it.
PITA!

Paul

So I guess you torch out the rear bulkhead so you have plenty of access to shoot the rear of the tubes?

paintbrush and por-15 ...
helps to have the front and rear windows out.

Andy

Like Andy and Paul said. You can mask everything off.. or use Por15 (its self leveling..so the paint strokes from the brush doesnt show)


B

Thank you, Pondskipper, you have revealed the secret.

It seems like it would be pretty easy to paint the tubes before assembly/welding in the car. Obviously you would want to leave the ends bare and then POR-15 the welds later.

It is definitely possible to paint it inside the car (I did brushed-on POR-15) but it is really tough or impossible to hit every nook and cranny, esp. with any interior upholstery or the windshield still in the car.

Not a chance. The welding conducts so much heat into the tubing and surrounding sheetmetal that just about everything near the weld site needs to be primed and painted. We even had the undercoating in the wheelwells catch fire a few times. (we removed the UC later)

On the otherhand, if you are using a pre-fab cage, then just paint it first. If you want a tight fitting custom cage, plan on painting.

regards,
david