Second-hand, never-used

I may weld it in and go to the dark side over the winter...


KT

bring it on

where did you find it Trek?

I am going to install my petty bar during my motor work...already have all the plates and reinforcement ready...jut need to drill a couple of holes and bolt it in.

I bought it from a local Clubber. ( good deal ) thanks!

Also got a second set of 7" steel rims with a better backspace.
225's may fit


KT

Click to view attachment


Yay!


KT

Good going Trekkor!

Bill P.

Looks good. Is that the QA Inspector checking it out?

Mike T

I started my cage with a Autopower roll bar. I added oversized plates to the floor and at right angles up the longs before I bolted it in. I felt like the base plates that are on the bar would just push right thru the floor in a big roll over.

When you get it put in let me know if it fits as bad as the other bolt in cages I have seen.

OK



KT

It is the same cage as the one in the Bumblebee and that one fits fine. Pretty much all cages seem to make operation of the targa latches difficult for ham handed fingers.
As for the base plates, Trekkors already reinforced the area with the Engman kit. Do you think more is needed Paul?

I thought that you had already bought the bended tubes for a cage and were going to weld it in yourself?

Sweet. I think your cat likes it. It would look awesome painted red. I was hoping you would get a full cage before I rode along at Sears.
I could help/watch with the install if needed, especially next weekend the 16th.

Na, not if it has something more than just the original floor.

You know if I was to do it all over again I would use a hole saw and drill the longs and feed it thru and weld on the bottom and on the top of the longs. Super strong that way.

1. Drill a 2" hole all the way thru the longs top and bottom.
2. Feed the bar thru the holes without a base plate.
3. Weld a base plate on the bottom of the bar after it is feed thru the holes.
4. Pull the bar up so the base plate is under the car and weld it to the bottom of the floor and long.
5. Cut a plate to fit around the bar on top of the long and weld the plate to the bar and the plate to the top of the long.

And if you leave the hole open in the bottom you can mount them cool air powered jacks But you want it to have 3 points and not 4. 3 points make a plane. But for Paul that would be too much wieght. BTW, if you wrap the foot plate down the log and weld it to the floor and plate under the floor, it won't go any where, and if it does you have impacted with enough force you won't survive with out a miracle.

Oh and Dan I want to see pictures of the Petty bar install. Had one on a J-class racer I have buillt helped out alot. But I am looking and wondering how you bolt that in, with out having a big head banger for a strett car? My auto-x car I still drive to the events. My son rides along to and from events now, I want to take it out, so I don't have to worry about him face planting the Petty bar. And my head being used like a softball against the roll bar. Both would suck! Padding yes, but that Petty bar and a passenger do not mix.

So is that why you are sellling the one in the Classifieds?

that cage bolts to the floor pan, not the longs ... my cage is welded to the top of the longs (with additional large backing plates) ...

i think it'll work fine, but i'd be using a two piece backing plate on the floor, regardless of bolted or welded.
just sandwich the floor where it's going to bolt to with some good sized steel plates ...

any cage is better than no cage ...
Andy

crappy pic, but you get the idea ... welded to the top of the long using a backing plate. btw. there's another backing plate on the side of the long to help prevent the long from deforming ...

Here is a old racer's trick....

When your rules say, "Bolted-in roll bar only"

Weld a reinforcing plate to the bottom of the floor. Install the roll bar in car and bolt it into place. Then go below and weld the nuts to the plate. This way you are bolting "to" the car's floor not "through" the floor.

Does it come with a side to side dash bar?

If not are you going to add one?

Whats the thought on the side to side dash bar? I'm likely going to add door bars, but hadnt considered the dash bar.

It has no "knee bar". I will add one. Brad suggests 1" tube

This cage bolts to the top of the longs.

It is exactly the same as the one I have now that bolts to the top.
The one I have now had it's cage pieces ground off to make it just a roll bar.
It was an Autopower cage from another car before I bought it.


KT

Can I weld this directly to the Engman Long kit or do I need thicker plates that will be welded to the same Long kit?

I will not be bolting it in...Gonna be a full weld up


KT

I always thought it was to keep a V8 from coming through the dash on a front engined car...Hmmm


KT

Our resident engineers should pop up here, but to me without the dash bar you don't have complete continuity.

I'd also bet that the dash bar has a lot to do with eliminating flex, expecially in Trekkor's current configuration.

Hey Trek,

What does that cage weigh in at??

-Josh2

REMOVE your front targa latches. You dont need them after the cage is installed.

Then.. removing the top becomes a NON issue.

I suggest removing the rear targa pad also prior to install.

This will give you move access to the rear latches.


B

and it would give you tie in points for your 5-link unequal length a=arm rear suspension.

Mike T

the dash bar is quite helpful in side impacts (spin in front of someone). Even better would be some triangulation from the dash on one side to the floor on the other, but it makes it tough to get your feet to the pedals...

BJH

Sorta. My buddy has it in his car and he is too tall to fit in it without having his knees up around his ears. We are going to design a weld in cage that fits much better. I have a couple of customer cars that have Autopower cages and they fit awful. The Kirk cage is much better, but it is still a bolt in cage. I prefer to do weld in cages as I can fit them much closer to the body.

I don't recommend a knee bar in a cage that has the forward hoops aft of the dash. Positioning the bar below the steering column puts it too close to one's knees, and positioning it above the steering column obscures the gauges. When a roll cage is more fully fitted into the chassis so the forward hoops pass through the dash a cross bar can be positioned at an effective height without danger of impacting body parts.

I would guess about 100#'s
I really don't know.

While it was assembled for that picture I shot, I could easily pick the whole thing up.


KT

I was thinking about the install today.

How would setting the bolt plates directly on top of the longs, running very long bolts all the way through and out the bottom and then using another bolt plate under the car?

Weld the plates to the car as well.

Input, please.


KT

Well....that's one way.

Another

here

What you described Paul outlined in an earlier post, but Andy pointed out that your cage bolts directly to the floor.

I wonder if you could (tube) bend that baby outward so that you could bolt it to the longs?

Or it looks like you could section two pieces in to get it wider to fit the longs, but the question would be whether or not there would be enough room, given the angle, to fit.

Wish I was up there with a tape.

gone

I would prefer to see you add a plate to the side of the log, like on Andy's cage and other I have seen. That way the log is less likely to collapse. If you add a tube for the bolt ride in then it could be closer to being correct. What Paul was describing is the strongest way you can build the cage. The tube design, going through the logs. A little extra weight here could save your butt, when needed. Bolts by themselves will not work properly and if the log colapses while the cage is in stress, they will loosen and a lose cage does you no good.

BTW, the knee bars will be right there where you don't want it, at your knees. It is bad enough you will probably screw up your leg in a side impact in a teener, due to the shifter, with the knee bars placed below the steering column you run the risk of taking out both legs.

He would be mistaken.

53 3/4" wide from outside of bolt plate to outside of bolt plate.

It mounts to the top of the longs.


KT

that's the beauty of a custom build cage. my "knee" bar sits completely behind the stock dash ...

Andy

None of these bolt in cages address the major issue with our cars. They break off at your feet in a head on accident. You must go forward to keep the body from crushing under major impact.

i don't follow you.
Explain.

if you are talking about an impact that would crush the car all the way past the dash...

Likely not survivable in ANY vehicle.


KT

I can't find the pictures here, but there is a couple of pictures of teeners that have been in head on collisions. Notice how they fold up. The way our cars are designed they will fold up at the front of the foot box, because of the way the steering rack is mounted in an open tunnel.

So Trekkor, are you going to add nice big plates and carry the cage through to the bottom of the car like Paul suggested?

Also are you going to fabricate a dash bar?

BTW you can copy mine, which is easy to do now with everything out of there.
FYI It didn't hit my boney knees and I'm over 6 feet.

And if your adding a dash bar you can then add the bar from the (top) bar in back that goes down to the dash bar. Real safe then.

trek said that his cage bolts to the top of the longs and not the floorpan.
no sandwhich/troughbolts needed then ... just a backing plate ...
Andy

PS: trek, how thick is the engman long kit material? my backing plates are really thick/heavy, much more so than what i remember from seeing the engman kit ...

mounting plates need to be thick and big. read the (SCCA) gcr for necessary dimensions (I forget off top of my head, but probably .120 thickness -- there is also a surface area requirement iirc). i think mine were 3/16" thick. jp's pictures look just right to me, and andy's cage is obviously worth checking out in person. I think you are definitely going to want to weld this thing in.

have you determined if the tubing is dom? what's the OD and wall thickness? just curious -- i think this setup will be just fine for your intended purpose. i might have some extra dom 1.5x095 in the garage that i could sell you undermarket if you need to do any additional fabbing.

The Engman kit is under an 1/8" thick.

The base of my cage for bolt-in installs is 3/16" thick.
2 1/2"x 5" bolt plates.

I want to weld these to the top of the longs.
Also use a matching plate under the car that I can bolt through and weld to the underside.

The tube is 1 3/4" OD and 1/8" wall thickness ( .125" )

Nate, I would like to get that tube. How long of a piece( s ) do you have?

Randal, do you have some pics of the knee bar?


KT