SCrazy Winter Projects

I have a number of things I've been planning on doing plus a couple of new things to comply with the 10.0 and quicker safety requirements.

1. Fiberglass doors and deck lid, fit and paint fiberglass hood. This has been in the works for a long time, I bought the doors about a year ago when we tried to put together a group buy through John Temple. I really need to decide what to do about the window glass. My original plan was to install the tracks and glass in the door and use a strap to open and close the window but now I'm starting to lean towards just going the Lexan route. In any case it seems silly to me to fit and paint that fiberglass before finishing the roll cage install...which leads to #2. If I do Lexan windows maybe I replace the sun roof as well.

2. Complete Roll Cage and finish gutting the dash. I have an S&W chromoly roll bar kit in the car, I need to gut the front half of the interior and install the remaining pieces to finishes up the full cage. Halo, A-pillar bars, dash bar, side bars. The cage needs a window net and needs to be certified. I have no idea what certification might entail. When the dash is out I'm going to finish gutting it. All of the HVAC, radio and misc stuff have already been removed along with a good amount of wiring but things like the steel support frame are still in tact.

3. I need to install longer wheel studs on all four corners

4. Transmission shield

5. Take a grinder to my front brake calipers so I can get rid of front wheel spacers

Not nearly as much fun as the rear end I did last winter but still a good sized body of work.

Looking forward to reading (and seeing..) your progress over the cold months. Keep up the good work!

My 8pt roll bar that is currently in the car was an S&W kit, so I called them and ordered the parts to finish up the 10pt cage plus a dash bar and door sill bars.

The kit came in the other day and I started to mock things up. I didn't get far. The halo bar that came with the kit wants to mount VERY low, approximately 3" below the top of the main hoop, this just doesn't seem right to me and I haven't put the seat back in the car but I'm sure that my head would be above the top of the halo, which just can't be right. I've contacted S&W but they seem to think the kit is right.



I'm thinking if I find a place that can bend the ends of the bar in a couple of inches on both sides then I can move it up to be even with the top of the main hoop.

What do you think??

No need to take it to someone to have it bent, just use a ratchet strap around the bars and squeeze it together so you can weld it in place where you want, then once you have some good tacks on there, they will hold it from spreading out again.

Will check my set up tonight.

Brian, when I get home I will look at my set up and see how well it fits. I am always hitting my head on it but I think I got it as high as it could go.....Rich

MadMikeyL said:

No need to take it to someone to have it bent, just use a ratchet strap around the bars and squeeze it together so you can weld it in place where you want, then once you have some good tacks on there, they will hold it from spreading out again.

Click to expand...

I think this would work if I needed to move the ends of the tubes 1" closer together but I'm thinking at least 4" is needed. Would just squeezing the ends together work to move the ends that much??

just looked at mine..

The bar you have should come up about three or more inches. Mine is just off the roof headliner. Mine started with a s&w kit as well but it got some added pipes mixed into the mix. That front bar does a bit of a bend to follow the dash on mine and goes to the floor ahead of the door opening.. I hope this helps you some. Now as far as bending it to get it up I don't think you will be happy with the results.....Rich

Thanks Rich...that's what I thought. I would think the top of the halo and the top of the main hoop should be at the same height if possible.

I'm going to have to find a way to bend the ends of the halo bars inwards a couple of inches on both sides. It's funny because looking at S&Ws website a lot of the halo bars in other kits come formed that way.

you have two ways...

SCrazy said:

Thanks Rich...that's what I thought. I would think the top of the halo and the top of the main hoop should be at the same height if possible.

I'm going to have to find a way to bend the ends of the halo bars inwards a couple of inches on both sides. It's funny because looking at S&Ws website a lot of the halo bars in other kits come formed that way.

Click to expand...

First off you have to find someone that can bend it for you. that is the best.. The second way is to fill it with sand and then cap both ends. Then you heat it where you need the bend and when it is good and hot you SLOWLY add the bend to it. The sand helps to keep it in shape and should give you a good bend...
I hope this works for you and if I had mine to do over again I would be putting a lot more bends in my set up.....Rich

Some photos of the complete cage from several angles would real interesting to see.
I'm thinking of putting a cage in mine eventually and would like to see how it all fits.

will work on that

I will have to dig it out of the storage barn and get some pic's and try to post them for all. I might be able to get to it this week end IF it warms up.. -10 tonight with a wind chill of -35 buuuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr......Rich

not ideal but

How about cutting the front hoop removing enough to get the side bars where you want then weld the front bar back together...could even add an inner bar to add strength back to the welded area.

I found a local chassis shop that put a couple of little bends in the ends of the bar for me yesterday, I'll get some pics when I get it mocked back into the car. They had 3 cars in their shop and all 3 had these same little bends, the guy agreed that the halo would be to low without those little bends and says he always does something like that on his stuff. He was pretty cool about letting me look at those cars and get some ideas about what I'm doing.

Mike I'll be sure to take lots of pictures. One thing I know for sure is that if you want to keep the dashboard and run the tubes through the dash it is going to take some pretty major surgery to the steel dashboard framework to allow the a-pillar bar to pass through. Those bars want to pass right through the major structural pieces of the dash at both ends. My dash is totally gutted, no HVAC or airbags or stereo etc. and even with that its going to be a lot of work.

Roll cage update

Lots of fitting and tweaking happening, the S&W cage kit has become more of a pile of material than a true kit installation. The bends and length of tubes in the kit just fit horribly. I need to download a bunch of pics from my camera to update this.

I've found that the halo bar basically passes over my left shoulder and winds up very close to my head. Sitting in my seat with helmet on the bar is about 1" from the side of my helmet so with padding it will virtually be touching. The halo cannot go higher it is 1/2" from the roof at the front and my Corbeau seat is on custom mounts and sits only about 1" from the floor. If it is bad that my head is that close to the bar then I'm going to need to think about a different seat that can drop even lower.

I've also gutted the dashboard and made all kinds of mods to the steel framework so it can fit around the cage. Big project just fixing up the dashboard.

Looking forward to seeing numerous pictures of the finished cage. Will you also be doing a window net ?

David

David Neibert said:

Looking forward to seeing numerous pictures of the finished cage. Will you also be doing a window net ?

David

Click to expand...

Yes, it's going to need a net.

The net needs to be attached to the cage on the inside of the door and roof bars. If I draw a straight line between those two points my shoulder will definitely be hitting the net. I'm not really sure how to deal with that but fitting the net is still down the road a bit.

Brian, do you have an NHRA rule book? It's been a while, 2001(?) since I've checked one out, but I believe that that you have to have 3 inches from any part of the roll bar to your helmet, and I believe it is supposed to be above your head that far too. It sounds like what you are fighting might be a problem there. Just saying that if it is it'd be a lot better to find out it isn't acceptable to tech guys now(or that a new seat won't get it), b4 its fully welded.

Adam

This is the only text in the rules I can find that relates to clearance of bars from helmet:

"All roll bars must be within six inches of the rear, or side, of the driver’s head, extend in height at least three inches above the driver’s helmet with driver in normal driving position or be within one inch of the roof/headliner in the area above the driver’s helmet, and be at least as wide as the driver’s shoulders or within one inch of the driver’s door"

It is found in the paragraph that discusses requirements for the roll bar/main hoop so I'm thinking it only applies to the main hoop and not the halo, however even if it does apply to the halo I meet the requirements of the bar being within 1" of the headliner.

I will definitely be sending some pics to the area rep before I weld up the halo.

I think you are ok here.

SCrazy said:

This is the only text in the rules I can find that relates to clearance of bars from helmet:

"All roll bars must be within six inches of the rear, or side, of the driver’s head, extend in height at least three inches above the driver’s helmet with driver in normal driving position or be within one inch of the roof/headliner in the area above the driver’s helmet, and be at least as wide as the driver’s shoulders or within one inch of the driver’s door"

It is found in the paragraph that discusses requirements for the roll bar/main hoop so I'm thinking it only applies to the main hoop and not the halo, however even if it does apply to the halo I meet the requirements of the bar being within 1" of the headliner.

I will definitely be sending some pics to the area rep before I weld up the halo.

Click to expand...

I also looked in the book and found what you did. I also know that they have never said anything about my set up and I know that my helmet does hit the cage, matter of fact I have to get into the car without it on just to get into the car. You should be ok but just make it simple for yourself and have it checked..
On another note, you need that window net,BUT they are only good for TWO YEARS from the date they are made, NOT sold, so be careful when you buy yours.....Rich

That was the 3 inch statement I was remembering, I did not remember the "or" clause of 1 inch from headliner. I was also confusing the halo bar and main hoop. Just mentioned it cause it would really suck to get to the track and be turned away after all the work you put in!

Adam