on January 23, 2012
With the fabrication of the main hoop we were able to start working on the rest of the cage. This is an absolute art and anyone that tells you different hasn’t ever tried to do all of this.
We are fortunate to have “bones” himself and Tyler “the cage whisperer” providing their help and expertise to this build at our cage shop, Built by Bones. Our guys have been putting in their own time and effort to make up the majority of the labor hours. Our crew is made up of Matt W, who has done cage fabrication in the past, Matt F and myself who are generally handy people, but haven’t done much with tube fitting and Evan who has been learning a TON about fabrication and is now giving us all a run for our money. We dove right in and have been making some awesome progress.
Since the last post we started with the side hoops. The side hoops are bars that attach to the main hoop then basically trace the perimeter of the door opening till they drop down to the floor at the front of the door. These are a bit complicated to bend with a few bends in them and three dimensions to bend in as well. Grant took some time to bend up the bars and put us in charge of fitting them in place.
With a bit more work we got the Rocker bars in place as well which you can see in the photo above. From there we started working on the details for the safety cell. Lots of gussets are needed, the door bars need to go in and we began getting all of that put together.
With door bars under way Evan started making gussets as Matt W started welding everything he could see.
There are few things that require more contortionist exercises than welding a cage in a race car. There is just so many angles. Some require you to be upside down, others require awkward angles and tight spaces!
With another day completed we finished up. We only welded in one set of door bars in order to give us easier access to the inside of the car. We’ll weld those in right before paint
Another very productive day is behind us and we are excited for the arrival of Shocks and Seats this week. We really hope they arrive on time and if they do we will be on track to make some of the final bends for the cage next weekend. Check back soon and let us know what you think of our build! Thanks for following along.