FabChild

Yea it's not the Nissan lol but the super heavy VW R32! This was my first time building a rollcage and i'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. I learned alot and the are def. a few things i'll do different next time around. Some backgroung info. My brother and I just started an Automotive shop, He has been wrenching on things since he was little and I def. consider him a natural mechanic. He graduated top of his class from (UTI) Universal Technical Institute in 2001 and had been working at a shop up the street that specializes in German cars. We have been wanting to open a shop forever, so we found a building and my bro quit his job. Me on the other hand, I am not a mechanic lol Def. not a natural in that area of expertise however I have always loved cars and would like to pursue fabrication. I won't be able to work at the shop full time until next summer when I'm out of school, I have 3 semesters left to complete 2 A.S degrees from two different Community colleges. One is for Welding Technology and one is for Engineering Software Applications aka: computer aided drafting. What sucks about my situation is I don't have a whole lot of "on the job fabrication experience." I did intern for LeDuc Racing and was thankful to be able to do some welding on the chassis of a super redokulous expensive short course race truck. Problem is that really wasn't enough time to learn a whole lot, one thing I'm thankful for though is my work at the college. I tutor the Tig welding classes and while i'm not the greatest welder I think I have built a solid foundation to help me with fabrication in the future. I'm pretty much learning as I go and hopefully by the time I graduate I'll have learned a bit more to help me on my quest lol End of my rant onto the pics!

FabChild

Here the R32 cage, I wasn't able take pics of the building process. However, it's not finished I still need to add door bars and gussets to it.

RadekSkylark

I envy you, Americans/Canadians and others, who are able to earn living with fabrications, so much really, don't know, should I cry or laugh

Cage seems good and new shop as well

Good luck!

HellaFab

no diagonal on the main hoop?

weiRtech

if the cage is to nhra spec it doesn't require a diagonal on the main hoop... but if it is for drag racing, it is missing the d bars and the cross bar at the bottom of the hoop.

good luck with the shop.

FabChild

Thanks everyone I appreciate the input! The cage isn't done yet but I was only planning on adding x bars for the doors. Does it need to have a diagonal in the main hoop? The car is going to be used for road racing and me and my friend briefly looked over the rules for redline time attack that stated it needed to be 6 point. The cage is all .120 1 3/4 DOM.

essex

Diagnol
http://www.redlinetrackevents.com/wp...ventsRules.pdf
2-6.6b

Usually the diagnol has to be one piece but it doesn't say that in there rules so I guess you are ok just adding it in...or might want to contact them


You might want to add a bar from the end of the front A pillar bar diagnoly to the main hoop too, its not needed but does make it a lot stronger if it lands on its roof



.

914Racer

The Diagonal is required to be one piece by SCCA and NASA. You will have to remove the straight or notch it in the car to clear the new Diagonal.

Your cage is decent for a first attempt. Nothing wrong with the construction, the design however is pretty basic. If you have to carry the cage around with you at all times, you might as well use it to stiffen the chassis. Move you A-pillar bars out closer to the a-pillars and tie them in, then run a tube through the fire wall from each a-pillar bar and connect them to the strut towers. Since you have already run the rear down bars to the trunk floor you will have to get creative when adding in the rear strut tower reinforcements. You want to tie the shock towers together front to rear to force the suspension loads into the chassis better.

These are the pictures of the VWs I have on my computer. I don't have pics of the three I have done cages and roll bars in various VWs.

9bells

Agreed, however I feel that your example is a poor depiction.
What is the point of a welded in bar, and welded in tower sleeves, then bolted together?
Just adding a point of flexion, and rotation, however small.
Bolt together strut tower bars fall under the same blanket. Bad enough they have to be bolted on the car for clearance most times, but adding in a point of rotation like some do to alleviate stacking during manufacture renders them almost useless.
The example you show did the right thing in welding it in and using the cage to tie the body into itself, but the bolt-up front bar is baffling.

To the OP:
Nice job so far, and great shop!!!
If I can offer a suggestion on the welding...
Use less forehand inclination, and the puddle will wander around less in front of you. It will also allow you to fill up the joints a bit more, and get tighter ripples.

FabChild

Thank You Bells! I def. want to improve my welding and will use the tip thanks!

914Racer

I didn't build that car. I have no idea what the thought was behind the strut bar, it was the only pic I had of VW stuff on my computer. I wanted to show the connection of the cage to the shock towers. But i don't really like there design either.

BrownDx

Where is your shop located? The store fronts look really familiar.

FabChild

San Bernardino California

BrownDx

Woah, I was way off. Not even on the right coast!

FabChild

LOL It's just a standard industrial complex

BrownDx

Haha, it just looks insanely like one up the road from me. However, it looks nice and the cage does too for being your first. Is that a customer car?

FabChild

Thanks Man, I appreciate it. The car belongs to one of the neighbors in the complex. I don't feel comfortable charging anyone for a cage until I feel I have it down. I'm going to buy a few more cage specific tools in a few weeks and my bro has an E36 i'm going to do next. After that i'll do my FC Rx7 and by then I sholud have a better grasp of what i'm doing. Thanks Again!

BrownDx

I can respect that. I'm sure your skills will develop as you get more practice, but it's looking good (but I know little abut building a roll-cage and weldng).

FabChild

Well I have a few new tools to add to my arsenal when I go building my next cage! I just bought a new hp 17.3 laptop along with Bend-Tech pro, a wixley digital protractor, and an 1 3/4 "pipemaster" to help with bending/notching. I'm stoked, hopefully having some better equipment will bump up the level of quality on the next one.

I won't be able to build for a few months because of my school schedule at the moment but i'll update this when I do. My brother has a E36 BMW that will most likely be the next project I work on. Cheers!

thegatekeeper14

did u do alot with ruckas's?

BEfab

looks good

FabChild

^^^^Thanks!

ruckas?? lol

kleen98accord

iTrader: (1)

Looks good to me.

Can you build a roll bar for an S2000?

FabChild

Built a trailer hitch for my brother's civic lol It came out really clean, i'll post some pics of the build later, it's made out of 2" .120 wall square tube all Tig welded, he's only going to use it on a small trailer to carry motorcycles but we had to test it out lol

McRussellPants

Don't build cages without the rulebook, every sanctioning body has weird nuances that will **** you over if you try to wing it.

Try to hit nodes, you can't win them all within most customers budget but you should think about getting the Halo and rear downs to terminate at the same point or really close on the mainhoop.

Have the drivers seat with you when you build it, That harness bar looks like its going to put the belts at a sharp angle.

Watch your a-pillar fitment, they're a total bummer to get matched, but they're the easiest to tell something is off fitment wise.