Well, almost done. Nash drove me down to Portland today to pick up my car from the cage builder. He said to come at 2:00, but it ended up being done at 5:00. We had a nice lunch with Greg and Scott while we were in town and after lunch, they followed us to the shop to check it out.

There's still a lot of the finish work I have to do myself, but the meat of the cage is finished. I still have to trim the dash (which will be a crapload of trimming) around the knee bar, relocate the ECU, figure out the lower attachment for the window net, scrape some weld spatter, then prep & paint the cage and re-attach some wiring, the hood release and harness belts.

Anyway, it's been a long day and it's late, so here's a few pictures in it's current state. All in all, I'm very happy with the quality, the design, and especially the price. There's a few little things I'd like different, but they're minor.












[Modified by johng, 9:42 PM 1/19/2003]

 

Very Nice!!

 

Looks good

 

Looks nice. I like the perches for the main hoop. Any reason you didn't extend the driver's doorbars to the outer skin?

Am I the only guy left with an AP cage?

 

unfortunately not.
...but I will put my faith in it for one more season.

 

Very sweet. How much (If you don't mind my asking)?

aj

 

awesome Looking from the first photo, are the door bars piercing through the B pillar column.

What's the total cost?

 

and does the cage break through the fire wall?

 

I'm guessing no, since its an IT cage. Looks like those are the 7th and 8th points.

 

Ohhhhh ****!

That looks great. Nice doorbars

Nice snug fit up to the headliner, and dash area.

Money well spent

 

Very nice cage, lots of smart pickup points. Taking the rear down tubes to the shcok mount is much better structurally and in a wreck than some that go to the rear frame or or the wheel arch. I have never done the rear X although I've considered it. I'd be interested to see if you think rear vision is reduced. I use a Wink mirror so it tends to be info overload anyway. If you ever consider adding another bar, you might go from the lower back side of the main hoop near or opposite a door bar to the rear angle down tube near the shock mount. This give another triangulation and then spread rear load farther forward in a hit. Just a thoughtl, certainly not a criticism.

Anybody use petty bars? I never have in case I want to take a passenger (Drivers ed, lapping day or victory lap ). I've heard mixed reviews about their value in non-oval racing.

 

Yeah, I have a diagonal that runs from roughly mid-point on the horizontal bar (about 1" offset to the right from where the diagonal comes from the main hoop to the horizontal) down to the right front footing. I am not sure the overall structural gains but it doesn't flex (which I understand they often do) and its a great spot to mount the radio and does not greatly affect egress on the passenger side (as I got to demo for the CWs at RA a few months ago).

 

Phat, surely not safe for passengers at speed though, right?

 

Ah nah - you couldn't possibly put a passenger seat in the car. The only passengers the car carries are up to the false grid, usually in the hatch (as its a PITA to hang out the psgr. side door).

My friend Terry had a T2 Firebird and he had something more usable for schools and such - the Petty bar was removable as far as I recall but ran across (as in above) the psgr. seat when in. This is just from memory but I am pretty sure he had a removable one (not sure how effective they are even if they are welded in place however).

 

Reminds me. I have seen a pretty slick removable petty bar before. It was in a Corvette. It had a clevis type attachment with nuts welded to it. The owner installed it using two grade eight bolts top & bottom.

 

I've heard the flex comments too but it does make a good moutn for radios and switches. Do you have a corresponding bar from the rear shock tower come up to the back side of the horizontal bar near the petty? Not an in-line transfer of force but at an angle but I would think it would reduce the tendency to bow back the horizontal bar in an impact. Maybe it is all just overengineering.

I'd thought about welding in a petty bar then cutting the straight section out near the ends and bolting it in with internal sleeves. This would allow passenger rom and the ability to have a petty with no passenger but the bolts and sleeves would be heavy and might leave some wicked open ends for a passnger to get hurt on. Just thinkin' aloud.

 

I need to keep the window. We thought there would be a few more inches we could go into the door skin, but Honda puts all the window hardware right against the skin, so this is the best we could do.

Yes, the B-pilar was notched to retain a safe angle for side impact - no other option.

The firewall braces are the 7th and 8th points. They don't penetrate.

John -- who's not been "unplugged" yet

 

John,
can you post a pic (interior) of the driver's door bars penetrating the b-post? HC rules do but IT rules don't allow you to weld there, do they?

I still haven't unwraped my GCR, can you tell?

Thanks, Mike

 

The layout (if I describe it correctly) is left rear shock tower to top right on main hoop, mid-left on main hoop to horizontal about mid-bar, 1" over on horizontal bar to front right footer. Not sure if you know the car (Louis Boustani's first CRX - red #02 - cage was put in by Blake at OPM - think it was one of his first cages).

 

Thanks for the burger and beer yesterday, John!

Cage looks good. What time did you and Nash get out of town?

The rear strut bracing is welded to the same plate as the two rear cross members right? I can't really see it from the pics...

Will you remove the windshield to fit the dash? How's that going to work?

(And don't tell anyone about that Spec Miata at the shop... I'm searching for an extra 10k...)

 

The rest of the pictures are on my home PC. The builder said it wouldn't be a issue. The unfortunate thing on a Honda is that the main hoop is so far behind the actual door opening. To have any sort of side impact support there, you pretty much have to notch the B-pilar. Otherwise you end up with a unsafe bend angle. I'll send you something later.

 

Nice cage John. I am excited to see it in person. As Greg said you may want to pull the winshield to make the dash install a whole LOT easier. If you need some help you know where to call. Do you have any idea what the difference in weight between the two cages are?

 

 

That would be interesting to know. I wouldn't think there would be too much diff., since you added the extra tubing. It has to be stiffer/safer than the old one.

 

We were on I-5 at 5:30, stopped for a bite to eat about an hour later, and I got home at 9:00. The rear "strut bar" is legal. It mounts to the same pad as the rear down braces. I can get the dash back in without messing with the windshield, but I'm going to have to cut a lot of material off the backside of the dash. Not sure how bad it'll be yet.