"Starter cage" for 914 Porsche

admin

The owner of this car had me do all the bent tubing for the cage, and he is going to do the straight tubes and all the welding on his own.  So, I laid out the main hoop, a-piller tubes, front hoop, and roof brace then bent and notched them.  I was quite pleased to get a great fit to the car and didn't scrap a bit of the tubing the guy brought me.  Since he is a fabricator I was really hoping to not screw up on the first try on any of the tubes!  The really cool part is the main hoop is snug against the flange of the B-pillar and will be really easy to do a nice skip weld on.
Reply:Keep the pics coming!Looks good so far..Moly or mild steel?...zap!I am not completely insane..Some parts are missing Professional Driver on a closed course....Do not attempt.Just because I'm a  dumbass don't mean that you can be too.So DON'T try any of this **** l do at home.
Reply:very nice fit-up. should have no problem welding. i see where the tubing goes through the body, does it attach to the frame?
Reply:On this cage we used a common trick to help make the welding easier.  The tubes are all actually long right now, but will be trimmed to sit on a plate on those sills that they currently pass through.  This way, the cage will be tacked up in place, then dropped down a few inches into the sills.  This will make all the top joints very easy to weld.  After welding the tops the cage will be raised back up and big plates slid under all the tubes which will then be fully welded.  The plates will also have vertical sections bent into them to pic up the inside vertical planes of the rockers.
Reply:Looks good! what wall thicknesses are you using?My Babies: HF Drill pressHF Pipe Bender3   4.5" Black and Decker angle grindersLincoln Electric PROMIG 175that´s it!
Reply:I like the modern roadster in the last pic...in the background. What car is that specifically?John -  fabricator extraordinaire, car nut!-  bleeding Miller blue! http://www.weldfabzone.com
Reply:Keep a set of measurements for future reference.  I could see a good business in making kits for the 914's.  Good job.Smithboy...if it ain't broke, you ain't tryin'.
Reply:Originally Posted by MicroZoneI like the modern roadster in the last pic...in the background. What car is that specifically?
Reply:Actually, it's a 1996 Panoz AIV Roadster.  Aluminum chassis, super plastic formed aluminum body panels, 1996 Ford Cobra 305hp 4.6l drivetrain, fully independent unequal length A-arm susupension all the way around.  It was one of 4 prototypes built in 1996 to prove out the 1997 model year (there was no 1996 model for Panoz).  There are pics at http://tubularfab.com/roadster if you want to see more pics.  That particular one is for sale - I have one that I built myself that I drive that I believe I posted a few pics of a while back.Oh, and I keep very detailed drawings of the cages I've built just in case another comes along.  One of these days I hope to find one with some demand to sell in kit form...
Reply:awesome fit up...built a few nascar style cages for the company i worked for here in gainesville for their t2 class srt4's...fixed a few too!...the only thing i had a question on was the main hoop?...why not a halo with two drops for the a pillars instead of the cross bar with two full legs drops?...different approach i guess...and the panoz...they have a few at Lanier Tech when i was in the acr class there...pos's...or at least the one's they had there anyway and they were the road challenge cars!
Reply:Thanks TF, I thought it looked like a Panoz. Cool!John -  fabricator extraordinaire, car nut!-  bleeding Miller blue! http://www.weldfabzone.com