Ford GT Roll Cage

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I got to spend the last couple of days working for a nearby race team installing a cage in a Ford GT.  First of all I did not design this cage, nor did I do much of the bending on it.  This race team is having another Ford GT prepared to run in the American LeMans series next year by a company that's not located near here.  That company has designed the cage and is having it homologated for the racing series (takes a bunch of paperwork to get a car entered in the ALMS series including certification of the safety systems).  Meanwhile, the guy that owns the race team wanted to get some time in a GT in SCCA races, so he bought another GT and is having it prepared by his team.  They want the cars to be similar as far as the cage, so they had the guy doing the other bend up an extra set of the main tubes.  They weren't trimmed or notched, though.Since the GT is an aluminum chassis car we had to start by bonding, bolting, and rivetting billet aluminum mounting pads into the chassis.  Steel sockets for the cage tubes then bolt into the mount pads.  The team manager is actually also a fabricator, so we worked together to fit everything up and weld it in.  I did all of the tube welding, and he focused on the gussetts and brackets.The welding was done with a little Lincoln 175 mig welder.  At first I laughed when I saw it since it was tiny - figured it had to be a 110 volt machine.  But, it actually had some power!  It worked well, although I have no idea what voltage I was welding at - all the dial said was between G and H.  Why couldn't they put the volts on there instead of letters??  Anyway, I never reached it's duty cycle and it worked great. Ok, enough writing - here are the pics...
Reply:Very nice work.I have a question.  How is it working in a shop that clean?  I'd probably trip over my reflection in the floor.Mine is just a little more messy the that.Thanks,JasonMillermatic 210 w/ SpoolgunMiller 375 ExtremeMiller Trailblazer 250GMiller AEAD 200-LEVictor Journeyman O/A
Reply:Nice work, you get to work on all the fun cars.John -  fabricator extraordinaire, car nut!-  bleeding Miller blue! http://www.weldfabzone.com
Reply:That shop is amazingly clean!  One of the guys mops the floor at the end of each day.  It actually made me nervous working there the first day!  The white panel on the floor was a thin sheet of wood to keep the sparks from burning the epoxy floor.Last edited by TubularFab; 12-01-2007 at 03:48 PM.
Reply:nice job the only thing i see thats not right ,is the car is not at my houseChuckASME Pressure Vessel welder
Reply:You get all the fun jobs.. Mild Steel I presume?...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:(watch this)  Hey, was them some down passes I saw???(ducking,low crawl towards door)
Reply:the cage looks great.....did you cut into the structure of the car ?-Graham-Mechanical EngineerAutosport Mechanic/Fabricator
Reply:Originally Posted by TEK(watch this)  Hey, was them some down passes I saw???(ducking,low crawl towards door)
Reply:Originally Posted by RojodiabloHEHEHEHE!!!!! Uhh, they were inverted uphill welds. Yeah, that's it, inverted uphill!!!
Reply:Jeez - I hate it when my ftp program randomly inverts my images during uploads!  Doh!  Thanks for catching that guys!Here are the correct photos:And yes, the diagonal braces of the main hoop required an insane amount of notching into the aluminum bulkhead to fit into place.  For one thing the cockpit of this car is soooo small that you could not afford to bring the main hoop forward enough to clear.  Those braces cannot be bent, so the notching had to be done.  There is a gussett plate welded into the bottom side of the center x joint that bolts and rivets into the chassis.
Reply:good looking stuff...a little side story about the current GT's... when i was in Phoenix, there was a Ford dealership, about 4 blocks from the BMW dealership that i worked at... well, being a limited-production car, the GT's are usually pre-ordered from the dealership before they are ever produced. there was one that was shipped in and before they called the customer that ordered the car to tell him that they had recieved his new toy, they decided to take it for a litte "quality control inspection drive" and happened to drie past our dealerhip. well, they had a red light before they drove past, so they stop. needless to say, they floor it off "the line" and instantly reach the shift point. well, the dimwit driving it tried to speed shift, missed 2nd, ground the gears, and bounced the engine off the rev-limit. i was laughing my #$% off. when he drove back, i don't think he ever went above 30 MPH. he has this look like "oh $#|+, what are they gonna do to me when i get back to the dealership?" on his face. the people around our dealership were all used to hearing the high-HP roars of the BMW M-series cars, but when you hear a GT hit the rev-limit, you tend to turn your head for a second.P.S. does anyone here know what other vehicle has the same engine block as the GT?Later,Andy
Reply:Looks like you had some pretty tight angles to get into there. Good work.
Reply:Ford GT.... Nice car!!! A Car shop here in Jacksonville,FL that put twin turbo's on one and it is near 1543 whp now!http://www.stage6motorsports.com/s6_...fordgt_01.htmlHave look at this video too.... Damn that car is just plain sick.....http://stage6motorsports.com/gttt.wmvEnjoy,DavidLincoln SP 135 plusHF 14" chop sawDewalt 4.5" angle grinderloads of hand tools for my Trade job
Reply:Jeremy Clarkson of BBC TV Top Gear (UK). Bought one last year, said it spent more time in the garage been fixed, and when it was on the road it was on the back of a tow truck.Nice motor all the same. Nice cage as well, must of been a real be-atch, getting the angles right to follow the profile
Reply:when Jay Leno got his, they had to call him up to schedule a suspension change... they came to HIS shop, and swapped out the stock A-Arms for new ones that were (i believe) cast aluminum. they had to do it for all GT's. i guess they found a tiny hair-line crack in a few and erred on the side of caution and jsut replaced all of them. they said that the total job costed Ford $15,000 per car. When i was at UTI in Avondale, we had Nicholas Cage donate his personal GT to the school's students. the irony of the situation was that although the school was a Ford training center, not a single teacher, director, or other person in the school was certified to work on the GT's. even changing the oil supposedly required the GT certification.And as far as the engine block quesion goes, since no one answered it, the GT engine block is the same one that is in the Ford Lightnings. the original casting is the same anyway... i'm sure it has different internals and what-not, but the block is the same... just a little piece of useless information to take with you all thru life.Later,Andy
Reply:The suspension recall was to change out all the control arms front and rear.  They were originally done in cast aluminum and some kind of flaw showed up.  The replacement was really interesting, and I should have snapped a pic of them.  They digitized the cast arms them had them CNC milled from aluminum.  Every detail from the castings are in the billet peices - even the ones that were due to the casting process!  They are some amazingly detailed millings - that's for sure!
Reply:Tek & Rojo - I was hoping you'd see my corrected "right side up" pics and comment about the direction the welds were run... Yes, as Tek noticed I do run downhill when doing cage tubes.  I know there has been a lot of discussion and debate over vertical up/down welding, so I guess that was a hint to voice my opinions on it.  When doing the cage tubes most of the time I'm working with .095 wall mild steel DOM tubing.  When I make my notches I don't leave sharp edges - I belt sand the thin sharp points off after cutting the fishmouth so the material is full thickness the whole way around the joint.  So, this tubing all falls below the 1/8" thickness most of the posts on this debate consider thin enough to do vertical down with good results.  When I do these welds I usually run around 19 volts and a fairly slow feed rate.  If I'm not mistaken this usually results in an amperage of around 130 running .035 wire.  The gun is angled up into the weld at about a 45 degree angle - never hold it horizontal!  As a result I end up pulling the weld down the tube.  It doesn't run on it's own, and it doesn't get ahead of me.  The result is a very strong weld with great penetration.  If you study the closeup picture of the 2 joints you'll see that the welds are nice and convex.Now, if I were going to weld something thicker I'd definitely go to vertical up.  I do not seny that that is the best way for heavy duty welding.I'm going to make some sample joints at the shop tomorrow and weld them using vertical down like is shown above, vertical down like many do where they end us chasing the puddle, and vertical up.  I'll then slice then open and take pics of the results...
Reply:Originally Posted by TubularFabTek & Rojo - I was hoping you'd see my corrected "right side up" pics and comment about the direction the welds were run... Yes, as Tek noticed I do run downhill when doing cage tubes.  I know there has been a lot of discussion and debate over vertical up/down welding, so I guess that was a hint to voice my opinions on it.  When doing the cage tubes most of the time I'm working with .095 wall mild steel DOM tubing.  When I make my notches I don't leave sharp edges - I belt sand the thin sharp points off after cutting the fishmouth so the material is full thickness the whole way around the joint.  So, this tubing all falls below the 1/8" thickness most of the posts on this debate consider thin enough to do vertical down with good results.  When I do these welds I usually run around 19 volts and a fairly slow feed rate.  If I'm not mistaken this usually results in an amperage of around 130 running .035 wire.  The gun is angled up into the weld at about a 45 degree angle - never hold it horizontal!  As a result I end up pulling the weld down the tube.  It doesn't run on it's own, and it doesn't get ahead of me.  The result is a very strong weld with great penetration.  If you study the closeup picture of the 2 joints you'll see that the welds are nice and convex.Now, if I were going to weld something thicker I'd definitely go to vertical up.  I do not seny that that is the best way for heavy duty welding.I'm going to make some sample joints at the shop tomorrow and weld them using vertical down like is shown above, vertical down like many do where they end us chasing the puddle, and vertical up.  I'll then slice then open and take pics of the results...
Reply:[QUOTE=TubularFab]Tek & Rojo - I was hoping you'd see my corrected "right side up" pics and comment about the direction the welds were run... /QUOTE]Yep, We saw them. If only all fixes were so easy as just turnin the print over  You were right, my original comment was intended to elicit some debate.There is a lot of misconception about downhand welds and your tutorial may help some out. Thanks for doing that..... and really nice work, too.
Reply:Wheres the nodes? The work is awesome but I dont understand the placement of just about every tube. Oh and mind on giving me a ball park number on your wire speed? I am having a hell of a time setting my welder up...Last edited by fordman; 12-04-2007 at 03:07 AM.HTP Invertig 201Lincoln Idealarc SP250Miller 180 AC StickBy farmall:They should have held the seagull closer to the work, squeezing evenly for best deposition.
Reply:Yeah, so that's about the coolest thing I've seen today. Great work, and I have to agree the Lincoln 175 is a very underrated welder, mine is amazing for most everything, especialy since I bought it for $375 brand new.
Reply:Fordman - unfortunately I did not design this cage; I simply had to copy what was being done at another shop on another Ford GT.  I actually am not impressed with the design of this cage - specially the fact that there is a complete lack of nodes!  Part of it is due to the extremely small cockpit and having to compromise where the tubes intersect to maximize helmet room.  But, yes, it is definitely lacking from that aspect and I mentioned it as we put it together.  The design was done by Doran Enterprises, who builds a lot of race cars.As far as welder settings.  On the Lincoln 175 I was using I usually ran the voltage at between G and H if I remember right.  Seems like the wirefeed was around 5?  I have absolutely no idea what that equates to in real world numbers!If I were doing it on my Miller XM 300 CC/CV and S54 wire feeder combo it would be set to a voltage of 19.5v, inductance of 75, and wirefeed to around 35 for .035 wire on 75/25 gas.
Reply:Originally Posted by aczellerP.S. does anyone here know what other vehicle has the same engine block as the GT?Later,Andy
Reply:Originally Posted by 700RIn 1999, Ford came out with a 4-valve, DOHC supercharged 5.4L that was used in the 2000 Mustang SVT Cobra R, the Ford GT, and the Shelby Mustang GT500. It's also used in the Ford Falcon line in Australia under the name "Boss."   These engines in the GT put out 550HP/500ft-lbs.that´s a great project that shows the capabilities of a small 175 Mig machine...great job man!My Babies: HF Drill pressHF Pipe Bender3   4.5" Black and Decker angle grindersLincoln Electric PROMIG 175that´s it!
Reply:Would love to see how you made the plates and sockets for the cage. Have any pictures you can share?Race Car and Hot Rod Fabman
Reply:Would somebody please explain to my wife that I need a GT-40?
Reply:Dear Lahkota's wife,    Lahkota needs a GT-40.  Like, now.Love,The internetThat should do it.PatrickLincoln 175HD
Reply:Great work!Miller Dynasty 200DX Tig Welder