Building a cage

[323ian]

With my SD Cage, there were 4 box plates 2 shaped to butt to the inner sill/floor a few inches back from the A pillar. Another pair behing the B pillar and a pair of flat plates with a 90o top flange that sit on the top of the rear suspension turrets.

These were fully welded in position. The sill brackets have two tapped holes (clearance hole in the plate and a full nut tacked behind) in the top face and a single tapped hole in the inner face. The end of the legs have an angled piece welded to them with corresponding holes for the bolts to fix each leg to each plate.

The rear two legs have flat plates with three holes, two above and either side of the tube and one below. These are fixed by drilling through the turret and fixing with bolts & nuts.

HTH or makes some sense

I'll try to take some pics tomorrow.

Thats very helpfull thanks mate, to explain mine a bit better i is the front tubes which are going to cause me the most hassle as the will end up somewhere in the footwell so not actually near any chassis rails. I will do as i thought and like you said and put a plate underneath the floorpan to bolt the feet of the legs to.

[323ian]

weld mounting plates onto the chassis, you want a nice fully welded surface area. also weld plates onto the cage and then weld the two together.

http://andrewmcc.com/weldedcage/10front.jpg
http://andrewmcc.com/weldedcage/1brett.jpg
http://andrewmcc.com/weldedcage/4rear.jpg
http://andrewmcc.com/weldedcage/5rear.jpg
http://andrewmcc.com/weldedcage/6mid.jpg
http://andrewmcc.com/weldedcage/8fullrear.jpg

you get the idea

Thanks for those pictures mate, very good.
Only thing is it looks like your cage finished at chassis points but the front legs of mine finish in the footwells and not against any chassis rails, you think beefing the floor up with a plate and then welding onto that would be better than bolting right through the floor?

[Gerry H]

Sorry Ian, I got distracted and forgot the pics.

In Andy's pics, if you look at 10front and 6mid the box section has open ends. With the SD cage the ends are closed. If you think about it, any sideways force could fold the box flat, or at least fold it out of shape. The cage also lends rigidity to the chassis, those open ended boxes will impart less stiffnes than a complete box.

[323ian]

No worries Gerry,
So your cage has box section ends but is bolted to the chassis?
The problem with mine is that it joins to the floorpan and not the chassis.

[Gerry H]

There are box section brackets, welded to where the floor pan meets the inner sill, inside the car. The end of each of the four legs, at the A & B pillars have a corresponding right angle bracket welded to them. They, each welded bracket and corresponding leg bracket then bolt together.

I think this is getting more confusing each time I type it

Pics tomorrow.

[323ian]

That bit made sense completely mate.
Thats the way i will be doing mine now i see what you mean.
Cheers.

[IWANT1]

Remember the front section is an add on and the lass didnt even know it was a six point cage when selling. Needs a window and dash bar adding

Are you going to weld the rear two sections of cage together once fitted?

[Gerry H]

A Pillar


Rear Turret


B Pillar

[andycaca]

cheers for the advice about the mounting plates, i'll do a better job next time. at least the cage did its job for me in august last year:)

[323ian]

Remember the front section is an add on and the lass didnt even know it was a six point cage when selling. Needs a window and dash bar adding

Are you going to weld the rear two sections of cage together once fitted?

What is a window bar?

I am possibly thinking of just using it as a rear cage to aid in the event of a roll over as the front section of cage is going to get in the way of your heads!!