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Originally posted by groucho
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...if your wanting to leave interior in...do as Groucho says on the welding blankets...or go to a fabric store and buy cheap 100% cotton or denim ....cotton burns slow and resists sparks .... as for welding near headliner you can use cardboard with either a thin sheet of aluminum or layers of aluminum foil attached to it like a sandwich....the cardboard is easy to form to go above joints....Last edited by Chassisman; April 3, 2013, 11:27 AM.The Beatings will continue until MORALE IMPROVES !!!! -
Chassisman - thank you for your input!
Instead of doing it wrong now, I've decided to delay putting a cage in my falcon. I will run it as is for a while to see how things go - the interior is pretty simple - I will put in a headliner that is removable, or none at all for now - Randal doesn't seem to miss his headliner...There's always something new to learn.Comment
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I recently glued neodynium magnets to the back of my satellite radio and stuck it to the roof.Escaped on a technicality.Comment
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My original take on the o.p. was, he was figuring on dropping the main hoop through the floor in order to get access for a good weld on the top (with the roof of-course in place)...the Chassisworks link (the first one from page 1) says to simply not make the main hoop so tight to the roof that you can't weld all around. That, I see as the issue. I've seen guys do pretty well welding over the top w/ a mig gun, w/ tig that gets pretty tough. (Having to have the hoop so low that you don't light your headliner on fire is just ridiculous, pull the thing out(!) first...and then as is said, a piece of aluminum lining the roof will save the paint...)
But I like having the main hoop as high as will fit, and then having the top sides where my head is not going to be hitting them all the time, and that can really put that welded joint up into a corner. I guess, tig it as far as you can go, and mig the rest.
Helping a friend once, we did put holes in the floor. They were just a few inches in toward the middle of the car, through non-critical floor sheet metal and not in the structure the cage was going to plant to. A chain and a come-a-long pulled the tubes in together enough to go down the holes and allow good access to weld at the top, and then everything sprang back out when in was put into place and the holes in the floor pan were welded back up....Comment
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Harbor Freight moving blankets work pretty good.. But they do start afire rather easily....Originally posted by Chassisman View Post
Remember wet does not burn very easily..
With MIG, you can (with GOOD gloves) cup your hand around the weld to minimumize sparks flying..Last edited by Deaf Bob; April 3, 2013, 01:11 PM.Comment
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OK, gotta ask. Am I the only one laughing about this one? LOLOriginally posted by Deaf Bob View PostSTUGOTSComment
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In their defense.. They do remove the sharp edges of GRAVEL I gotta kneel or lay on.. Stopping fires.. Up in the air about that..Originally posted by groucho View Post
Yeah. I get the stupidity of it.. The black side is polyseter I think.. No good.. But do work with a spritz or 2 from a water bottleComment
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I used a few of the HF welding blankets when working on my cage. Works ok, but they will burn thru. Plus the humidity (in Alabama) must react with whatever they coat them with. The shop had a strong ammonia smell until I removed them. I hung them over a clothes line for a week or two until I could figure out what to do with them. It rained in that duration- the grass under the blankets died- for a year or two...
Why think when you can be doing something fruitful?Comment
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...The OP is refering to the rear struts that lead from the main hoop to the rear floor section...those rear struts are at an angle and per NHRA rules must be within 6" of the outside edge of the main hoop(baiscally just past the radius) at that angle it leaves PLENTY of room to mig weld without hitting the headliner even if the main hoop is touching the headliner. Also on the cage sides you can get tehm pretty high in the car and still weld around them....look at the cars in my pics...none of the sides hang down far and all are welded all the way around. Only the 67 Nova A/Gas car and the 57 Pontiac Pro Mod had the bodies removed for welding....Originally posted by Loren View Post
Heres an illustration....
The Beatings will continue until MORALE IMPROVES !!!!Comment
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Wow, great info. I would have totally f*cked it up, lol. I don't need a full cage , just want to stiffen up the car to handle 400 - 450 hp without twisting body parts so I think a 6 point with sub frame connectors will do the trick. Thanks."Life's tough. It's even tougher if you're stupid." - John WayneComment
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Stock Trans Am tuned well, hitting the corners HARD, you can feel the floor flex if your foot was flat by the seat... Especially the T-tops...Originally posted by Vegaman View PostComment
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that advice is a little late for meOriginally posted by Chassisman View PostHard Work Guarantees Nothing - Lack of it Does!
Drew Gerth - Newburgh, INComment
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Yap me to, though my car was made a full frame car and the cage attaches to that, it just needed to pass though the body to get to the frame......Originally posted by 91CCFirebird View PostComment
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....If its a full frame car that's different. Notice I said UNIBODY....if you've added a frame or full tube chassis the cage should attach directly to that... on full frame GM's I go directly to the perimeter frame....I then box in the factory open frame rail about 10". I cut large access holes in the floor boards of full frame cars so I can weld all the way around. Then I notch the factory sheet metal and weld iit back in. I do not weld the sheet metal to the tubes...."IF" they do flex any the welded sheet metal will fracture so its best to leave a small gap and seal with silicone...Originally posted by TC View PostThe Beatings will continue until MORALE IMPROVES !!!!Comment
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There is a decent article in the June issue of Chevy High Performance on 'cage/bar installing.Whiskey for my men ... and beer for their horses!Comment
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