Installing rollcage

The rollcage is designed for one purpose-to save the driver from injury or death in case of an accident. Even so, some racers and especially street enthusiasts are reluctant to add the weight of a cage to their cars. Years ago, the NHRA and other sanctioning bodies mandated that cars of a certain speed be equipped with a rollcage.

So we know why we have to do it-to be safe and because the NHRA says so-but a rollcage can also benefit a race car in other ways. If installed properly, a rollcage will add significant chassis stiffness, which equates to more consistent elapsed times and reaction times, and less wear and tear on the car. While a rollcage can be manufactured out of raw tubing, there is a better way. Since our shop isn't equipped with a tubing bender, we decided to purchase a rollcage kit from Competition Engineering for our car.

Competition Engineering makes rollbar and rollcage kits for all popular Mopars, which makes it easy to add a cage to any car. Our Competition Engineering A-body kit included all the bars to install a point rollcage, and the main components were prebent, only needing to be trimmed to size before installation.

Since the kit only costs a minimal amount more than the raw tubing itself, it's well worth the few extra dollars not to have to worry about bending the tubes ourselves. The only real choice we had to make was whether to fabricate our cage out of chrome-moly tubing or out of mild steel. While chrome-moly is stronger, and therefore lighter since thinner wall material can be used, it does require a TIG welder, which we don't have. The bottom line is, if you choose to do a full race cage, do it in a full race car.

Now that we have that out of the way, let's have a look at the cage project at hand. Steve Sawitz of Laguna Beach, Calif. The kit includes a 1. OD outer diameter with a. As an option, a complete water jetted floor plate kit with attachment points of no less than 14 places for the '02 to current unibody shell see Fig. The kit was designed to work for many race applications and features only four main points, leaving the decision to install additional tubes up to the customer and their racing organization's rules.

One of the main things that Steve stressed to L-Con was the importance of strengthening the vehicle, as he wants to jump, and jump big. The project gets underway with the complete disassembly of the interior of the car, trunk and a good portion of the engine compartment.

After the car's interior has been gutted, the car is prepared and further stripped of paint, primer and body sealant in all the places where tubes will eventually make contact see Figures 2, 3 and 4. The thickness of the body shell alone cannot take the pressure of the end of a 1. Once the body shell has been cleaned in the necessary areas, a few holes must be drilled in the body shell for later steps see Figures 7 and 8.

First in. Then 1. This makes a provision for the tubes that will secure the front suspension to the interior roll cage. L-Con tack welded plates on the frame rail in front of the strut towers, on the front, top and rear of the front towers, at the base of the Subaru's A-pillars, base of the B-pillar, and front, top and inside of the rear strut towers see Figures 9, 10 and The next step was to fit and tack weld the 4 main points of the cage in place see Fig.

Two 1. The front of the X is fitted to the back of the windshield bar, tubes aligning with the A-pillar gussets. Finally, two tubes are slightly bent and installed from the lower bends of the A-pillar through the firewall and are fitted to the plate on the back of the front strut towers see Figures 15 and Once the whole structure is tacked and in place, the entire structure is welded as much as possible where it sits.

To further stiffen the chassis, we ordered a solid body mount set from ABC Performance. The ABC crew offers a bunch of early Chevelle specific items, and even has a frame boxing kit that we mentioned earlier.

So we had our cage kit from Alston and solid mounts from ABC Performance now we needed one specific tool to add to our collection of necessary items for the job. We already had full selection of magnets, grinders, and an v MIG welder. What we needed was a tube notcher. Once we had all the parts and tools, we gutted the car's interior and got busy. Close Ad. The Future. Join MotorTrend.