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got a good bit of the s&w cage in

S

shmoken875

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Blacksburg VA/ Bel Air MD
took about 8-9 hours with 4 of us working last night, and there's still plenty to do today. Its a 1 3/4 .120 wall mild DOM from S&W Racecars. It came about 50% prenotched, and alot of the birdmouths had to be altered, its turning out ok though, still some triangulation to be done. Bout to go out in the parking lot and start working on it again.

spraks make me happy
DSC00512.jpg

welding the halo to the main B
DSC00515.jpg

teaching some friends to weld
DSC00519.jpg

welding the rear down bars to the main b
DSC00521.jpg

both rear down bars, main b, and halo together
DSC00528.jpg

buddies shop
DSC00527.jpg

kneebusters and main b spreader in
DSC00531.jpg

roomate gives the thumbs up for the night
DSC00525.jpg
 
looks good, but two questions [ok one question, one comment]...

1) how are you going to paint it?

2) damn.. you shoulda gone another couple inches forward on them A pillars... thats going to suck getting into..
 
rocklandxjer said:
looks good, but two questions [ok one question, one comment]...

1) how are you going to paint it?

2) damn.. you shoulda gone another couple inches forward on them A pillars... thats going to suck getting into..
Click to expand...
1) I'll rip the headliner out eventually and just spray all over the place, looks don't really matter to me

2) it wasn't welded to the floor yet, we pulled the whole cage a few inches back to weld the rear spreader (no pic) in and keep it away from the speaker pod, the kneebusters are now all the way up on the dash
 
Yeah, painting is going to be a bitch. Don't you have any tarps or welding blankets to protect the interior? I understand not caring how it looks, but damn, it doesn't HAVE to look like crap with weld burns and slag all over the place. Also, it's not hard to clean and paint the tubes and leave the joints unpainted for welding, then all you have to do is paint the joints.
 
Goatman said:
Yeah, painting is going to be a bitch. Don't you have any tarps or welding blankets to protect the interior? I understand not caring how it looks, but damn, it doesn't HAVE to look like crap with weld burns and slag all over the place. Also, it's not hard to clean and paint the tubes and leave the joints unpainted for welding, then all you have to do is paint the joints.
Click to expand...
Like I said, doesn't bother me one bit, I'll be ripping the headliner out sooner or later anyways. There is a welding blanket on the seat in the one pic. I also didn't have time to paint it, school (working on a mining engineering bs at virginia tech) takes all of my time, and I only had one solid day to put into it, I probly wont be able to work on it in any decent stretch till classes are done in may.
 
muddinxj04 said:
wow, i didn't even realize that was u randy. Where did you put the cage together? And are we wheelin when we get home for summer?
Click to expand...
Friend of mine teaches automotive tech at Botetourt Tech hs in Fincastle (by DC4wd), did my front 4.56's there too. Yea dude I'm always up for wheeling, hittin big dogs (as long as I can get all my work outta the way) inthe end of april, paragon in may, and hopefully rausche some time in june (if I can get off work)
 
might be wise to keep grinding and engine building on different benches or at least cover the engine parts well that's just asking for trouble.
 
bj-666 said:
might be wise to keep grinding and engine building on different benches or at least cover the engine parts well that's just asking for trouble.
Click to expand...
don't think I coulda used the grinder anywhere without hitting something, theres at least 15 blocks around the shop, 10 or so trannies, 5 axles, all kinds of goodies, most are f'd up and used for teaching (its a tech high school). We weren't thinkin too well, were workin on about 4 hours of sleep and worked almost 9 solid hours out of the nearly 11 we were there. In that first grinding pic my butt is blocking out a huge no smoking sign on the used oil container
 
Goatman said:
Yeah, painting is going to be a bitch. Don't you have any tarps or welding blankets to protect the interior? I understand not caring how it looks, but damn, it doesn't HAVE to look like crap with weld burns and slag all over the place. Also, it's not hard to clean and paint the tubes and leave the joints unpainted for welding, then all you have to do is paint the joints.
Click to expand...

Yea I kinda thought the same too..... why not tack this all with a mig and finish it with a tig to keep down on slag spatter??? Totally surprised you didnt get any into the windows.
 
96XJay said:
Here is my S&W cage I just put in my MJ....

paintedinside.jpg
Click to expand...

Did you trim the bottom of the legs off?? I think it would fit a bit better if the legs were longer below the last bend, on the bottom end. It seems the front legs contour the dash well, just seems they could be moved up almost 6 inches, and the top trimmed down accordingly (would also move the front legs out towards the windshield a bit more, so you could mount the dashbar over the dash, vice in front of it). Was there enough on the kit to accomplish this??
 
jslamerman said:
Did you trim the bottom of the legs off?? I think it would fit a bit better if the legs were longer below the last bend, on the bottom end. It seems the front legs contour the dash well, just seems they could be moved up almost 6 inches, and the top trimmed down accordingly (would also move the front legs out towards the windshield a bit more, so you could mount the dashbar over the dash, vice in front of it). Was there enough on the kit to accomplish this??
Click to expand...

The bottom of the a-pillar tubes are just angle cut to fit on the floor plate. I took the least amount of material as possible from the bottom side of the tubes.

I don't know if I understand completely everything else you were saying... Let me just say this... there is room for variation when it comes to installing this kit. You can move certain things one way or the other etc. This is the way it made most sense to me.

I like where the dash bar is and if I ever have to remove it I will just cut the bar out. Not that big of deal.
 
fordtech said:
OT
just saw this... its a tragedy what happened. hope all is well.
Click to expand...
all of my close friends are accounted for, but friends of friend have been lost, wont know for sure till the list comes out, too much on my mind to worry about anything else right now, please keep everyone in your thoughts and prayers. Going to the gathering tomarrow to pay respects.
-Randy
 
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