Hi guys, Im having a mare fitting a roll cage and following the instructions given on the sticky (Thanks for the Thread, its been a great help so for) Problem being.. fitted Main hoop and rear uprights. Tacked in place. when fitting the front triangular sections and knocking them into place it keeps lifting the main hoop breaking the tack welds and i have now two dints in the roof which as you can imagine is a huge annoyance due to the roof being the best part of my car!!! arghhhhhhhh!!!!! iv trued to use racket straps to hold the main hoop down too but still lifted and for the 3rd time after substantial tacks for the main hoop to the floor brackets it has actually broken the tacks off them too. Where it didn't break the floor tacks it dis-formed the actual bracket. Now i know these cages are built to be tight and under strain but should there be this much tension? this is the 3rd time they have been in and next step is to cut the triangular front bars down but my worry is this will mess the whole geometry of the front part of the cage. Any advice would be great,.. i don't want anymore dents in the roof Thanks Matt
Sounds like you need to up the amps on the welder and make a bigger `tack`. So long as you can get in to grind it away so you can separate the tubes to drop the hoop, it doesn`t need to be a tiny `tack`, it could be a 1/2" bead. Just make sure you can remove it
Well I upped the amp on the welder and gave it some beans.. Got the whole front fitted and pulling the front roof bar in place when.... Ping... All the welds cracked on the main hoop and I now have a very big dent in the roof :-/ surely this cage is not supposed to be under so much tension? I mean every part has been placed with rachet straps. The front bar wouldn't even fit passed the front roof support that runs across the windscreen. My once pristine shell is really looking bad now :-(
As nige said put a few stitch welds round everything about 1/2" to 1" should be enough. Don't be afraid to put a good stitch down if you can get at it with a cutting disc it can always be undone
Show us a pic of the `tacks` you did. Did you just spot it or put a decent bead down ? Some tubes need persuasion, but sounds like you needed to profile the tubes a bit more. Did you do any profiling, or just try and fit the tubes without doing anything ?
Hmmm. Something sounds very wrong. I didn't have an issue like this and it's my car that's featured in the cage thread. Could we see some pictures please? Gurds
Hey guys, i must admit the tacks before were just a small spot weld and after the big 5mm dent in the roof i have removed the whole cage for now and I am now re checking all the floor mounts. the rear floor mounts have now been re fitted and sitting slightly lower than before. After turning up the power id like to say the tacks were much larger and making more of a beed than a tack. I still find it very strange that the front triangular uprights are so tight, the front bar just would not go in and I'm now worried that the front windscreen will not fit properly. Its almost like the front triangular uprights are just too long as they were tight against the front bulkhead with no space, even crushed it a little. This then made it sit so high up that the front cross bar could not pass under the roof support. (Tried your sun visor protection but just dented in other places too but good shout) iv been out for the fabrication for a few years now as moved work offshore but in the 13 years of metalwork and fabrication this is far the hardest yet. All tubes have been getting the extra profiling as prescribed in the thread..... think i may need a new roof skin by the end of this or another shell..... I never took pics and wish i did.. will do next time for ya...
