Excellent stuff. Sounds like it's really coming along. Presumably your first test of the stiffer chassis will be at Cadwell in Feb? Can't wait for the report and vids. You've now got a well sorted track car I think. I'm jealous of ya!
Started on the cage install this afternoon, I'd already stripped out most of the interior during the last few evenings, so saved us (Dan from our bodyshop is giving me a hand) a bit of time, we removed both the front doors which makes it a lot easier to get the rear cage in, and get to work in the footwells, a mk2 door takes only a few mins to remove, it's well worth doing when fitting a cage. Door trim off, wiring/central locking pipes out, check strap bolt and 2x15mm bolts and it's off! Removed the red piping for the central locking pump and the redundant rear speaker wires, also shifted the wiring loom from the OS and cable tied it out of the way. Where the cage is going to be bolted in and over the sills I stuck a load of 2" masking tape onto these areas, so it's easy to mark out for drilling, and stops the car getting any more scratched than it already is We assembled the cage inside the car, and loosly bolted it all together to mark out the holes for the foot plates. We measured from the corners of the cage feet to inner sill and where the flange is for the rear 1/4 panel to keep it all square. Marked out where the supplied plates need to be welded in for the B posts and Dan's making up some plates to 'flatten' the area so the plates can be seam welded in, we're going to weld in some plates on the vertical panels on the B post, for a bit more strength, and again so the SD foot plates can be welded all the way around, not just where they fit. Marked out the holes for the rear stays and front feet, and drilled some of them, and that's how far we've got at the mo. Making up the plates for the front feet in the morning and they'll be welded in from inner sill to floor pan. Few pics Big hammer is required for this job Edited by: GVK
None as of yet Craig, it bolted together fine, we're only going to tack weld the plates in, then refit the cage to make sure we've measured it up right Then take it out, seam weld the plates in, seam seal them, paint them, then fit the cage and all the other bits I've got piled up We adjusted the floor to fit the cage (It was all pushed up from jacking under that little bobble on the floor) Edited by: GVK
This is a great topic, I want to do it to my car later this year hopefully. I hope you are going to do a little step by step guide on your website Gary
Been hard at it all day, it's all bolted in and all the welding is done, just needs a bit of paint here and there where we seam sealed all the welds to stop getting a puddle in the car. I think we trial fitted it twice and tacked the mounts in place, and then checked everything would bolt up after it was welded, then took it out, seam sealed and painted the welded areas, then waited for them to dry, well err we rushed this bit as we were running out of time! < red face > Everything went really well considering we'd never fitted a cage before, except a cross threaded bolt in a door hinge when we were putting the doors back on, cage fits really well Massive thanks to Dan Wright from our bodyshop for giving up his Sunday to give me a hand and drive the Mig welder. You have to butcher the floor to get the M10 nuts on the B post feet to sit flush, Dan made up a couple of plates to flatten the area.It sits on the edge of a box section which makes it a c**t to drill, we opened out the holes with a carbide bit in a die grinder. Arc eye anyone !!??? Trial fit B post - note : plate added to vertical section to allow a nice seam weld around the foot plates.. I've 'done an Fthaimike' and took out the tar from front footwell, one sides was pealing off anyway, so got the heat gun, scraper and thinners on a rag and took it out. Not going to do the bulkhead, but might do the rear footwells if I can be a r s e d . 2mm plate welded into front floor well and up inner sill to spread the load - we trusted our measuring and marking and used the pillar drill to drill through the 2mm plate. Serious business cheese toastie time!! Side mount seat rails,just thought I'd add a pic of those. All caged up! - Old bling Allard strut brace now matt black. Needs carpet trimming and refitting and a few bits tidying up and padding fitted properly and cable tied on.. Which I can do at my leisure this week. Also need to put another eye bolt in each side for the shoulder straps on the harnesses, never been happy with both straps on one eyelet. Edited by: GVK
good workneed more pics though. still not happy with those front bars on the floor rather than the sill, but I guess you can still use the door cards with door bins with it mounted like that?
That's why we plated the floor-sill area with 2mm plate, tacked it in, hammered it up along the inner sill then jacked up the floor with trolley jack (where it was all crushed up anyway) to meet the plate, then welded it in. Only been to get some fuel but already can tell the chassis is stiffer. Can fit door cards but not the pockets [:^(]
Thanks Mike, I nearly got carried away and took out all the tar yesterday, but did ask Dan to give me a slap if I started straying from the job in hand Where the rear seat used to sit I'm going to attack that with a hole cutter, just leave the bare skeleton as the carpet is moulded to that shape. I'm not refitting 'everything' I've stripped from the car, and will go and get it weighed on the same weighbridge I did last year when it's all back together. Hopefully it'll be somewhere around the same weight as before. 1040KG wth 1/2 tank o'fuel and me NOT sat in it Edited by: GVK
