That is one of CC's cages...and I am with you on the single diagonal, that was probably before T45 was recognised as being used for cages so the less steel you used the better....although the horizontal tube will do a good job of re inforcing the diagnonal.
The roll cage in mike kurton's mk5 gti, atmr built car, custom cages install awsome work, this car handles so well
anyone noticed that the custom cages feature spotted welding (i.e not a continuous weld, but many little blobs of weld). why is that?
Just a guess but if you're welding all the way round a tube its far easier to do a small section at a time, than to try and continually weld it, easpecially when the cage is being made in the car and stuff is at awkward angles.
been putting more thought into T45. If the rough cost of materials for a "normal" cage is about 250, then if T45 is twice the price then it's got to be worth spending that extra 200 or so?? to offset the amount of weight with added engine performance would cost 4 times as much so surely the weight saving is worth every penny? or is it in fact 10 times the price and I'm living in cloud cuckoo land?
If I remember right, an Evo 8 multipoint cage in T45 was about 35kg....if you compare that to a Golf Mk2 OMP 6 point basic cage in CDS is 27kg you can get a massive amount stiffer cage for not much more weight....and its a much bigger car.
Top of my head from when I visited Custom Cages: T45 is 15 to 20kgs lighter. Got the data on the computer somewhere, but can't seem to find it - will update if I do.
I honestly dont know...I guess you can work it out though. A CDS main hoop is 2.5mm wall thickness and I think a T45 one is 1.5mm. They are both steel alloys so will have the similar desity. So a T45 main hoop will be just over half the weight....the other tubes will be more difficult to work out because they vary in wall thickness, even the door bars on the passenger side are smaller wall thickness than the drivers side.
I would need to see a close up of what you are describing Phat....however from the description you have given it sounds like they probably TIG weld rather than MIG which can give the kind of appearance you are describing. In general TIG is rumoured to be much better than MIG for welding cages as you have more precise control over speed, penetration and the amount of heat put in to the work piece. Hope this helps
CC have pictures of one of the McRae kitcars on the wall in their waiting room, so I'd go with 100% on that one Chris!
Well, car is coming out of the garage this weekend and going off to P&P on Monday. Think I'll save some money buy doing some of the work myself, and spend that money by going for the T45. It's not TIG welding, athough I have seen the cage it the latest SEAT touring car (which smacks of custom cages) and the smaller diameter tubes are welded in with TIG. This looks like MIG, but it's bee done a small bit at a time. just a blob, then a blob, not a continuous run of weld. All I can think of is to minimize distortion, or to deliberately split the weld up so it's not prone to cracking right through.
Interesting one yesterday on old yank motor I was delivering- this a hinged door bar, never seen that before & is interesting. On this vehicle the door bar would have been daftly intrusive, so they made this up, not a bad compramise solution for certain vehicles I reckon. (Ps big lumpy cam, big block V8 & no silencing, wowzer its noisey!)
Does anyone know where I can get a decent tube notcher from for a good rate? Chester do one for about 70 inc P+P and Delivery but waiting list is minimum of 10 weeks. Demon Tweeks sell the same one for about 100. Does anyone know of any other alternatives? Thanks
Try Frosts and Car Builder Solutions - they may do them. Rollcentre sold them with their cages IIRC - Mad 20V may know the mfr
Cheers Chris , Frosts sell one but its about 200 bucks , its the press type notcher.. I thin the rollcentre ones are about 170 all in too. Just trying to keep the cost down as I've no job now... damm outsourcing companies!
