The fabrication thread.

[blu808]

to properly construct a street style roll cage for an aluminum chassis Z06. This is not a full on race car build, and it is built with keeping the original interior in mind.

Here are the saddle plates where we will be riveting the Main hoop to the main bulkhead of the chassis.

We will be using 4700 lb aircraft rivets.



Here you can see some of our welding.



The fitment of the hoop is nice and tight along the interior side and roof pieces.





Here is how the rear bars are mounting to the frame. The customer wants them to be removable so we are doing Clevis mounts.



Here is the plate situated. We still have to drill all the holes for the rivets.



Here is how we attach cages into Z06's. We use 4700Lb aircraft rivets through our rivplates





Here is how the Rivplates look. The shear strength conversion puts a rivet every square inch. The strength equals a 6"x6" steel plate welded around the perimeter. So in other words the attachment is actually stronger than the Corvettes frame rail itself.



Hoop saddle plates (holes not drilled yet)





[IMG]We will weigh the cage once completed. Well we have finalized the design and will be dropping it off to get powder coated later today. Finished pictures should be coming soon!































Entire cage system weighs around 25 lbs.

Here is how the rear portion of the car appears with the X removed. You can hardly notice the rear clevis points.

[Om1kron]

I was wondering what that was! looks awesome dude.

[sr20sean]

damn that looks awesome!

what did you use that only makes it weigh 25lbs???

[Mister.E]

that cage is epic!

[blu808]

Thanks guys. It is 1.5" X .095" 4130 Cromoly. The weight surprised all of us as well.

[godrifttoday]

How many hrs for all that fab work?

[blu808]

Here is another system I make for the GTR.





And for the Bmw 135i





And mini cooper





And E46 M3





These are not full out roll cages. We make them for another shop, and are considered to be fancy harness bars.

PITA to make as well.

[lancerevil]

Looks Awesome!

[sr20sean]

i want to be luke when i grow up

[JDMStanced]

epic!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[s14tan]

Originally Posted by blu808

Sweet Jesus..

[roninwon]

how much would one of those cost for a s13

[BoostSlideWayz]

Anyone have any advice for a beginner ? never welded a day in my life. what type of welder should i go wit ? tig ? mig ? arc ? thats all ive heard of so idk if theres any other welders than that.

[STR8E180]

Originally Posted by BoostSlideWayz

Anyone have any advice for a beginner ? never welded a day in my life. what type of welder should i go wit ? tig ? mig ? arc ? thats all ive heard of so idk if theres any other welders than that.

TIG
if u want nice looking beads the tig is the only way to go

[duffman1278]

Originally Posted by STR8E180

TIG
if u want nice looking beads the tig is the only way to go

Not true, there are plenty of people who make phenomenal beads with MIG and still get proper penetration.

I started with TIG when I learned and then moved to MIG and I felt that MIG was more difficult to grasp then TIG.

[Darren]

Originally Posted by duffman1278

Not true, there are plenty of people who make phenomenal beads with MIG and still get proper penetration.

I started with TIG when I learned and then moved to MIG and I felt that MIG was more difficult to grasp then TIG.

I wouldn't have expected that with all that's going on with a TIG welder...

2 hands, and a foot...

[duffman1278]

I guess it depends on the person because I've had friends say MIG was a lot easier to pick up because of the whole 2 hand thing.

[pandaroo]

mig is def easyier for a newby to grasp.
call me old school but i think its best to learn on stick. it trains you to keep a consistent arc length and angle do to the rod being consumed. then when you switch to a different process its a breeze.

[blu808]

Originally Posted by roninwon

how much would one of those cost for a s13

We sell them for like $1200 including the powder coating and hardware.

[blu808]

Originally Posted by godrifttoday

How many hrs for all that fab work?

We could make 1 in about 8 hours but it would have a tolerance of about 1/8" from symmetrical. The real trick with making these is we have to make a jig off of the first one. The jig has to be perfect. For the Corvette it took me about 4 days of solid fine tuning and adjusting before it was perfect. Then another day or so to build the jigs.

[Slo_240sx]

91 240.... that is almost identical to my setup lol.

[bb4_96]

Learned something new today. I knew there were the obvious risks related to welding but wasn't aware of the stainless specific welding hazards. Not fab work but fab work related.

MIG Welding Stainless Steel, Safety Issues

Really in depth reading in the link, cliffnotes:
-Welding, cutting, grinding, plating stainless can release hexavalent chromium into the air
-Its a carcinogen, aka it's nasty shit
-can cause a whole list of health issues
-so be safe zilvia

[roninwon]

Originally Posted by blu808

We sell them for like $1200 including the powder coating and hardware.

would it be universal say for both rhd and lhd?

[blink182house]

Originally Posted by bb4_96

Learned something new today. I knew there were the obvious risks related to welding but wasn't aware of the stainless specific welding hazards. Not fab work but fab work related.

MIG Welding Stainless Steel, Safety Issues

Really in depth reading in the link, cliffnotes:
-Welding, cutting, grinding, plating stainless can release hexavalent chromium into the air
-Its a carcinogen, aka it's nasty shit
-can cause a whole list of health issues
-so be safe zilvia

thanks very much for the share; i know its slightly off topic but if any of you other guys have any other safety related tips i'd greatly appreciate them as a new and learning welder! thanks very much! had a buddy learn the hard way from galvanized and we'd like to not learn any more hard ways!

[atutt]

Originally Posted by BoostSlideWayz

Anyone have any advice for a beginner ? never welded a day in my life. what type of welder should i go wit ? tig ? mig ? arc ? thats all ive heard of so idk if theres any other welders than that.

Best advice.
Don't even think if touching an electric welder.
Spend time learning how to gas weld and braze with oxy/acetylene... You will thank me. Become skilled with that and welding will be a breeze.


I wish I had done this.

[blu808]

I started with Oxy/Act and was able to pick up all other forms of welding with ease.

If you are worried about health risks just google welding safety procedures. There are many weird welding hazards. One interesting one is that 2% tungsten is radioactive.

roninwon: Yes they would be the same for a rear half cage.

I would encourage any of you guys that are interested in becoming a welder to find someone in their area that does it all. Maybe a race shop. or someone that does tig and mig. Go talk with them and see what they suggest. I can tell you that after making 5 cages in one week that my eyes feel like shit, fingers are cramped, and I smell like burnt metal. It may not be for everyone as a profession, but I encourage everyone to have the skill of welding as it will save you all money in the future.

[blueshark123]

those half cages look great thats something i might want for my s14 since i dont drift my car and dont need a full cage for autox and drag

[S13SILVIA|E46M3]

blu, your cages just made me cry. Beautiful design and everything. So awesome!

[90hatchie]

i started with arc welding
i hated it
overhead arc pissed me off so much but i finally got it down and can do it no problem
then i moved onto mig and it was a breeze
when i moved onto tig it required alot of patence from me but the arc welding helped realize what i had to do a bit

[VYKTR]

Originally Posted by blu808

I would encourage any of you guys that are interested in becoming a welder to find someone in their area that does it all. Maybe a race shop. or someone that does tig and mig. Go talk with them and see what they suggest.

I might just take you up on that offer Luke. Besides, I have some headers, muffler (still need to source out), and blast pipes that im going to need to weld up. Ill PM you about it later.