to Roll-Cage or NOT to Roll-Cage...

[Mefirst]

You are correct, you can fit the front down bars so the glovebox can be opened, sadly the guy who made/welded my cage kinda messed that up..

My car does not have a headliner. I pulled it out before having the cage made, reason was no 1, fire hazzard when welding (cage is made to fit tight against the roof) and 2. it looked kinda disgusting.. found a mouse nest and about 1ton of mouse feces on top of the headliner, I have no clue what happened to the mouse though...

Gonna add a new headliner in the car someday... other than the headliner the interior is original, well did have to loose the front door inner door handles because the handles did not fit with the sidebar...

/Tom

[GOTWING]

Yeah if you're not racing it it's just extra dead weight to haul around and slow your car down, if you go to the track 11:50 or faster you will need it.

[kanadanmajava]

My car does not have a headliner. I pulled it out before having the cage made, reason was no 1, fire hazzard when welding (cage is made to fit tight against the roof) and 2. it looked kinda disgusting.. found a mouse nest and about 1ton of mouse feces on top of the headliner, I have no clue what happened to the mouse though...

Gonna add a new headliner in the car someday... other than the headliner the interior is original, well did have to loose the front door inner door handles because the handles did not fit with the sidebar...

/Tom

My headliner has gone missing (one support bow is all that remains) but I did find mouse nests from the ventilation system. Putting the headliner back might be pretty hard if the cage has been tightly fitted. I guess I'll try to get the inside of my roof to look nice first then decided if it needs to be covered. It has so much surface rust that earlier mouse nest might have something to do with it...

[moparguy01]

Kanadamajava*

The only removable parts in a 8.50 cert. cage is the door bars and the crossbrace. Also you do not need the horizontal tube (under the dash) or the tubes all the way to the front of the car to get a 8.50 cert.. I did not want to hack up the dash, that's why the tubes come down in front of the dash. I did have to mod the right side of glovebox lid so I could open/close it, but the lid can be bought new, the dash not so much..

IF you car is not a true race car I would personally not bother with the under the dash horizontal tube or the front frame tubes. I don't have them on my car and in my mind my car is stiff enough, a little flex is good thing... Then again it all depends what your goal is with your ride...

/Tom

Which crossbrace are you saying is removable? My 74 has a 8.50 certified cage as well. However it is definitely overbuilt. Both door bars are removable. Front bars go through the dash. Which is a bitch. I did a nice vinyl wrapped dash, but no adhesive would hold it where the bends to go around the bars are. Now I'm installing a hard plastic cap. I believe you do need to dash bar, IF you have smaller diameter tubing up front. I have one. I also have will bars installed, and a second hoop surrounding the rear seat going up and around the package tray. I made a thread about it awhile ago but I'm on my phone so I can't link to it. I also made a brace across the front rails, right by the radiator support with a small loop on it. I can hook my trailers winch right on the loop and drag it up the trailer real nice. I have subframe connectors as well. The inspector said if I put in the funny car cage he would certify it would 7.50.

[Mefirst]

The main hoop cross/horizontal bar, that bar can be bolted according to the rules. You also do NOT need the cross/horizontal bar, that typically goes under the dash, connected to the front down bars, neither the bars going to the front end of the car for a 8.50 cert cage.

The tubes in my ride are Chrome Molly. Main hoop, front down bars, horizontal front roof bar and door bars are 1 5/8". Rear going tubes from main hoop are 1 1/2". Horizontal main hoop bar 1 1/4", in my car I think/remember it is the same diameter as the main hoop, 1 5/8".

/Tom

[moparguy01]

According to the inspector here, the main hoop crossbar cannot be removable and have it pass inspection. The rulebook I read said the same thing. The door bars can be removable, but no other bars. Also, they frown on any bend more than 30 degrees in door bars that have bends. My car does not have bars from the a pillars to the front frame rails as they are not required.

Did your cage pass certification and get your sticker? I'm very curious with the horizontal being a bolt in.

[Mefirst]

There is nothing in the rulebook we use over here in Europe that states specifically that the main hoop horizontal support bar must be welded to the main hoop. It just states this bar is where one mounts the safety belt/s and driver seat, that the bar must have a minimum diameter of 1 1/4" and that the bar cannot be mounted any lower than 4 inches under the drivers shoulder height.

Ill take a pic of the main hoop horizontal bar in my car so you can see what it looks like.

I have NOT certed my cage, reason is the cage lacks the D-bars and I'm not planing on driving faster than 10.000 (9.99), or 10.10, that's the BOT in the class I race in... If the need for speed changes, then Ill have the D-bars welded in and have the cage 8.50 certified, or do it before 2017, there are some rule changes coming that year, but cars certified before that will (probably) not be affected.

/Tom

[TexasStroker]

If you aren't going to need it to run at the track, I wouldn't bother with it.  However, if you like the look and think that you will wind up pushing the car more than you are thinking at the moment it would be wise to make it happen now.