Building a roll bar on a challenge budget?

So I am hoping to be able to add a roll bar to my challenge car but I would like it to potentially be able to add more bars to this later for track use. I have been looking at NASA time attack.

Anyway, called both of my local metal supply companies and neither could quote me a price on DOM. I would like to at least have an idea of cost of enough material for a 4 point before moving on. I should have asked about ERW but wasn't expecting them to say that they couldn't quote me a price at all.

Anyone have any recommendations or thoughts on this? I would really rather not run without a bar even if I get the Starlet body on as it is made of cotton candy.

Welcome to the land of compromises.

If you build a roll bar for Challenge it must be NHRA legal, 1.75" tubing.
If you want to not redo it later, you are stuck with an oversized main hoop, rear stays, and door bar(s) and the associated weight penalty.

Suggestion for Challenge: find a second hand bolt-in thing you can resell or throw away when you are ready to build a time attack cage.

I know it's a haul for you but Shapiro Supply in STL is where I got my stuff.  They should be able to do DOM but they do 4130 also.  They where the cheapest by far including it being a 3 hour drive for me. 

Also..  Jegs has some insanely good prices on weld together cages.  As Gumby said you do have to watch for NHRA legality.  This should get you to their index on cages.  I'm sure either a "universal mini stock" or Chevy S10 cage would work pretty excelently in your application.

https://www.jegs.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/SearchResultsPageCmd?q=roll+cage&storeId=10001&catalogId=10002&langId=-1

In reply to nocones :

Yeah, I suspect that is what I need to do. I don't mind the drive for a reasonable price.

In reply to gumby :

I have been looking for used bars and whatnot but my area has dirt track cars and lifted trucks. There isn't much else so those kinds of things don't pop up often.

In reply to singleslammer :

competition engineering main hoop and source straight erw tube for the rest. Look up the main hoops on Summit Racing, 99% of the time someone has asked dimensions already, pick the one that fits and see if you can get it from amazon with prime shipping. I got my hoop for $44 shipped which was absolutely cheaper than buying the tube to bend it from

In reply to Patrick :

That's exactly what I did with Datsaniti's 6-point roll bar. It was for a Ford Pinto/Mustang II and under $50.

I wouldn't sweat the NHRA legality. You've seen Challenge tech inspection...it's a joke. Whatever you build for NASA time attack rules will surely pass at the Challenge.

That is a very fair point. We did go ahead and order a 1.75" die and will likely make the main hoop to NHRA spec with the rest of the cage being NASA spec. This may end up being only a 1 year Challenge car at this rate.

In reply to frenchyd :

You shouldn't throw out incomplete/incorrect safety advice even with a disclaimer.  There are people that will not confirm.

In reply to frenchyd :

They have allowed newer cars, like the hellcats, to run without a cage. However, I am building a roller skate from crown Vic parts that might have a body. Calvin's channel is full of fantastic advice.

I found a mistake main hoop , bent slightly off . It kind of fits . I turned into bolt in  harness bar.