You guys know everything. Most competition engineering roll cage main hoops are $40-60. I have yet to find one that fits. While it’s smarter in terms of challenge budget to but a stick of tube and a $400 bender, personal budget is uncertain for personal reasons right now.
So, anything close to these max dimensions available off the shelf? Anyone able to make one to my dimensions and angles for cheap?
I have a potentially dumb question...
I am assuming you need a cage hoop that is one piece, not spliced in the middle, because of some ruleset.
Does said ruleset require that the main hoop be perpendicular to the car, or could you angle it in there?
I just read the whole roll bar and cage section of the nhra rulebook
the only thing it says is:
All butt welds must have visible reinforcement(ie., sleeve and rosette welds)
it says nothing about a 2 piece(ie narrowed) main hoop, but i’ve always assumed never splice the hoop.
I don’t know if you can skew it off perpendicular, but that’s not something i want to do just to save some challenge dollars. Between the detroit locker you traded me and the deal i got on the vortec heads and intake, i can spend a few more dollars to be properly safe
What diameter tubing does it have to be ? I'll be cutting the main hoop out of my Corolla. It's about 44" at the shoulder, less at the roof and the floor mounts, but it's 1 5/8" diameter tube.
Check out a main hoop for a Miata. That might be narrow enough, but it will be too short if the legs are precut to length.
Are there any race shops in the area? We did a lot of bending for people in exchange for beer.
I can bend it easy enough, but the shipping from Saskatoon would be a bitch.
Have you talked to Steve Stafford? He's down closer to Dusterbd, but they did a nice job bending up the parts for the AMC. After eating a jar of your salsa I'm thinking you have some good barter material for some tube bending time.
If you talk Steve into making it, I can probably be convinced to bring it as far north as the snow is off the road. But my truck bed is only 48 in wide.
I've bent rollcage tubing with an exhaust bender, and it kinda sucked but sorta worked.
+1 for local race shops. Lotta stock car shops around, everywhere.
Or you could try these guys - http://rollcagecomponents.com they're popular amongst the lemons crowd. NMNA.
If you don't need DOM tubing for your rulebook, ERW is quite a bit cheaper.
do it yourself with sand and a vise. I have done two cars that way. Both full cages. Painfully slow but you do get nice bends if you practice first. Lots of you on line primers.
mazdeuce - Seth said:Have you talked to Steve Stafford? He's down closer to Dusterbd, but they did a nice job bending up the parts for the AMC.
The funny: We have a Spirit AMX at work, so I measured it. I think my RX-7 could fit inside the Rambler/Hornet/Concord/Spirit, and the 'Burg could fit inside the RX-7 and rattle around.
mazdeuce - Seth said:Have you talked to Steve Stafford? He's down closer to Dusterbd, but they did a nice job bending up the parts for the AMC. After eating a jar of your salsa I'm thinking you have some good barter material for some tube bending time.
Do you have any idea how hard it would be to quantify and prorate the amount of vinegar and spices used to make a single jar of salsa with home grown tomatoes? My jars were all free, the lids cost 14.9 cents each, so that’s the easy part. Also the tomatoes were free from my parents garden, so is that an inside deal and FMV to 12 pounds of tomatoes, or are they still free to me because they had so many they were giving them to anyone that would take them?
In reply to Patrick :
And now that I realize that the trade would be for homemade salsa shipping may have to be included as well...
There is a guy in Louisville that I follow on IG that is also on here that works at an off road Fab shop. Maybe they have a bender?
look, I have two and one is early mustang/capri, CE brand the other is 70's camaro, the camaro fits between the corvette frame rails and when lowered to the bottom of the rail it also clear's the roof 'hoop', the other will be used to make dash bar and door bar from hoop forward then Feet need to attach it to frame rails. check the camaro diminsions see if it will work, guessing its for the corvair.
the reason I bring up the other is its a mirror image of the other but will just fit inside the Camaro hoop
Already have Corvair covered. A c5 cage kit was sub $200 with a coupon and the hoop is almost perfect.
The wartburg is a tiny car, so i’m giving up hope of there being an on the shelf hoop. I used a 70-81 camaro hoop in the 49 plymouth that’s gone now. For comparison that car makes a big block and 28x10 slicks look small and the Wartburg makes a small block and 26x8.5 slicks look gigantic.
Any chance you might find a hoop for a 30s Ford coupe/sedan for measuring? They're pretty narrow inside. They don't have any tumblehome to speak of so the top would be the difficult part.
Tumblehome is the roof's narrowness relative to the beltline. When I wear a helmet in the RX-7, I clear the roof just fine but hit the side window frame a lot. I'd never be able to fit with a rollcage for this reason. With that in mind, as narrow as the Wartburg is on top, are you planning on a roll bar or roll cage, and if cage... where do you plan to sit?
Going to go 5-6(5 is minimum, 6 makes more sense from a chassis twist perspective) point bar because i do not intend to go faster than 10.0 in this car. I’m more leaning toward street car here, but it will have the power to weight to be somewhere in the 10’s if i can get everything to work together. The problem isn’t making the power, it’s getting all the supporting parts to put it to the ground properly, on a shoestring budget.
Any kind of full cage in this car would be too close to or trying to occupy the same space as my head, and I really enjoy that my head has its own space to occupy and don’t ever wish to try and make it fight steel bars for the same location
If you find yourself up in CT anytime before next year, I'm happy to bend it to for you and I have a bunch of 1.75x.095 I can sell you at my cost.
Patrick, I know you want to prevent 'Twist' but if room is that tight, could you just go with a Roadster type HOOP , I was looking at my Cobra chassis and the driver hoop looked like it may fit your needs.
bearmtnmartin said:do it yourself with sand and a vise. I have done two cars that way. Both full cages. Painfully slow but you do get nice bends if you practice first. Lots of you on line primers.
This seems like the most GRM solution.
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