Learn Me: Roll bars, how cheap is too cheap

I have reached the point where I am looking for roll bar options for the Mustang. My first inclination, after old research, was to go with Wild Rides as their website alleges it to be hold & weld (exact fit) and shipping in under 2 weeks. Unfortunately, either their website is weird at checkout or they are out of business. While I wait to hear back from their sales team, I am revisiting my research to sort through my options. Accordingly, how cheap is too cheap when buying a roll bar from a reputable source like Summit?

My options, so far, are something like this:

1) El Cheapo 4-pt on Summit like Competition Engineering or Rhodes Racing. The up front price point on these is nice but you pay for it with the work to get them fitted to the car. Also, they take a long time to ship.

2) Someone like S&W, they cost a little more and don't specify their shipping window but I expect it's probably a little shorter than 3-4 weeks like Option 1. They're also not holy grail of hold and weld but, from what I've seen, don't require the amount of work that the cheapo's do.

3) A local custom fab shop. These guys (https://www.axiomracefabrication.com/) are not far and seem to have a nice process. Make an appt and they go directly to work on your car when you show up. 6-pt is 2 points more than I want but I have inquired as to whether they will, and what happens to the cost if they do, fabricate a 4-pt for me.

These options ascend in direct cost but I don't know how much back-end benefit to attach to each. Axiom makes a big deal out of using only US or German steel, is this a red hat marketing line or is this like electronics companies not using chinese transistors? i.e Does it actually make a difference?

The cheap options are cheap for a reason, probably asian market materials if I was guessing, but how much does their cheapness matter. When it matters, I only get 1 chance to buy safety equipment and I don't want to lose my head over a couple hundred bucks.I also don't want to overpay for marketing taglines and branding.

*Pre-edit- Axiom got back to me and gave me a pre-quote of probably $800-1000. This seems very compelling.

*Edit numero two: DOM vs Chromoly? One good point for DOM is that this isn't a race car and I actually benefit from weight over the back. Any reason to pay more for chromoly?

I’ve used CE and rhodes kits and found neither to be of inferior materials.  The rhodes kit came with the ends of the tubes already notched where possible.

The expense of a roll cage isn't really in the bending of the pipe.  Its the fitting everything together, the welding it together, and all of the pre and post construction prep work.  You have to gut the interior, remove windows in some cases, and then put everything back together.  You also have to remove undercoating, paint, and seam sealer that will either not allow welding to bare metal or will catch on fire.  Tubing is roughly $3 to $5 a foot, plus base plate materials welding materials, prep consumables, etc.  If a cage takes 25 hours to build, only maybe 3 of those hours are spend bending pipe.  Sounds like you plan on doing everything but the actual bending of the pipe.  Just have a local place bend up what you need bent.  Just make a detailed drawing of what you want and have them bend it.  If you were not aware of how much non bending work takes place fitting a cage, then you are in for a huge surprise.

I have had good luck with Kirk racing in the past.

Does autopower make a bolt in solution for your car?

Are you doing a full cage or just a 4 point hoop with a cross bar.

First thing I, or we, don't know is - the reason(s) for the bar. Looks or some form of competition?

First thing I would check are the specs of what they sell.  Many shops sell ERW tubing cages at a low price but many racing Org. won't accept ERW tubing.  Just make sure that the cage is made from DOM tubing in the correct wall thickness and diameter.

In reply to Error404 :

Weight is the only reason to go to the expense and special requirements of Chrome moly.   

Having said that look carefully at why you are putting a rollcage in your car.  Once you do that it’s very hard to go back and selling something with a substandard rollcage, you not only won’t get your money back but it will seriously devalue the car. 

If the rollcage has the required braces etc in it to meet various club rules now you have something with market value. 

So, I kinda let this languish a bit. I appreciate the replies and input from y'all.

The roll bar is for safety my project track day Mustang. My priority is safety, stiffening is already decently handled by full sub-frame connectors. More stiffening, naturally, is welcome. I prefer welded to bolted, there's no reason not to weld in this car. I have seats with harnesses and need somewhere to attach those. This car will only ever be sold as a track car, it's simply too far from anything else to be worth anything. (For more on that, check out my project/build thread)

WildRides got back to me today and said they aren't sure why I was having trouble ordering. I appreciate their customer service getting back to me early on a Monday morning but, I think I am going to go with Axiom through no fault of WildRides. Axiom is local and quoted me a reasonable price and time to complete and really just makes the process much simpler. I'm less hung up on the "custom" aspect of it and more interested in not having to deal with freight shipping, lugging the cage to a welder, and all that. I might drop the car off with a couple smaller jobs as well because, why not.

A 4 point bar is not much protection in a high speed wreck or roll over. What sanctioning body would allow that?

In reply to L5wolvesf :

Your point is valid but I don’t think the OP understands why triangulation is needed.  

Why a 4 point roll over protection won’t protect.  

L5wolvesf said:

A 4 point bar is not much protection in a high speed wreck or roll over. What sanctioning body would allow that?

SCCA, NASA, etc, when it comes to Time Trials. Unless the rules have changed in the last few years. 

You'd be surprised at how much protection is provided a properly designed and installed 4-pt bar.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMmjaaSQP08

frenchyd said:

In reply to L5wolvesf :

Your point is valid but I don’t think the OP understands why triangulation is needed.  

Why a 4 point roll over protection won’t protect.  

I am doing track days, not wheel to wheel or otherwise competitive driving. The purpose of this 4-pt is to provide a higher level of protection than was built-in with standards from 30 yrs ago, as well as providing a solid anchor for harnesses. 

At the events which I currently attend, it is rare that anything worse than sideways across the grass into a tire wall happens. I will also be driving this car relatively slow as I learn it. As my speed increases, and the level of risk from it, or I attend other tracks with different risks I will revisit my safety equipment accordingly. 

I do understand that a 4-pt does not provide the crash protection of 8+pt cages but they are excess to both my needs and wants at this point. 

I always suggest that people build the main hoop, legs, and mounting pads on any weld in bar to meet the requirements of a full cage in their sanctioning body. It's much easier to add tubes to something than cut it out and start over. 

mazdeuce - Seth said:

I always suggest that people build the main hoop, legs, and mounting pads on any weld in bar to meet the requirements of a full cage in their sanctioning body. It's much easier to add tubes to something than cut it out and start over. 

This is sage advice that I fully intend to follow. 

While you're here, do you know if there are appreciable differences between NHRA standards and SCCA standards regarding cages? I suppose that it would be smart to research this over the coming weeks before dropping the car off for the install.

Edit: I specify NHRA because that is what Axiom advertises as the spec they work to. I am sure they will work to SCCA if I ask for it. 

Eddit: I found a Challenge post on this subject and it seems like NHRA is the stricter standard for diameter. More research is required.

Yes SCCA and NHRA cages are vastly different, and diverge a lot as you need more protection (faster).

I've been very happy with the fit and finish of the 2 bolt-in Autopower "race" bars my cars have come with (87 VW Golf and 98 Honda Civic).  They do sell a weld-in version if you'd like over the bolt-in.  Fortunately I have not had to "test" them.  Both were SCCA Hillclimb compliant.