Daily Driver Roll Cages?

[sacarguy]

Originally Posted by Rick Dorion

I wanted good belts, side protection (after my wife witnessed a fatality) and chassis improvements.

that cage is gaurenteed sever injury if your ever t boned your heads going to slam that side bar

[awr68]

I'm not sure there is a correct answer here.
I am tring to build a street car that will feel at home on the track...so I installed a 4-point roll bar and harnesses. I guess I will have to add padding to the bars so my son is safe in the back seat. I don't really like the look of padding...but if I can make it safer for him then so be it!

[tyoneal]

To All:

I've retracted this post because of time constraints, and the complications associated with this subject.

Without really going into depth completely, and boring the hell out of everyone, at this time it is best to drop the arguments that were being made one way or the other.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled program.

Thanks for your understanding.

Ty

[gt1guy]

Couple things.

BSCI Dual Durometer Padding is the padding you want to get. It's the best out there.

There have been some very good points made on this subject so far. I'd like to make one more. A roll cage is only one part of a system. The other two parts are a quality seat and the harness. You really do need all three parts for the system to be safe for you, and safe as far as it doing it's job. With a crap seat and a lap belt, the cage will probably kill you if you get in a bad wreck. That doesn't help anyone. But, it's also not the cages fault. You didn't stay where your suppose to be, you went flying all around. That's where the QUALITY seat and Harness come in to play. If your held in place so you can't fly around, the cage is no longer a danger to you. The system is complete.

And any part of a cage that any part of your body might be able to come in contact with, needs to be padded.


Kevin

[sjakes]

Wow guys, great thread.

A bit of history about me....

Raced dirt circle track for the past 10 years or so.

New hobby, I bought a 68 from a friend that the sheetmetal is mostly restored and I was planning on turning it into a Trans Am Race Replica Car. So my dilema now after reading all these posts..... wow, now what should I do. Without a cage, my project is a bust!

These were my plans. I have a 10 pt. cage being installed, although my plans were to leave the back seat in and I wasn't going to have the cross bar installed simply for the safety of any rear passengers, so I guess subconciously I was already thinking of this discussion, just didn't realize it. In all the haste, didn't even consider my safety or my passengers safety in front.

I'm really stuck of what to do.

This would necessarily be a daily driver, primarily car shows and "roll ins" But even at that, there was never a though of any safety equipment with the exception of belts.

Like I said, its a great thread, just feels like someone pizzed in my oatmeal.

I'm stuck right now....... hmmmmm......

Any insight?

Shawn

Visit us at: www.geocities.com/sjrracing

[71dusterjon]

i installed a 4pt roll bar in my duster cuz i want my car to be a daily driver but also track worthy. Since i will be the only one in the car 95% of the time i took out rear seat. i'm putting in a 4pt harness and even though they are not recommend for the street i think they'll be safer over the original lap belts.

Just my opinion if there is a roll bar/cage in the car then there shouldn't be more than a driver and passenger seat. I dont have kids, but if i did i would stick them in a newer vehicle with airbags and other safety features until they were fully developed to ride in a caged car.

Jon

[monza]

Originally Posted by sjakes

Wow guys, great thread.

A bit of history about me....

Raced dirt circle track for the past 10 years or so.

New hobby, I bought a 68 from a friend that the sheetmetal is mostly restored and I was planning on turning it into a Trans Am Race Replica Car. So my dilema now after reading all these posts..... wow, now what should I do. Without a cage, my project is a bust!

These were my plans. I have a 10 pt. cage being installed, although my plans were to leave the back seat in and I wasn't going to have the cross bar installed simply for the safety of any rear passengers, so I guess subconciously I was already thinking of this discussion, just didn't realize it. In all the haste, didn't even consider my safety or my passengers safety in front.

I'm really stuck of what to do.

This would necessarily be a daily driver, primarily car shows and "roll ins" But even at that, there was never a though of any safety equipment with the exception of belts.

Like I said, its a great thread, just feels like someone pizzed in my oatmeal.

I'm stuck right now....... hmmmmm......

Any insight?

Shawn

Visit us at: www.geocities.com/sjrracing

removable rear cross bar? Welded in then cut and set up a bolt in system...

[syborg tt]

I can add a little input to this thread that people my find interesting.

I owned one of the 10 syclones that Marlboro gave away. These trucks were built with a Kevlar/Carbon Fiber removable Targa Roof section.

All ten of the trucks were built by ASC and they all had to be DOT Legal. What I found interesting is some of the things they did.

A-Pillar on the Cab (windshield area ) was filled with liquid Steel.

A-Pillar from the floor up was plated with ?? guage steel ( couldn't tell )

B-Billar was also plated and that same thickness plate. It ran all the way across the roof and tied the roof and two pillars together.

The center support similar to a T-top roof was also plated with the same thickness steel going to the windshield.

The area above the windshield all the way across the top was also filled with liquid steel.

Doors pillars were filled with Liquid steel & plated.

For a truck that had a good chunk of it's roof removed it was rock solid.



So moving forward to my truck - Syborg

Dave (Compfab.com) suggested that we only do a 6 point cage for a street driven vehicle. Since I have no concern of passing tech the goal would be to stiffen the chassis and keep it from killing me in an accident.

The cage it welded to the floor above body mounts and also bolted to the chassis in 4 locations. It very easy to get in and out of this truck and in the event of a side impact the side-bar sits low enough that it should make contact with the seat and not my torso.

[IMG]http://www.syborgtwinturbo.com/albums/Build/2006_03_10_020.jpg
[/IMG]

[conekiller13]

My car will be driven on the street but primarily track day and maybe show if ever gets that nice........also a gaol of running silver state. So for Me I'm not following any given set of rules. I did follow SCCA's diameter/per vehicle weight rule so the bar is 1.75" .120 DOM. I'm doing basically a full cage tying into front and rear suspension for full chassis rigidity. No back seat so no worries. Inside the car the bars will be as close to body as possible running along A-pillars and through dash with front cross bar at fire wall. For the doors I was planning on something very similar to the Syclone above. That to Me seems to be the only way to get the benefits of a bar there while lower the PITA factor when getting in and out. My vehicle will have a braced race type seat (haven't decided tilt back or no tilt yet) but will be mounted as low as possible for head to bar clearance and have at least a 4 point harness. If You've noticed most Touring car race cars the drivers head just sticks up over the door. So I believe seat height is just as an importaint part of the cage discussion as anything.

Just orderd the tubing this week so I'll post some pics once We get going on that.

[badmatt]

dont midn the rust...

but heres a pic of how i layed mine out for 8.50 legal.. (converting to a 25.5)

this is an Sonoma, small truck but TONS of room



seriously dont mind the rust haha.