Project Street Fighter Chassisworks Rollcage Kit - Cage Dance

The back bar location was totally up to us. Since being NHRA legal wasn't a big concern for this project, we decided to aim them to where the wheelhousing and package tray support meet-the strongest place short of the suspension mounting points. We made cardboard templates first, and then cut them out of metal. We shaped the bottom portion by clamping it in a vice and beating it with a hammer.

First, we fit the rear of the back bars to the plates we just tacked in and determined the angle it would sit, then set it up in the mill at that same angle since the main hoop sits exactly 90 degrees to the floor.

With the plates welded into place, it's time to weld up the rest of the 'cage. Because heat can move the bars, only weld a small part of each joint at a time. It will take hours to complete this step if you do it right. Be extremely careful with your heat where the bars are close to the headliner. Most of the time we could shield it with a piece of scrap aluminum, but we still managed to burn a couple holes in the headliner, oops. Gorilla tape anyone?

The idea is to have the rear bar look as if it were an extension of the front bar joining the main hoop at the same place. When we were happy with the fit, we tacked it in place and repeated the steps on the other side.

While the 'cage is still only tacked, we welded in all of the plates. About 90 percent of the welds were TIG, but we used a MIG welder for some of the areas where the metal was extra thin. Don't expect these welds to be the most beautiful you've done. They were the most difficult parts to weld on this 'cage because mating thin metal to thicker stock is tricky.

We left the harness bar tube for this point because it makes climbing into the back seat area a lot more difficult once it's in place. This was the only tubing piece that was 1 1/4-inch diameter. Using the same 1 5/8-inch hole saw, we cut it to fit inside the main hoop where the first bend from the base started. The ground clamp made a good holder for tack welding.

The Chassisworks swing-out kit includes all of the hardware you will need to make your swing-out door bar's pin and hinge. Since the door bar should meet the main hoop someplace between your elbow and shoulder, it will make climbing over it really difficult unless you use these.

The lower part of the door bar needed an extension so that the hinged part would clear the kick panel. To find the angle we needed to fishmouth this tube, we added the front bar and door bar angle, then cut the extensions.

The door bars need to be fit and welded last because it's crucial they fit perfectly-welding the 'cage can move things around enough for them to bind. We ground down the lower inner edge of the tabs that weld to the main hoop at an angle, so it would have a nicer fit for welding. Then we tacked and welded all of the pieces together with exception to the tube on the hinged middle piece, as shown in the photos. Once that was complete, we welded the middle bar together.

It's all done! Here's our six-point rollcage that has dramatically strengthened the body. Sorry rear seat passengers-you'll need to do some climbing!

The plan was to paint the 'cage in Dupli-Color's trim black after using their gray primer. After the primer was on, we fell in love with the contrast between it and the interior and exterior colors, and decided to make the final coat Dupli-Color's medium gray general-purpose spray.