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 Don’t make any permanent welds...  Don’t make any permanent welds until the entire ’cage is finished; Kertz lays light tacks just sufficient to hold the bars in place while he measures.  Here’s another good reason...  Here’s another good reason for only tacking tubes to the car; Kertz recommends building as much of the ’cage outside the car as possible for ease of construction. The entire main hoop will be finished before he slides it back into Max Effort.  The remotely operated ram...  The remotely operated ram also allows Kertz to step back and eyeball the progress. Just out of frame, we’re holding the other side of the hoop.  One of the things separating...  One of the things separating pros from amateurs when it comes to ’cages is precise fitment. To fill in the hoop with the harness crossbars, Kertz uses a JD Squared TN-100 tubing notcher fitted with a hole saw on his drill press. These things can make both simple and complex notches when used correctly; like the one necessary for the crossbar.  These bars won’t need further...  These bars won’t need further adjusting, so Kertz TIG welded them completely once he was satisfied with the fitment, since making these welds on a table is much easier than making them in the car.  Solid welds with appropriate...  Solid welds with appropriate penetration might be the most important part of the whole process. Though the perfect stack o’ dimes is indicative of a welder with good rhythm, it’s the heat signature and coloration around the weld that we’re really concerned about, since it tells the quality of the weld. This one is perfect.  It may seem like a lot of...  It may seem like a lot of work, but here’s the result of that preplanning: two flawlessly formed A-pillar tubes that flow perfectly with the lines of both the roofline and the A-pillars.  Want to know how Kertz lays...  Want to know how Kertz lays TIG beads that look like art? We’ll explain all those hieroglyphs on the front of this Lincoln TIG machine in an upcoming issue.  Correctly formed A-pillar...  Correctly formed A-pillar bars are as difficult as the main hoop, but in a slightly different way; A-pillar bars require bends that are correctly clocked to flow along the roofline then down the A-pillar itself. For mock-up, Kertz tacks a smaller-diameter tube into a piece of the 1¾ x .095 DOM that is roughly the shape he needs for the down tube, and then slides another section of 1¾ x .095 DOM over the inner tube.
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