Tough_little_ke20

They're great bit pricey but worth it

Not much had been happening on the 30 lately, my 2tg threw a timing chain (or so I believe, have only pulled the cam cover off so far) because of that I decided I best rebuild my dusted 4age in the 20 and touch up the gearbox then I found I was missing a tooth on the pinion gear, I'll hopefully have the new diff in this weekend then put my 2tg on the stand and have a quick look at it then back into the 30 and get this cage finished finally, then I can make a steering column, pedal box, repair the rust in the rear mud guards and the interior is finished minus paint and assembly

Yeh this is possibly the one, I had one in my ke20 but it blocked the doorway a lot and I sold it to a mate who then bought one from Gerrad (shepp autobarn) then my neighbor bought one for his race car, Gerrad bought himself one for his vk then I bought this one and he's ordered one for the passanger side, great seat

Borrowed a seat from autobarn today, test fitted it and it's all good, I'll go order another one tomorrow, suppose I should pay for this one too haha

Been a while since anything has happened, I went camping on the murray for the long weekend while my brother did some welding on my cage haha, been a mixture of lazy and busy recently and now I've got some last minute things to do to my 20 before the test and tune next Sunday but after that I'll get stuck back into it

Anyone want ke26 parts? Doors still available, hatch and tow bar possibly sold, driveline I'm keeping aswell as all front panels/sedan compatible, rear side glass and some other bits sold, scrapping this weekend so if you want something speak up

Just saw the picture you drew again, my photo might have given you the wrong view of the bend, virtically it's straight it only bends horizontally

Hey Craig, I looked in the manual it states as follows: For drawing J-5 the upper end of the diagonal member shall join the main roll bar no further than 100mm from it's junction with the backstay. And yes plate each end in the same way that Jack's Silvia is done in the above photo, unsure if I'll be plating along the whole length or not as it is a slightly different design, I have build it the same as in the manual, so I may just plate it the same as shown in drawing J-59

The b pillar will be connected, you keep saying my head needs to fit in the triangle, that's rediculus, if your head is that close to the roof the bars are pointless, I'm 5'10" and once my seat is mounted I'll have 3" clearance on the cage with my helmet on. The bend in the roof bar is not a weak point in any way, it's stronger as far as I'm concerned, its 20° and gives a preload for any impact on the roof, because of the angle of the join to the half lateral it has twice the surface area welded, the majority of cages are being done like this now, lighter and proven to be just as effective as the full cross, and just about all the crosses I've seen have a bent also. I'm sure everyone remembers jack monkhouses crash? Well his windscreen and roof bars were rolled the entire length and the windscreen bar has a sharper bend on each end, so your theory would say it's a week point, we all saw how well that cage held up, not a single issue.

The main cage is in, just gotta wait for my brother to get back from the subshine coast so he can weld it up nicely for me and then I'll bend up the front legs

Got some more done today, not as much as I'd hoped, late start but it's getting there

Intrusion bars and one Jesus bar in, I'm very happy so far and can't believe I haven't stuffed up any bars yet, I'll do the other Jesus bar tomorrow aswell as the roof bars and half lateral gussets

Make some Christmas presents for the car yesterday, bent the intrusion bars and roof bars, and welded the hoop, I've also got a sample for my seat mount. Merry Christmas everyone

Yep, getting exited, my brothers gonna tig up the hoop tomorrow then I'll make the patterns for the intrusion bars and roof bars and see when I can go and bend them

Nah mate dual intrusion bars

Cheers mate, glad your enjoying it

I've finally decided what red to use, original, gave the panels a good polish and I'm happy with that colour, always nice to be original too, even if nothing else on the car is, I've also discovered my intrusion bar will clash with the window winder so I'll put in electric windows, I don't want perspex or fixed windows so that's my best option without changing to a different style intrusion bar

The bloke that bent the cage said 100mm bases and 120 for the main hoop, after reading reading the cams manual step by step as I build it I saw that it depends on your cars weight and I definetly don't need that big but at least there's plenty of room for welding when I take them out and drop the cage, the front doesn't have them because the legs can go through the floor, the back has lots of layers and the irs so it got the pedestals. Half laterals, windscreen and dash bars went in today, I'll take the main hoop back out and get my brother to weld it then put it back in and do the roof bars, intrusion bars and weld all that then start the front strut legs

Made a start on the cage today, is it done yet?

Oh that's no good

Do we get to see some footage Craig?

Filled some holes in the firewall, how I've just gotta do all the bolt holes, and then cut a big hole and make a cover for it so I have access to the back of the head and I can pull the dizzy out

Finished off the shifter hole tonight, been staring at it for months, looks much better now, I've just realized once the cage is in that's about all the cutting and welding on the car done, getting a little bit exited about that

Yep, and some tear big holes 😭 I'm making an alloy steering column that will hang off the dash bar in the cage, and a racepak dash on top, pedal box on the floor

Cut all the brackets and tabs off the firewall, I hate grinding off spot welds