Mike's 900 cage progress

[Rallyho]

I have a motor and trans from the 99 that is on an engine stand. It needs some stuff...motor mounts, pwer steering pump, etc and then it can be fitted.

How do you know what that old cage weighed Geoff?

[Geoff]

How do you know what that old cage weighed Geoff?

Because after we cut it out of the old car I picked it up by myself and I'm not all that strong so I figure it was between 100 and 150lbs... We could actually calculate the weight of the cage if you had measurements of length of tubing used and size of the cage foot plates

[Luke]

Roll bar tubing weighs about 1.67 lbs foot.
100 feet seems about the normal for a cage to the current rules these days so figure as a rough estimate 170 lbs?

[Rallyho]

some new pics
don't look too closely at the sheet metal repair...the welds suck
http://picasaweb.google.com/thewhitesal ... 3GarageDay

[Luke]

Holy crap that thing looks STRONG! Well done! I really like the rear shock pickup points. That will make it easy later on to retro fit super long travel shocks and stuff. You will centainly have inertia on your side once you get that thing moving!

[Rallyho]

100 feet of tubing may be conservative on this puppy.

Lexan will help take some weight out of it, but it really needs a light hood.

So who wants to make the mold? I probably have a place where we could lay up and vac bag the things.

[paulh]

wow, thats really something. please tell me thats more than what we need to do :lol: looks like you could crash that thing several times really badly with no ill effects.

Paul

[Jordan]

...looks like you could crash that thing several times really badly with no ill effects.

Paul

I'm pretty sure that's the point. You only really need to build a cage like that if you enjoy breathing. :lol:

[Geoff]

so you removed the straight door bar tube and left the bent one? I didn't think door bars could have a bend in them, I may be wrong though.

Where you have the bars that run to the front suspension from the door bars: I would add a bar going up from the base of the door bar to the bars that go to the front suspension to triangulate the reinforcement (see the pictures of Luke's cage). Right now the forces that make the front end of a 99/900 like a banana are being transfered through that top suspension bar to one point on the door bar and it comes in at around a 90° angle which isn't very strong. It will probably just be flexing the door bar and weakening it.

[Luke]

Thats basically built to the rules but the tubes going from the upper windsheild corner directly to the floor are debatable and sort of up to interpretation of the rules on a saab due to the measurements of the door frame being close to the maximum size allowed without them. The "windsheild frame saver" is of course not required but a neat idea. The dash bar and front spring tower supports are also not mandatory (but highly recommended) otherwise its basically built to the current rules.

[Geoff]

it really needs a light hood.

So who wants to make the mold? I probably have a place where we could lay up and vac bag the things.

Sounds like you do!

Do you have a vacuum pump?
Maybe thats something we could work on when I come up...

[Geoff]

there is also a "'J' Bar" along the floor between the bottoms of the door bars. I'll be interested to see how this interacts with feet.

[Rallyho]

http://picasaweb.google.com/thewhitesal ... aintBottom

[Luke]

lookin good! Whats the big green box?

[airsweden]

My guess is floatation....... Just in case Mike takes her for a swim.
jt