whats wrong with this roll cage?

[Crazyswede]

What the hell?

Quinn Morley.....sounds familiar...he on this site? If so WTF is up with this cage:

[Luke]

I don't know that anything is "wrong" with it, those a pillar bars are set back kinda far and are not required on a SAAB according to both NASA and Rally america scutineers but they can't hurt i suppose.

[Crazyswede]

I don't know that anything is "wrong" with it, those a pillar bars are set back kinda far and are not required on a SAAB according to both NASA and Rally america scutineers but they can't hurt i suppose.

It just looks kind of close to the steering wheel.

[airsweden]

I thought that too, for a second I even thought it was between his legs. I think its actually on the same plane as the front one, just looks weird in the pic for some reason... 2D?

[SaabsBreakDown]

strongest cage the world has ever seen

that's what's wrong with it

we mis-interpreted the rules :)

hard to get in and out of. I saw a cage that failed (i think on this forum?) about where my reinforcing bar lands on the side hoops. i take comfort in that :)

the only problem with my cage is that I don't have the windshield-saver bar like luke's cars. Mine is very, very far from the windshield. If i would have done it properly, and tabbed into the a-pillar, I would have several inches more head room and wouldn't have broken my windshield when i went in the ditch on my side in september and i probably wouldn't be replacing my roof right now.

[SaabsBreakDown]

As far as strength goes, gussets from laterals to main hoop, and gussets from laterals to windshield bar in the windshield plane are the only things lacking.

I think this is an extremely strong cage, I just feel with a cage that follows the bodyshell better we would have more passenger room (which makes things safer) and we could have done the windshield bar way better.

Considering we built the car in about 4 weeks and it cost us less than $1000 (excluding safety equipment, including cost of vehicle and tubing) I think we did ok.

[Geoff]

Roof replacements are a perfect time for cage changes. You can add that windshield bar in on in front of the existing bar. RallyHo did that.

[SaabsBreakDown]

While the roof has been off, I replaced the V-brace member that goes over my head with one that is bent up an inch or two. Other than that, I'm not planning anything. My next event is March 5th (ish) and I do not by any stretch of the imagination have more time to mess around with the cage. I guess it'll have to do.

I am interested though, he just added an additional reinforcement to follow the windshield better? anyone have pictures handy?

Any thoughts on doing this with just a windshield removal later?

My windshield is quite a bit smaller than the original one and comes in and out no problem. Actually, curiously, the donor car had an opening that was correspondingly small. Such a huge amount of variation is surprising. drunk swedes i guess.

[Geoff]

I looked through the thread for the link and the pictures seem to be removed from Picasa... But yeah its just a bar (smaller diameter actually) that was welded in front of the existing bar to follow the windshield. It was welded in with the roof on, I don't know if there were any cuts made over the top of the joint to weld it all or if it was left welded 90% of the way around. Mike??

drunk swedes i guess.

haha! Good luck getting everything lined up when you get the roof back on. My car has a new roof on it and the windshield is glued in, no gasket. I'm guessing because stuff didn't line up...

[SaabsBreakDown]

I should be able to get it pretty close. The back end is the fucked up part. I should be able to re-use my gasket but i really don't want to take the time to clean the old silicone out of the gasket where it mates to the body. I'll probably just add more silicone and slap it on there. Ha. Again, having the small windshield should make things more forgiving. If i need to, I was thinking of sticking some 3/32 welding wire under the base of the window to make it a bit taller to sit in the gasket better. I don't want to make the opening match the window, because I doubt I'll ever find another windshield this small.

If you MIG weld it you can probably reach just about all the way around with an angled stinger. The only machine I have at home right now is my Maxstar 200 TIG/stick machine.

Maybe I'll do it this summer. Ha.