askulte

I've made some pretty good progress with the cage so far. The first weekend Mike Rizzi stoppped by to help me get started, the next week Steve A. lent a hand (local dude with a '97 Camaro), and this Saturday Mike Chancey (another local dude with a Procharged '91Z) helped. It's amazing how long it takes when trying to do things yourself (i.e. thanks for the help guys!)

We've got the front half nearly completed - A pillar bars are welded to the halo, and the dashbar is welded, as well as the dashbar brace being tacked in place. The front struts will triangulate through the firewall into the center of the dashbar, which is why the triangulation is so important. Hopefully this week (or weekend - ya free Mike?) we'll cut through the firewall and finish the front half of the cage. The paint needs to be stripped where the floor pads will be welded to the floor.

The rear half has the diagonal brace tacked to the main hoop, and the shock mount braces are cut, and will be tacked in place when the mounting pads are welded. The seatbelt braces still need to be cut and welded once the height is determined. I'll probably convert over to a 3 link suspension at some point, and will triangulate that into the rollcage main hoop, but I'll leave that for later.

http://members.fbody.com/askulte/Rollcage/

Andris
Z28tt-89 IROC T56 DFI Twin Turbo
http://www.skulte.com/turbo.html

dnovotny

Hey Andris,
I've been around so long that I remember visiting your twin turbo page when you were putting it together for your college project. Anyways, I'm gonna put in a roll cage soon, and I was thinking about doing something very similar at the front dash. But, I'm wondering how you're going to fit the dash back in there. How do you plan on fitting the dash?

Later, Dave '91 GTA, '91 T/A, '01 WS6 T/A

AlkyIROC

Interesting installation. Why are you going to put the front struts to the center of the dash bar when the common mount point is to the a-piller bars?

Are you going to add a sill bar between the main hoop and a-pillers?

askulte

Stephen - I'm not adding a sill bar, since the subframe connectors serve the same purpose. It'd be best to add a bar at the top of the door height, but I still want to get in through the doors instead of the window

Here's a picture -


The reason is to triangulate the chassis. There is nothing preventing the front from twisting, and a strut tower brace just acts like another link in a parallelogram (but it helps a little). There is plenty of stiffness in the lower section of the car (door sill level) but nothing in the upper section (top of door level), so the chassis acts like a big flexible piece of flat sheetmetal (best analogy I could come up with right now!). The dashbar will be triangulated back to the passenger side of the main hoop at the door height level with a removable brace to triangulate it fully. The best approach would be to also break through the firewall by the a-pillar bars, but the chassis is decently stiff in that area. I'm trying to maximize stiffness without unnecessary weight. It's a work in progress, so if you have ideas, I'm always open

Dave - It will be challenging! Harwood has a fiberglass dash available as well, but I'm going to try and get the stock one back in there.

Andris

grafx

Who makes the cage that your installing? I take it this car will be used strickly for racing?

cy Z28

Andris, we just did a very similar setup on a Stage motor'd GN last month. In order to get A/C back in a car that should run every bit of 9.00-8.80 we used a Vintage Air underdash setup. It works really good, and we tied it into the factory ductwork. I dunno about on a thirdgen, but this setup is very tight fitting. It takes some work, i'll tell ya that.

askulte

Cy - Thanks for the heads up on the Vintage Air. The budget is stretched pretty tight with the engine build up for the next 2 months, but we'll see afterwards.

Grafx - I'm making the cage myself from 20' lengths of 4130 1.75 dia .095 wall tubing. The bender is a JD Squared mandrel bender. The car is used on the street as well, which is why I wanted to do it myself, to tuck it in better.

A.

lasersi

Man I wish I had your tools! Just curious, do you plan to go back to full street dress wit headliner and all? If so how are you going to get the headliner back in place? Is the bar at the front going to be inside the dash when it all back together?

Sorry for all the questions. I am currently deciding on how I am going to configure my cage. I, like yourself am planning to road race my car but still want it to be streetable with some creature comforts! I am installing my Sparco Pro 2000's this weekend and hopefully in the real near future the cage.

Are you going to install a tubular K member and A arms?
I was thinking it would help reduce the front to rear weight distribution problems.
I also am thinking on going with Front and Rear Coil over setup.
Any input would help.

Looks first rate, by the way!

TPI Monte SS

Andris, you are a sick man!

Seriously, I hope to meet up with you again this summer, to check out the progress of your car. My fuel-infected Monte is running fine most of the time; I need to address some small stuff with the fan wiring and I gotta clean out the IAC! Some days she idles great, and other days it won't even run.

Good luck with the project!

askulte

Tonight I welded one plate to the passenger rear shock tower. I need to heat it up with the Oxy Acetylene torch and hammer it to fit right against the shock mount area. Slowly but surely...

Lasersi - I will fit all the interior back in, somehow! The headliner will be snug, but I think it will be doable. The dash bar should sit below the dashpad, but it does get in the way of the HVAC airbox. I have the front of that removed currently... The HVAC ducting will probably have to be modified with some flexible hose. How did the seat install go? I have the Sparco Evolution in the car on a 2x4. Do you have any pictures of your mounts or brackets? I'll build a new front suspension probably over next winter, and make do with the stock setup for this season. If anyone has some Koni yellows, FS, I can use them! I'll have the Koni reds for sale then.

Monte - I'll probably get a day in at Island dragway, and will be road racing at Pocono and Nazareth. We should catch up.

The Little M block arrived friday, so the engine buildup starts now!

A.