Upcoming roll cage job

[MMW]

I can't believe this thing has been in my shop this long. Been working on it in between other stuff & almost finished up the cage today. Waiting for the owner to reinstall the dash & then get the new seat mounted so I can determine the height of the harness bar. Once the harness bar is in I can make the rear seat support & put the braces from the main hoop to the tunnel & it will be done. Hopefully soon so I can get it out of here.

Job was way more of a hassle than I thought. Seems like it took forever but it is coming out nice. I will say I would think twice before doing another one. I bought a RCCS-14 finger control (north/south) for this job but I can't get used to it at all. Even just sitting at the bench it is very hard to ramp up & down. I think I would rather have an on/off switch.

Since it is chrome-moly it all had to be tigged. The worst was the front down bars to the floor. No matter what I did I couldn't get all the way around. Tried all the tricks I know, mirror, tungsten stick out but just couldn't get my hands & helmet in position to see & weld about 3/4" in the back side. So I finally figured out a way to "cheat". I tigged what I could & then was able to mig what I couldn't using a mirror. Then I went back with one hand & washed it in with the tig. Looks good.

[MMW]

[Brian Oatway]

. The worst was the front down bars to the floor. No matter what I did I couldn't get all the way around.

I welded the floor plates to the bars on the bench for that location. I figured running the Mig in tight quarters to weld the plate to the floor was much easier that trying to Tig way in there.

I used a helper to run the pedal for me rather than going with a finger control. It took a little bit to get the two of us coordinated but worked out OK in the end. I wouldn't want to do it that way if I needed to make a living welding cages but for my one off in the driveway it was fine.

[MMW]

I thought about welding the floor plates onto the tubes first but by that time it was to late, I had them welded to the floor already. I wish the cage maker (Midwest Chassis) included instructions or helpful hints with the kit. It would have saved me time in figuring it out. I will say any question I e-mailed to him he did answer quickly & the halo bar was bent wrong & he replaced it quickly after I sent him a pic explaining what was wrong. Earlier in this thread I mentioned that the customer service/shipping of this kit was not the best but I do believe that he has taken care of that. I have had nothing but good service in dealing direct with him. The fit was great as no adjustments were needed other than trimming & notching.