"Downgrading" a prod cage...

A friend is looking at a production VW for use in ITC. The problem is that' the cage has some tubes (connecting to the front towers) that wouldn't be legal in IT.

Can these bars simply be cut out as close to the cage as possible (leaving a 1/4" stub where the original attachment was) or does the attachment have to be completely ground off / removed? I'm having trouble finding anything in the GCR that covers that.

Any thoughts? We're not looking to go into Prod now and want to remain legal.

The same car doesn't have a raintray any longer (because of the cage) but we're looking at getting one locally from a wreck and putting it back in.

Not sure if leaving the stub would be an issue, but considering that you'd also have to replace the raintray and that there may be other prod car modifications that get in the way, it may be less trouble to simply buy the 1980 Scirocco that's currently listed in the classified section.

Just checked it out... That scirocco looks like a great deal, but I'd still like to consider some options on the other car with the prod cage. Does anyone else have any experience with this type of thing?

What happens, for example if you have to re-do door bars (going from an "X" type to nascar style). Do people cut out the tubes / grind the roots completely? Any rules convering this type of practice?

I don't know about IT but when we modified our prod cage to eliminate some extra bars that were not required we left about 1/4 to 1/2 inch of the old pipe and no one has ever said that we did it wrong or had a problem with it. This is on my other car not the one you are buying.

Lot's of things to consider when downgrading a cage.

When you cut the forward bars out (no bars are allowed to pass through the firewall-attached or not ;) ), make sure that the remaining pads are legal for IT (assuming they're going to the strut towers).

I don't see a problem leaving some "stumps" You may end up doing more harm than good in attempting to cut them completely off. Same goes with removing the doorbars unless you're going to the same spot. Remember, the steel has already been welded to once in those areas. Gusset the crap out of the new bars.

A year or so back I went from 2 door bars cramped up against my seat and ME and installed nascar style bars into the door. We cut the tubes as close as possible and then ground the welds off for a clean appearance. In fact you can't tell the other bars were ever there. I think it presents a professional image of the cage. One that inspectors/officials and fellow drivers see as good safe workmanship. Sure you can cut them off and be legal, but to someone that does not know you that may look "funny". Now these are IT cars and not professionally built cars, but I think it says alot about the guy running side by side with you at high speed if they are the type to care about how the cage in their car looks in addition to how it works. Just my opinion....

db