New Cage or Remove & Replace?

[joeg]

Weld away, Jim.

Just be aware of mounting point limitations.

[tlyttle43]

In some cases, it is possible to reuse a cage without even using sleeves. I have a cage in one of my current cars (an ITS Nissan 200SX V6) that is in its third tub and it is indistiinguishable from when it was in the first.

Here's how you do it - cut the roof of the old car, then carefully remove the old cage. Cut it into two sections - with all the cuts flush with the front of the main hoop (i.e., the top hoop and door bars). This leaves you with two parts - a) the hoop and everything back and everything forward. Detach the cage from the floor using a sawzall or torch around the mounting plates.

Then you clean everything up - grind the ends of the welds off the main hoop, grind the extra material from around the mounting plates (welds and old floor), renotch the top tubes and door bars. Then stick everything into the new tub and reweld. The only possible problem is that the front section may be so large that you can't get it into the new tub without removing the roof. If so you either have to do that or else cut out and replace the door tubes. Whether this is a problem is mostly a function of how far behind the door opening the main hoop is located. (Farther back = longer door bars = harder to get in the door) Other factors include how close the cage is to the shell and how low you bottom door bar is. The easiest way to check this in advance is to not cut the roof off the old car - if you can get it out originally, you can get it in the new tub.

When you're finished, the only difference is that the cage is about 3/4" shorter than when you started.

As I say, it's worked for me twice.

Tom Lyttle

[Mark LaBarre]

.... The car bent like a bannana along the drive shaft tunnel .


[/b]

Then your cage is probably bent too, right? So you'll not only have to remove it from the old car, try to straighten it, install it in the new car.
Seems like a lot of work for something that won't be up to snuff when done.

[tom_sprecher]

Depends on the banana. Maybe I exaggerated there a bit but it was intuitively obvious to the casual observer that the tunnel was kinked. The cage has been taken out by cutting the old tub away and then it was zizzed apart at the welds. The main hoop remained intact but the window hoop and NASCAR bars had to be zizzed off to get them back in. I have had most of it back in the car to mock up where the new pads needed to go so it should go in w/o a problem albeit about a half an inch shorter front to back. It’s slow going due to other priorities and the fact the it’s so damn hot here now the idea of welding is not too appealing. The pads are in but need to be second passed, then I’ve got to clean up the cage tubes and weld it back in. Then there’s fuel cell mounts, rear axle rebuild, painting, etc, etc, etc.

Good thing I bought a used race car so I wouldn't have to build one from scratch.