Been a while since I've shown any progress. Been waiting on parts and time to finish the bender.

The new bender in all it's glory.

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This is just a practice of the main roll cage hoop. It's not 100% as we're still learning some of the finer points of bending tube. This is just thin wall mild steel for practice.

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These ends used to be sloped so we cut them apart and boxed them with heavier .125" plate as required by the SFI book. We put the hoop here as it would have interfered with the seats otherwise. It also follows the B-pillar very well and will help to hide it.

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This is one of the subframe rails we put in, still a bit of welding to do up top and on the underside. It ties into the main part of the front frame and extends to where the floor steps up in the rear. Another plate will weld on the rear side of it and a triangulated round tube structure will protrude from it under the rear floorpan to reinforce the frame for drive TQ.

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I'm waiting on a flywheel to come in that I had made specifically for the 3.5L. I also ordered a clutch to go along with it We'll be back and forth between chassis and powertrain as we need to find some definate locations of powertrain parts since they'll dictate where some chassis members will go.

Cool little bender you got there. Did you just purchase dies and fab the rest?

Yeah. I bought plans and purchased the dies separately, they arn't cheap! We've got one more practice stick just to make sure we have this down before spending the money on 4130. I'd like to have most of the cage completed in the next few weeks if time permits.

no kidding on the dies. We have built a few tools in the shop the same way, either with plans or reverse engineering.... then purchase the dies/rollers/etc seperately. They aren't cheap, but the cost of building the machine in house is much less than purchase and shipment from somewhere else.

Custom flywheel and stage 2+ clutch (670ft-lbs) from Spec Clutches.

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4130 chrome-moly tube is on order. Now to find a bell housing...

Did a bit of work this week. I went ahead and put in the 6x6" plates in for the A-pillar bars and was a bit concerned with there only being sheet metal under there. I decided on boxing up the corner and have it tie right into the factory frame rail. This way the load is distributed between the rail and over a broad area of the floor.

Passenger's side.
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Driver's side.
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I also final welded in the B-pillar plates.
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We did the final main hoop today in .083" chrome-moly tube.
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It fit in VERY tight next to th trim panels. Overall it turned out very nice!
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Tomorrow I want to try and get the side 'hoop's in and all tacked together.

Thats some nice work there. Hope you never have to use the cage!

You and me both!! I'd hate to have to start all over.

I forgot I still need to get something to notch the tubes but I can at least get them bent up. Once the cage is in the whole floor between the 2x2 box tubes is getting cut out. Can't wait for that!! I need to get a plasma cutter...

Get yourself a nice Husqvarna chop saw with a steel cutting blade



You can find them real cheap now on craigslist.

A-pillar bars.
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The bars are still a few inches longer on purpose so that is why they come in so far on the hoop. Once notched and fitted they will come in at the end of the bend of the hoop.
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