You shouldn't have worked today! Us scoobynetters want to see more !!!

 

Tell me about it, a couple of hours tuned into 7... Down tomorrow so will have some pics and an update.

 

A good productive day, tacked the main hoop and front and screen bar in place, dropped the main hoop into the holes cut in the inner sill and welded up the joints fully, even with it dropped down it was still hard to get into it all but just managed.



The tested the fitting of the door bars



Then onto the rear due to the changes in the rear I had to recut the rear stays and the ‘X’ so time to try out the angle templates



Worked really well





Still have the other part of the ‘X’ to add in

 

That's looking sound Ian

 

Looking good.

 

Cheers, worked hard today.... knackered now, i'm not used to this physical work anymore!!!

 

The welding looks very tidy

 

Cracking progress, it's nice to see one of these projects so close to completion. Too many stall in the early stages.

 

Cheers... Not sure it's that close to completion but know what you mean it's a good way through...

 

Not had a huge amount of time this weekend but managed to cut and profile some tubes ready to weld in next weekend…

I bought a die grinder to do this but found cutting them with angle grinder somewhere close the finishing with the bench and angle grinder is faster and better… although a plasma would be nice!!!



The rear X is now in place, the harness tube is from the original Astra cage design, think I will lower it slightly…





Added some lower stays back to the main hoop… also thinking of adding an ‘X’ in the main hoop…

 

Looking good... Can't wait to see this finished, really nice work ;-)

 

Cheers... Really enjoying building the cage.

 

Some more progress on the cage… Finished off the rear ‘X’



Added a mid rear stay to meet the upper door bar



The first part of the main hoop ‘X’ was a right pain to profile got it pretty good but ended up with a small gap on the top where the diagonal goes to the rear





Then added some small triangles from the main hoop to the top of the front stay…





Looking busy in the rear now



And me caught in the action



Ran out of tube now so need a few more lengths to finish the main hoop ‘X’ and then the front end dash bar and through to the turrets, I've got the door bars but will fit those last.

 

Subscibed.

 

I need to get some more tube to carry on with the cage should be getting it next week… so decided to make some gussets for the ‘A’ pillars,

The bevel tool worked well…





With them welded in







Then chopped the dash up a bit to see how it fits, I’m only going to use the top of the dash down to about the top of the glove box… I’ve got some flock material to cover the dash...

 

Good progress mate

 

Thats one Sexy cage kicks *** on mine! hey dont make it too heavy tho Ian, you know you'l regret it when we're blasting down santa pod..

James

 

Cheers...

Yep got a bit carried away... The delivery of cage and first lot of extra tube was 60kg, going to add max 3 more tubes so with the weld I would say cage is 75kg, that's as long as the weight was correct on the shipping label.

 

Had a drive over to demon tweeks on Monday wasn't going for anything in particular but ended up getting a pair of seats and side mounts.



I was thinking of cobra monaco's but didn't like the fit also looked at omp's but found these sparco sprint 5's a nice fit,

 

That place is lethal, I bought my first exhaust from their original shop and was even in there buying wheels when my mrs was in labour

Nice looking seats though

 

Yep had keep saying no to myself,

I remember the old shop well used to spend some time there, didn't have much choice where to go in those days before eBay, now I'm sounding old

 

Managed to do some more on the cage this although didn’t have a huge amount of time this weekend as I had to service my MR2 as it going on the road for the summer (except it snowed today!!)

So on the cage I added the dash bar and triangulation to front struts







Welded up to the struts, would have liked them to have joined higher up the strut but that would mean going through the scuttle tray and didn’t really want to get into chopping into that as the wiper motor ect would require modding.



And everything is looking pretty square

 

Just stumbled across this now and read it start to finish.

Epic work fella, welding looks awesome, I've always had to use my dads old stick welder until i bought a decent mug last year, its rather addictive!

Keep up the good work

Mick

 

Cheers, yes a good mig helps loads I welded a lot of the floor with a dodgy mask but since getting a new mask the welding is much better.

 

Hahaha just realised I said I'd bought a "decent mug" lol

I did of course mean MIG, also bought a fancy auto dimming mask which as you say makes a huge difference.

Mick

 

Yep when I saw 'Mug' I guessed you meant Mig, but a decent Mug of coffee helps too

 

Had a few other things on this weekend so not a huge amount done, the other section of the main hoop ‘X’ is now in place, door bars are just sitting there won’t weld those in until the seat mounts ect are done.









Added some additional support from the front turrets back to the center of the dash bar using 32mm tube as i'm not sure i will have space for a strut brace…

I forgot to take pictures of that but here’s the idea.



Left to do on the cage,

• I have to see if I can get harness bars to fit with in the rear ‘X’ will have to take a seat down and fit seat mounts to check height/angle,
• Check around each joint to make sure I haven’t missed anywhere
• Door bars
• Gussets on main hoop ‘X’

I’m still hoping to have inside sprayed by end April

 

What colour are you planning on going?

 

Plan is to go white inside and out, I've got 5L of white less what was used on underside... May do something different with outside later but the white will give a solid base to work with...

 

your bloody nuts

love it so far cant wait to see vids when done