Always buy the best safety gear you can afford so that you have the privilege of walking away from a big crash you hope to never have.
That gear includes your cage, helmet, suit, fire system, and just about anything that protects you in an incident on track. These pieces all work together to save your …
Holy E36 M3 i didn't know about the caulk on the e36! I once had someone tell me you just need to tack everything together enough to caulk and paint so you don't need to be a good welder. It's scary that there are others like him, especially willing to put someone else's life at risk with their E36 M3ty work.
Yeah that's, like, criminal. Holy crap!
So you're telling me my Autopower Bolt-In isn't good enough? (Just kidding)
Oh man that spot-welded cage. Whoever did that is a real caulk.
In reply to slowbird :
Yeah, that's pretty horrible to see--like, that shows malace, not just sloppy work.
"If you want it done right do it yourself".
We did that with two cages in Spec E30s. You can't appreciate just how much work building a cage is until you've done it. Even with getting pre-bent halo and front bars from Kirk Racing we still had to do all the welding, chamfering, etc. Now I know why cages cost what they do (and why those bolt-in kits are soooo appealing).
I always felt safe in my caged car. Even though not every weld was an award winner in appearance the full circumference weld and deep penetration would hold up in a crash. But if you can't do it yourself you really need to find a trustworthy source.
Wow!! I can't imagine anyone caulking a partially welded cage. I have built a number of cages and roll bars that were crash tested and am proud to report they all held up and protected the driver. I agree that that caulked cage was criminal.
I've seen two cages done by name shops that weren't fully welded around the circumference of a particular tube, simply because it was hard to get to. Moral, ask to inspect the cage before it's painted.
We used an Autopower kit in the Datsun and then added a bunch of gussets and extra bars to that. I fished mouth all of the tubing and can tell you even that is a crap load of work. My Fabricator welded it up. I can't picture doing it all in one weekend..............yikes that's a long weekend.
Just WOW!!! If that cadge builder is still in business it would be a public service to name names.
BUT I can understand not wanting to.
+1 on the recommendation for TC Design. Tony built my E46 and the car is fantastic.
Dean one of the cage builders is no longer around and the other one fired the employee responsible for not welding up the cage properly.
One was a friend's car; he wanted a chrome moly cage and my fab guy doesn't like them, when he brought the car into my fab guy's to have the shell seam welded he found the issue.
I like my fab guy because, not only does he do fantastic work, he also shows and explains to you what's being done and why.
This series is why I like racers; no whining, just digging deep and finding a way to get things done.
Welding in a cage is totally crazy sometimes.. like it's shown in the picture you find yourself crouched up at some pretty wild places and angles to get it done correctly.
My question is How is this done with 4130? how do you lay under the dash, feed filler, hold the fire and modulate the tig pedal all at the same time?
I guess for this cage build it Mig'ed with Mild Tube?
Greg
In reply to slantsix :
You can weld steel with a TIG welder sans foot pedal. The pedal is more useful with aluminum; for steel it's not really a requirement.
codrus (Forum Supporter) said:+1 on the recommendation for TC Design. Tony built my E46 and the car is fantastic.
Yess!! He's the best! I've drooled over his work for years so to have a TC Design cage sitting in my garage right now puts a grin on my face.
Thanks for these articles. I never tire of watching good cars come together.
Tom1200 said:I've seen two cages done by name shops that weren't fully welded around the circumference of a particular tube, simply because it was hard to get to. Moral, ask to inspect the cage before it's painted.
We used an Autopower kit in the Datsun and then added a bunch of gussets and extra bars to that. I fished mouth all of the tubing and can tell you even that is a crap load of work. My Fabricator welded it up. I can't picture doing it all in one weekend..............yikes that's a long weekend.
Curled up and welding in a car upside down doesn't look comfortable at all, Tony claims hot yoga helps with it haha. Watching him weld for 2 days straight was incredible, total beast mode.
Thanks for these, and the amazingly good attitude. How are you feeling these days? Building a race car is easy compared to rehabilitating the body!
In reply to tuna55 (Forum Supporter) :
Thanks for reading! Your words ring very true as I am still diligently doing my PT exercises for my foot. Going through all this and building a racecar in 60 days is nothing compared to the patience I've had to have in dealing with the broken bones. I've been out of a cast since March 1, and this week can finally walk just about a mile with no pain. My fitness watch has been logging abysmal step counts since the crash in July but increasing a bit each day!
I've always admired TC Design cars, I never met Tony before but I'm thrilled to see the character behind the company come along in this story. Does TC Design still have a shop in CA to do this work or are they full time on the road now?
roger_waltman said:I've always admired TC Design cars, I never met Tony before but I'm thrilled to see the character behind the company come along in this story. Does TC Design still have a shop in CA to do this work or are they full time on the road now?
TC Design has a physical shop and does a lot of work there, it's located in Campbell, CA.
The filling of the intentionally missed welds is atrocious. I do have to say though after having High Speed Motorsports deliver me my car with a "finished" cage containing numerous unfinished welds, burn through spots, unpenetrated and contaminated welds, I can't help but scratch my head at the irony of this article. Can't say it was intentional or nearly as outlandish as what happened in your car to cover it up, but wish that same level of attention to detail went into every car coming out of that shop.
I don't think budget should ever ever ever dictate whether something is considered safe or not. For things like this there is a right way and a wrong way.
There are a lot of welder/fabricators out there who can and will weld up a cage and do it properly on a budget. There are also places out there who charge top dollar that do sub standard work. Caveat Emptor has never applied more when it comes to this.
The issue as with all things is more complicated than it seems.
I've seen a shops that do great work for their key customers do crap work for their occasional customer. They do this unintentionally, they often fall into the trap of using up their available time with key customer's work and then end up rushing through the occasional customers job. This is what happened in one of the examples I mentioned in previous post.
In any business you can end up with a rogue employee; usually their work is fine but as they are given more autonomy their work starts going to hell. The scary part is how many jobs did they half-assed before the situation gets uncovered.
So again if you're having a cage done or other work your life may depend on, do your homework on the person doing it and ask to inspect the finished product. As mentioned previously people who do top level work won't have issue with this. By virtue of my profession (purchasing analyst) I often want to see milestones on a particular job. I'll pay a little extra for being a pain in the ass, note I discuss this with whoever is dong the work.
In Christina's case she was there for every stage of the work, so she has total piece of mind (even beyond hiring a top notch fabricator).
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