The front bar must be one continuous piece of tubing with the same diameter and thickness specs as the main hoop. It welds to the top corner of the main hoop and follows the roof and A-pillar line to another 6-inch x 6-inch plate in the floor.
The forward hoop can go through or before the dash. The straight bar coming off the main hoop should be parallel to the roof before it makes its first bend.
Also there can be bars that connect to the front down bars, go through the firewall and connect down into the front frame rails. They are typically harder to put in though with the stock dashes, heater, and wiring installed. Not wanting to hack up the dash in our Mustang, McKinney installed the bar before the dash, set back about an inch from it. This gave them the space they needed to fit a stock dash pad back in and also for the kick panels that include speakers. The Chassisworks forward hoop bars come pre bent and fit awesome.
All McKinney needed to do was shorten them to fit accordingly. The upper windshield bar is another important piece of the cage. It acts as a supporting brace for the forward hoop and also to keep the roof from collapsing. Again, with the same spec tubing as the forward bars and main hoop, it must be welded at the top of the windshield support to the two forward bars. The front main hoop bars are tack welded in place before the dash.
They also sit about an inch back from the dash to allow for the dash pad to be installed along with the kick pannels. A dash bar is not required in vehicles that have their firewalls altered by one square foot or less, though a dash bar can be useful to tie the lower part of the front cage together to reduce chassis flex.
The door bars are there to protect the driver in a side impact crash and must be welded to the main hoop. There is no specific angle or point in which the forward side of the door bar must intersect, though it should weld to the forward bar near the bottom 6-inches. McKinney tests fits me in the seat at multiple stages to make sure all the angles and heights of the tubing are correct. This is all done with the seat I plan to race with installed in place. Swing out door bars can help a driver and passenger get into a vehicle without needed to go to Yoga classes, and as long as your car is going to be slower than an 8.
The Chassisworks kit features a clevis-type connector that is over the minimum thickness required by the NHRA. The swing-out rules are pretty broad and are as follows:. Male or female clevis es permitted. Pins must be within 8 inches of the vertical portion of both the forward and main hoops.
A half-cup backing device must be welded to the vertical portion of the main hoop inward side or the upper end of the swing-out bar outward side , minimum. A clevis assembly using a minimum. The swing out door bar is tacked in place to the main hoop so it passes in between the shoulder and elbow. As mentioned above, the swing out door bar pins must be within eight inches of the vertical sections of the front and rear main hoop. Typically, the clevis receiver is welded to the roll cage at the shoulder.
The lower portion can use a small piece of pipe welded to the bottom of the front main hoop bar and then the clevis is attached at this point. This allows the needed height for the swing out to function properly. What we did was install the door bar higher up on the front main hoop and in the same fashion as the rear hoop — welded directly to the hoop. The larger clevis joint is designed to slip into the end of the door bar.
Since there are variances in the minimum wall thickness on the tubes, some grinding on the inside of the tubes might be required to fit the clevis in snugly. After that, it is completely welded to the pipe. The completed door bar sits up high enough on the bottom end to be able to swing out and was able to clear the arm rest as well. The frame rail acts as a side impact support and a rocker bar must be added in place if it.
This also goes for any car with a modified floor or rocker box, though modifying the transmission tunnel up to six square feet is permitted. The NHRA rule book states:. Rocker bar may not tie into swing-out side bar support.
The roll cage "D" bars install over the top of the subframe connectors. Believe it or not, this section is the easiest part of it all. The D bars are designed to support the main hoop from movement under impact as a triangulated point of reference.
Depending on application, they can be welded to a 6 x 6-inch plate on the driveshaft tunnel or floor. On the top side, the D bars are welded in the corner of where the harness bar and roll bar meet.
Since we are installing a set of TCP subframe connectors, we placed the D bars over the top of the connectors. This way we can weld the connectors to the plates from underneath the car to provide even better protection.
The NHRA rulebook states the following:. The supplied rear down bars fit great. They went through a spot in the rear package tray and weld in right behind the rear seat. The rear down bars or rear support bars must attach to the floor of the trunk… somewhere. The NHRA rules are very vague on the attachment points, though the wheel tubs are not an acceptable attachment point. Also, there is a variety of rules on the total diameter of the tubing depending on the length and amount of cross braces utilized.
This means you could write your name in cursive with the rear bars, and as long as they connect to the rear floor, they will technically be legal. With this tubing, the top side of the rear down bars can be welded anywhere on the horizontal section of the main hoop or five inches or less vertically down the sides.
A rear cross brace was a simple add in to increase strength and reduce flex. We opted for the angled rear bars on our kit for two reasons; first to allow for more head room for any rear passengers, and second was so we could re-install the rear seat.
We wanted the rear bars to weld right behind the rear seat to allow for more trunk space since most of the rear trunk is actually occupied by the fuel cell. Since we will be adding in mini tubs later, we allowed for the additional four inches of space we needed from the stock tubs.
This spot is also very close to the frame rail and we will later box the plate to the frame rail when we install the tubs. Having some extra material left over, a support bar was welded between the two down bars for additional strength. While there are measures you can take to weld the majority of the top welds, in some instances especially with headliners it can be hard to weld the top-most part of a bar. Gussets used where the front main hoop connects to the main hoop.
For our project, we selected the weld-in versions. The connectors are specifically designed for first generation Mustangs and fit perfectly in place.
The Total Control Products weld-in subframe connectors with bolt-in cross bar and driveshaft safety loop. To get the connectors installed as flat as possible to the floor, it is recommended to jack the connectors into the the floor to help persuade connectors to fit. Once in place, Sean tack welded the connector in place and followed along with a complete weld of both the front and rear attachment points. Also, anywhere the connectors set flat to the floor, they were welded in place there - including where our roll cage D bars reside.
Since our stock exhaust is in the way for now, we did not install the brace. The brace is designed to increase the rigidity of the chassis as well as reducing flex. It attaches with two bolts on all four corners, though the front bolt holes have to be drilled through the frame rail as well. Working hand-in-hand with the SFI Foundation, the NHRA has over the years developed a set of safety standards when it comes to race car design, safety products, and apparel, and if they say you need it, chances are you probably really need it.
Of course, far worse crashes occur every weekend at the dragstrip, and the addition of a window net will drastically improve your overall security in the car. The buckle that will keep the entire assembly tight was stripped of its chrome finish before being welded to the upper window net rod. The difference between a standard cage net and a Funny Car cage is that a standard net needs to be inches wide, while a Funny Car mesh is much smaller.
For full-bodied cars running 7. SFI Window net must be securely mounted on the inside of the roll cage, with the permanent attachment at the bottom. All attachment points must be designed in an attempt to protect the driver and avoid contact with track surface or guardwall.
Eyelet clips, dogleash hardware, hose clamps, etc. Any other modification to net must be performed by manufacturer. Notice how this Funny Car cage window net is drastically smaller than a standard piece. This is due to the decreased area of the window not already protecting the driver. The supplied rearmost lower tab, while acceptable for most applications, need to be replaced with a longer piece to ensure a tight window net fitment.
Installation was pretty straightforward on our Camaro, only requiring some minor modification in order to conform to our car. The first mounting tab was tacked into place, and was positioned to receive the upper window-net rod before the buckle tab and mounting tab were welded into the cage.
Examining the lower mounting bar prior to welding the supplied tabs, the mesh window net is placed on the upper mount, which is then pulled tightly in order to securely gauge the necessary length of the lower mounting tabs.
This ensures proper fitment. After fabricating another lower mounting bracket, the lower tabs are fastened securely to the down bar using a bead of filler rod. They are normally required in motorsport application when the driver side window or window area is open. Webbing: The webbing is the inner portion of the Window Net that is connected to the outer borders. During this testing, the window net mesh is subjected to both a penetration and rapid impact resistance.
During the penetration test, a smooth steel ball with a diameter of 3. This test is performed a total of three times in the same location and requires the ball not to pass through the mesh in order to pass. The rapid impact tests truly examine the resilience of the window net material during an impact. An impact bag constructed of leather that has a diameter of This bag is then dropped from a height of
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