Tubular troubles.

It took a long time to decide between the weld in cage and the bolt in option. After a lot of thought and consideration I decided on the weld in cage. Although the weld in cage would be quite a lot more work the car was at the right stage to install it. I believed that if I bought a professional cage from a reputable company it would fit straight in.

The cage arrived mid week and I was keen to se how it would fit inside the car. The manufacturer supplied eight photographs with eleven points to install the cage. The eleven points were really helpful and included instructions such as ‘fit all the tubes’!!!

When it came to the weekend I started to look at installing the cage. As soon as I unwrapped the tubes it was clear that without even putting the tubes against the car the A-pillar tubes were over bent and too long. It is clear in the picture and it was easy to see as the roof is almost perpendicular to the vertical line drawn thought the base of the A-pillar and the roof . I contacted the supplier and the solution was for me to produce a sketch for them to remake the two tubes. Being a professional company they acknowledged their mistake and had the new parts with me for this weekend.

It took all of Saturday and most of Sunday but the result is a complete cage installed in the shell. I have probably inhaled a full kilo of grinding dust and burnt several spatter marks all down my neck but it feels well worth it. Although I thought that all the hard work had been done due to the high cost of the cage, there was still a lot of cutting and profiling to do.




The tubes in position showing how there are over bent and too long.


The new tubes in position.
The cage installed before it was all removed to paint the shell and the parts of the tubes that would be impossible to reach.