ANOTHER fantastic December day allowing me to work with the garage door open. The natural light makes a big difference when you're working inside a dark car. Job of the day - "A" pillar bars, a job I've been dreading for a couple of reasons. First is the psycological barrier to cutting more holes in the floors to allow the bars to be welded directly to the frame, and secondly I've been frustrated before with getting the angles and "coping" or fish mouthing the tubing ends for the best fit possible. Bill always says we're building race cars, not kitchen cabinets, which I assume means don't get too hung up on getting everything perfect, just get it done. Professional race car builders may disagree but I don't think an eighth of an inch difference here or there is going to change how it handles. At the end of the day however I think I got them pretty symetrical and tight fitting, and no more than 1/8" out of square.
You may recall from an earlier post I had cleaned up the floor plates where the previous cage attached, which turned out to be a waste of time due to the requirement to attach the A pillar bars directly to the frame. I cut out a 6" square portion of the floor on each side to gain clearance to the factory subframe. To give myself plenty of flat surface to affix the bottom of the bar to I fabbed a couple of brackets and tacked them to the frame. Trust me working with a level base is a whole lot easier than trying to calculate what angle cut the bar while maintaining the correct length. So starting with the level surface I messed around with my angle finder, string and plumb bob and arrived at a bend angle of 50 degrees. Always leave yourself a couple of inches on either end for trimming to fit. Bars are tacked in place and that job thankfully is behind me. The rest of the cage should be gravy.
