Roll Cage Questions
Turbo Mini Forums

Hi all I have finally brought myself a second hand roll cage and trial fitted it over the weekend. I do have a few questions I hope a few of you can help with.

- The fit of some of the clamps is not great. See below picture below, as you can see the right hand bolt is not fully tightened and the clamp is sitting flush, the join around the tube is also flush. I cannot get the left hand side to get anywhere near flush. I can however get a pretty much even gap on both sides if I tighten the bolts evenly and make sure I have movement on the opposite end. Will an even gap be ok (it’s only a few mm) or should I fit some washers between the 2 clamps?



- Once fitted the passenger side rear leg sits perfectly on the arch but the drivers side sits a little high and in to the centre a bit therefore the bolt holes miss the arch (about half an inch in and about the same up) Again picture below to try and help. If I use some force (jack or something) to push this leg out inline with the arch and use some force to tighten it down to the arch will this be ok. I don’t think it will have enough strength but it did cross my mind it could twist the chassis a bit? I will be using mounting plates so could make a thicker one for this side if that would be a better option to stop so much stress pulling up as well as in.





- A couple of things I could also do with clarification on. I need to get bolts for everything. It will be High tensile bolts I need wont it? Also I am thinking of fitting mounting plates on both sides of the body work i.e. inside the car and out. Is this a bit over kill?

Sorry about the essay and thanks in advance for any help.

Dan

one thing, change the nuts for nylocks.

also yeah it will be ok to push the rear leg out, at my friends workshop they use hydraulic rams to allign them into the shell correctly (the front legs of the cage of a 205 bowed in a tad and the floor plates werent alligning)

Edited by mini93 on 16th Feb, 2010.

David.

I wouldn't use spacers as it may prevent the clamp from tightenign against the cage.

"Clamp gaps" are correct dan, it means the radiussed part of the clamp is in contact with the tube to form the "joint".

Shimming it with washers so there's no gap risks creating a gap between the tube and clamp so all the forces through the joint are taken purely trough the bolts which will be rubbish in any sideways loads (the tube/clamp connection resists such loads so long as they're in contact).

Dave.

Edit: apologies for repeating Gavin, was typing that as he posted!

Edited by Pottsy on 16th Feb, 2010.

Excellent Thanks for that. TM pulls it out the bag again with great advice.

Mini93 - Dont worry they are the only nuts and bolts B&Q had and i didnt fancy a trip down Screw Fix on Sunday as i only wanted to mock it up. Need to get all new nuts and bolts during the week.

Thanks again guys.

Edited by dan_w on 16th Feb, 2010.

Regarding pushing the rear leg out I had to do that with my safety devices bolt in jobbey. It was a fucker of a job and I nailed myself a few times when the jack and bar assembly pinged out.

How much force does it need?

Im not %100 sure how i plan to push the rear leg out as yet thinking along the lines of a jack in the middle of 2 bars sounds the same as you, so not easy.

I have had push with my foot but with the other leg not attached its hard to see if i can push it enough with just brut force. (I am a but of a skinny f***er so may be not lol)

Edited by dan_w on 17th Feb, 2010.

good to know ur chnaging the nuts :p

the legs may well take alot of force to push out. It was much easier with hydraulic rams...if you do use a jack or the like, maybe fashon some wooden blocks that hug round the rollcage tube to stop it pinging out of line, would be veeeery dangerious

David.