Projects DRAG SNAKE "Vintage Terror!"

^^^^^
I wondered when some one would pick up on the chain being on the wrong side!

 

My first thought was a early cad mill but a j2 with a huffer would be ok lol. Best quote yet is "nice kit car" lmao good job milwscruffy lol


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Ok dads coupe is the tits! So wanna build me one!!


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If you got the money honey? Well you know what they say...l

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I know...there is actually a length of chain on both sides. Just so the old guy at the show doesn't look bad...lol That is the only photo I had that had showed either one of the chains. I felt like the post was kind of wordy and needed a photo. I almost reversed the image cause I knew some smart ass HAMBer would catch it. But I could not get my phone to flip it etc.... so thanks @milwsruffy. LMAO! Just goes go to show you can't slip anything by the HAMB!

"Unless" it is one of those rare Australian Cobras. You know engines turn the other direction south of the equator...right?!!! LOL

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Started ripping her apart today. Below we double and triple checked the new up bar position to make sure there are no clearance issues through the dash.



It appears it was supposed to be there as there is just enough space for it slide up and through. This will be the down leg in the "A" pillar area.

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The engine and trans came out as a unit just as planned....well almost...





We had to make a little edit to the cross bar there near the rear of the engine compartment but no big deal. We will put an arched bar back in there instead of being straight across.

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Got tired of working on the Cobra. Took Dad's coupe cruising...Milner was there!







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He's everywhere!

 

Lol

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Piss yellow Duce coupe... ugh


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Should be outlawed.

 

So I just got back from a friend that runs a muffler shop and has a pretty heavy duty bender, he has helped me a few times before with roll cage material. I have to say I wound up there this morning because my drive way looks like the Tasmanian Devil broke out of a cage. There are ten foot sticks of mangled roll bar material strewn all over the place. For some reason no matter what I tried I simply could not make it work in my bender.


I tried everything, traded out the dies, the spacing, the radius but every time just past 40 degrees or so it kinked it. I greased that thing up so heavy I could barely hold the bar in place while it clamped down on it....kink! I filled one with water and capped the ends....kink! I even spent about an hour stuffing sand in and packing it down...kink! So I know when I am whooped! Actually I think things worked out better anyway as he was able to make a much tighter radius than I would have had anyway.

I am pretty excited about the cage as originally I had my share of trepidation. But after playing around with its design I am aiming to not only tuck it up out of sight into the roof but follow the shape of the roof a bit as well. That way if we ever decide to take the top off the bars will look like the hard top and not a bunch of squared off bars. Hopefully something like this....

 

Randal, more than thinking out loud here, I just gotta be honest about those bends.
They look ok (just) and I know I'll get all kinds of cards and letters on this but.................
muffler shops are not where roll bars should be built unless that shop has a TIG welder and a mandrel bender for bending tubing with wall thickness heavier than exhaust tubing.
I know people have done it for years but I think this is not where you want to save a few bucks.

 

Yep,
"press" bends are not a good thing. All cage bends should be done with some form of "draw" style bender. Non mandrel type benders (Hossfeld, Pro Tools, Baileigh, Trick Tools, Speedway etc) will oval the tubing somewhat but will not put those hard edge depressions on the inside of the bend.

Roo

 

If I would have know you were having problems, I could have brought my bender down.

 

Thanks James. No problem. I just needed the one upper halo hoop bar bent at the front corners. All the serious structural down and cross tubes are doable with my unit. That is a very tight radius for 1.75" tubing (3") but my friend is crazy good and careful. At a 6" radius there were no imprints from pressing at all with his machine (they look Mandril bent) but I needed a 3" there on the front corners to look correct.

 

No way I could pull 3 inch radius.
Not even sure I could get those dies.

 

That one is closer to 4 or so inch but still pretty tight. I have a pretty cool "taco" gusset planned for the corners to put some strength back in it. It has a hand grip cut out for multipurpose: Strength, Hand hold for me on myside to grab getting out, and a nice solid (Holy Hell) gripping place for a would-be passenger. I will call it the "wonder bar" (I wonder if I am getting out of this seat alive)! LMAO!

 

Slow start today but we are finally rolling. Tight fit behind the dash there. I taped a sharpie in the middle of a test roll bar tube. Ran it up through the chassis and cowl hoop and touched the body underneath. Then drilled a small pilot hole from beneath, centered the hole saw on it up top, crossed fingers and toes and drilled it.



The tube slid right in and dropped right down on the chassis and cage crossmember...like a glove baby! Lol



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So, is it more difficult to drill with your fingers crossed?

 

It has been a long day...thank goodness for an extra day off Monday...I am going to need it! This has been a crazy challenge but as we closed the doors this evening I am pretty happy with what evolved. First off as I mentioned earlier the goal is to tuck the new (rest of the cage) up in the roof so at first glance, nothing jumps out and screams it has a full cage. At the same time I would like the cage to look cool if the top was ever taken off etc.


We started above with just the halo hoop. After first getting it correct and straight etc as far as front to back, we then marked both left and right bars every six inches. We then put it back in the bender, careful to keep the correct orientation and gave it three bumps every six inches etc. Then we flipped it over and tried to duplicate the feet on the other side. It took a few returns to the bender for a tap here and there but before long it sat on the floor without rocking one way or the other. It also stayed with in the initial marks we made on the floor to try and keep everything true.


After double checking, trimming, and hand shaping the birdmouth's on the rear to perfectly attach to the main hoop, we tacked it in place out back and held the front up with a board. We just about wore out the hinges on the top up and down and up and down double and triple checking it. When we were happy all we had to do was just attached the hoop with "A" pillar down legs. Simple right?!!!! LMAO!

They are in place above but the first one (there on the driver's side) represents about 3 hours of trial and error, custom bending and joinery (not to mention we obviously had to have the windshield back in place several times)! Total pain in the back side but after finally getting one we were happy with, it went pretty quick on the passenger side.




When it was all said and down as you can see the halo hoop tucks nicely up inside the roof and the new "A" pillar area down legs are just inside the "A" pillar and after the windshield is in place with the factory side wind deflectors installed you will have to be right up on the car to see them as well.


About the only thing that is really visible if you look closely is where the halo attaches to the main hoop. It is just visible in the corner of the rear windows. I am pretty happy with it. But I am crazy happy with this...



The new work not only complete the cage but in my opinion (and that is the only one that counts LOL) is very aesthetically pleasing. It totally flows with the car and I think we killed it as far as taking the top off and still having a killer look. Of course we still have a few more bars including an arched one going from side to side somewhere around the center point and then angled pieces off of it for additional strength.

 

Just recently read all the way through this after losing it a little after the start. Very nice work. Subbed. (Again.)

Devin

 

Been fighting flu/sinus/what ever all weekend. Did not even get out of bed till today. Needed to be up and around but didn't want to over do it. Decided to measure the push rods today.



With test springs and shimmed up Jesels in place our test push rod was just a touch over 6.75". Before I did out the dial calipers I called my performance shop and asked ehat the books said about small block Ford push rods. It said 6.80...that eill do!!!

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As mentioned before, those bends are probably not going to pass tech. You might want to send photos to a tech inspector before getting it all welded up just in case.

 

I know. After we started on it, it was clear the fitting procedures for all the pieces was going to be crazy difficult. And so since we already had the pressed bent pieces I just worked hard to get them right. Now that they are messaged to fit perfect we will use them as exact patterns for a local performance shop to bend the real stuff in their mandrel bender.

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How tight of a bend can they bend?
1 5/8 correct?

 

Actually talked to them today. They can take 1.75" tubing to 5" radius. Close enough for our needs.

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Horse shoes and role bars, I love it.

 

Lol

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