18 replies to this topic

[mike.]

I'v just finished painting my roll cage and am going to have a go at fitting it today. But i'm not sure if its going to work.

The feet that go in the bins aren't slanted. So how can they possibly line up with the sills - which are slanted.

At the pictures i'v seen of rollcages the feet are slanted to line up with the sills:



But the feet on mine aren't slanted at all:



Thing is, it is a mini roll cage. I saw it in the mini it was taken from.

I'm just abit baffled as to how its going to work. Any ideas?

[neil_g]

odd.. might be worth checking with the previous owner where they had it mounted to? i guess its possible to pull the legs a little further and bolt it through the flat section? (i think that may require no bins tho)

Edited by neil_g, 04 October 2007 - 10:04 AM.

[mike.]

Yeah maybe this ones meant to fit to the flat bit. But the bolts that came with the cage are only about an inch and a half long though....

[mike.]

Just been out and had a quick look in the bins. Theres not enough room for it to bolt to the flat bits. The feet are about 2 inches+ wide but the flat bits only about an inch.

So it must bolt through the sills.

Anybody else seen this before?

[mike.]

Right after loads of struggling with 2 people and lots of paint scraping inside the car i'v managed to get it into position.

So now im hitting the problems. One of the wheel arch legs doesn't line up very well with the arch - but thats the smallest problem.

The biggest is that the bottom legs - as i thought, don't line up with the sill. There miles off. Theres about an inch gap under each leg.

I could go ahead and just bolt it in but i reckon when i'm tightening the bolts the cage will just pull the sills into the car!


Any suggestions?

[Custom_Minis]

Sounds like the cage has been cut and modifed somewhere down the line, maybe to fit a flat floor race Mini??

Some grasstrack/hillclimb/race minis have box section welded into them or gusset plates before the cage is put in.

Seen a picture that would explain recently but can't find it at the minute, will look.

Les

[mike.]

yeah i can imagine. I'm going to try and find some blocks of hard rubber, that i can cut to shape and use as spacers. Afterall the cage is only really for astetics - i'm not expecting it to save me in an accident.

[mab01uk]

Guess your going to have to have some 1" thick solid steel 'spacer' blocks made up with the bolt holes drilled in and an angle machined on them to match the sill.
The rear arch legs also often need to be forced/jacked over into the correct postion for drilling and bolting.

[lewis]

be careful though as if you did crash and it wasnt secure it could be very bad, or worse fatal, have you got any access to a grinder and someone that can weld? if so id measure the pocket angles, cut the feet and reweld them at the right angles, you wont regret it

[mike.]

To be honest if i would have to go to those sort of lengths i'd just sell the thing! I only bought it because it was cheap as thought it'd go well with my racey interior really.

[Dan]

be careful though as if you did crash and it wasnt secure it could be very bad, or worse fatal,

Any roll cage in a road car can be fatal in a crash.

[Jammy]

I would say anything short of taking it out and modifying it so you can bolt it in properly would be very dangerous!!

by the way, if you want to sell the cage, I maybe interested.

[neil_g]

agree with jammy. id also agree that the car it came out of probably had welded in sections to mount to.

dan - bit of a sweeping statement there..

[Dan]

No it isn't, it uses the word 'can'. That means there is a possibility. A possibility that if you are in a crash and aren't held by a six point race harness in a solid unmoving and unflexing seat wearing a crash helmet and abrasion proof overalls there is a strong possibility that you can be thrown from your seat far enough to hit your head quite hard on the 2" solid steel tube you have fitted just behind your seat and not wrapped in roll cage padding because it's expensive and you think pipe lagging will do. Roll cages are for race cars.

[neil_g]

furry muff. it does also depend a lot on the postitioning of the seat but agreed that you really need buckets and harnesses tho.