If I have a roll cage........

[dudelikescars]

Hello, If I plan on putting in a cage into my 85 Monte Carlo SS should I stiffen the frame..... besides boxing it. The motor will be a LM7 ior lq4 Turbo with expectations of around 550-625 whp. Ive seen all kinds of various methods for making the frame stiffer.
The cage would be 4 points in the passenger compartment and 2 each in the trunk and engine compartment, similar to a Street Stock oval track car.

 

[Kennybill]

Yes, a roll cage will stiffen your G Body.

 

[lilbowtie]

If your going to put a cage in I'm going to suggest a full cage. Although you may not be required for the ET you plan on running a full cage will definitely stop any frame twist, easier to do all at once, you always want to go faster, and will be a better sale option.

 

[pontiacgp]

in addition to the cage I woiuld box the frame ans while you have the frame off the car I would change the body bushings and beef up the suspension mounting points on the frame

 

[dudelikescars]

Full cage as in a 10 point?

 

[lilbowtie]

Yep - I made the mistake on the Regal and regret it. It will be getting a full cage soon. If you want I have some suggestions and pic's that you might incorporate in yours.

 

[dudelikescars]

Of course, I'd be grateful for that.

 

[lilbowtie]

I wanted my back seat in the car, so I bent the down bars to follow the roof line to the sail panels and then down into the trunk through the speaker deck to the out side of the trunk hinge and catching the frame behind the rear wheel. This also left the trunk open. When you put your front down bars in you want to get them as close to the a pillars as possible to give yourself clear vision of the tree. The way I did this (on the Sonoma) is run my front cross bar all the way across to make the connection to the a pillar down bars, then brought the bars up from the frame and connect to the cross bar. I X ed the doors for strength and safety and the way I did it makes getting in and out easy. If you would like to look I did a build of the Sonoma under NON G BODY PROJECT it's on page 4 - NEW S 10 SONOMA PROJECT.

 

[bracketchev1221]

I agree if there is a possibility of caging the car ever in the future, then do it now. A roll bar like you are describing is built out of 1 3/4" tube. A roll cage is done in 1 5/8". So if you choose to do it later you wind up with a mix of bars and a cage that is heavier than if you did it all at once.

With that being said, if you choose to do just a roll bar, the rear bars should go to the rear spring area. Like shown above, the bars on a coil car go to the rear wheel area, where on a leaf car it should go to the rear spring shackles. If you choose to do the bars through the firewall with A pillar bars, then the door bars should be X's. Otherwise the bars through the firewall are mostly a waste. The A pillar bars have no strength going forward in the car and attaching bars under the dash will just flex. It is the tie in of the X to the main hoop that makes the A pillar bar stronger and then supports the front frame. Also the bars through the firewall should have a diagonal in the engine compartment to stiffen it.

 

[pontiacgp]

I wanted my back seat in the car, so I bent the down bars to follow the roof line to the sail panels and then down into the trunk through the speaker deck to the out side of the trunk hinge and catching the frame behind the rear wheel. This also left the trunk open. When you put your front down bars in you want to get them as close to the a pillars as possible to give yourself clear vision of the tree. The way I did this (on the Sonoma) is run my front cross bar all the way across to make the connection to the a pillar down bars, then brought the bars up from the frame and connect to the cross bar. I X ed the doors for strength and safety and the way I did it makes getting in and out easy. If you would like to look I did a build of the Sonoma under NON G BODY PROJECT it's on page 4 - NEW S 10 SONOMA PROJECT.

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did you do those cages with the roof still on the vehicles and if so how did you do it.......we always removed the roof off the superstocks we built and then welded them back on after we welded all the bars for the 10 point cage