Mark Jeffery's IT RX7 cage bars are all complete and are being welded in. The cage was installed and tacked together for trial fitting. Nothing was finish welded until every piece (except gussets) was fitted. Once the jigsaw puzzel was complete, every piece was removed for cleaning of the weld areas and final prep of the weld joints.
With everything ready to go, the main hoop and downbars were repositioned and the “headache” bar and top diagonal (from the middle of the Hoop to the top passenger side corner of the downbar/headache bar joint) were installed. The installation involved tacking the bar in 4 spots around each joint, then dropping the assembly down in order to weld the joints 360 degrees. Once the headache bar was complete, the downbars were repositioned on the pads, and all 3 bars (downbar arms and diagonal) were tacked into place on the hoop. The main hoop was then dropped to gain access to the tops of the bars for welding.
Once the hoop and downbars were repositioned, the driver and pass. doorbars were reinstalled to assure the relative position of the hoop and downbar attachment points. This is a very easy step to forget and could lead to some major rework later (or even require new pieces be made). Once the doorbars were in place, the dash crossbar, (or Kneebar) was refitted. With the cage going through the dash, the RX7's crossbar is tucked up behind the dash and requires trimming of the defroster tubes and a small amount of clearancing on the blower housing. Once the dash is reinstalled, the only visable section of this bar is right under the steering column. During installation of the kneebar on the passenger side, the blower and ductwork had to be repositioned in order to gain access to the back side of the bar as well as the forward tube that goes to the firewall.
The owner of the RX7, Mark Jeffery, is in town for the October Spooktackular at Gateway this weekend and will be stopping by the shop to take a look at the progress. If I wasn't planning on working a corner at the race, the cage would probably be finished by the weekend, but with as many cramped position as I've been in the past 2 weeks, it'll be good to stand up straight for a while!
Early project pics are up! RX7 Cage
Izzy's Custom Cages