BAR HOPPER
PROJECT HILLCLIMBER ROLL-CAGE INSTALLATION
SO NOW I have a rollcage for my hillclimb car. Actually, what I rea lly have is an anagram of a roll-cage, because it’s still in about four major pieces, as it came from Brown Davis. The first thing I did was unpack it and then do a rough assembly beside the car. And as I’m looking at it, I’m wondering how the hell what looks like a kilometre of powder-coated steel tube is ever gonna f it in the VC Commodore.
The thing is, the cage was made on a jig, so unless the car is twisted or bent in some major way, it rea lly will f it. It’s just a question of fait h. And a fair bit of wriggling and jiggling to get the pieces inside the Commodore and then bolt them all together using Brown Davis’ patented joining system that allows a bolt-in cage to be more or less as safe as a weld-in job.
I’m not sure if t his is t he best way to tack le the job, but my method consisted of getting all the bits and pieces inside the car and loosely bolted to each other. From t here, I could drill t he holes in the f loor to accept the mounting bolts and loosely bolt the cage down. A bit of lube made the Unbrako bolts for the patented joins go in a bit easier, and a second pair of hands made nipping up the under-f loor nuts and spring-washers much, much easier. Thanks litt le bro.
You also need to include a metal plate of a particular minimum size under each nut and washer, too, so that the fasteners can’t simply tear through the f loor should the big one occur. And those plates also have to have radiussed corners
“THE SIDE INTRUSION BAR CONTINUES INTO THE FOOTWELL AND BOLTS TO THE FRONT INNER-GUARD. CLEVER.”
to make them less likely to tear the metal themselves. The nice part is that when you buy a cage brand-new from somebody like Brown Davis, all that hardware – in the correct grade and size – comes with it.
The only rea lly trick y bit came when I went to bolt in t he front (A-pillar) downtubes of the cage. The holes I drilled lined up fairly inconveniently with the edge of t he factor y front jack ingpoint, meaning the metal plate had nowhere f lat to sit. So, I stuck a cutting disc in the die-grinder and cut myself a slot in the jack ingpoint, thick enough to let the plate slip under the jack ingpoint and snuggle up against t he f lat f loor. Not sure if that’s how the pros do it, but that’s how I did it. And if the nice man from CAMS doesn’t like it, I can always weld up the slot to make the jack ingpoint, f loor and metal plate all one piece and restore the origina l integrit y. Actually, I might do that any way.
The other thing I specified when ordering the cage was a foot well-intrusion bar on each side. The Brown Davis design cleverly incorporates these into the side-intrusion bar, so instead of the sideintrusion bar attaching to t he A-pillar leg, it continues into the foot well and bolts to the front inner-guard. Clever.
Now that the cage is in, I can finally get around to mounting the seat, harness and the million or so other litt le bits and pieces t hat a race-car needs. For the seat, I plan to use the factor y mounting points (because they’re reinforced and probably the strongest part of the whole car) but I’ll chuck away the origina l runners. I don’t need the seat to be adjustable, and I reckon the runners only increase the chances of the seat coming loose in a big shunt. Also, making my own seat mount means I can mount the chair nice and low to keep the C of G down as well as to allow clearance between the roll-cage and my big, boof head.