Vert Cage

[Wiisass]

I've been working on a cage for friend's car for his S13 vert.  Nothing too crazy, just a basic 6-point.  Modified the seat rails for the seats to sit lower.  I need to raise up the passenger seat a little because it's sitting too low and too angled back making the harness bar a little high in relation to the seat.  All that still needs to be done is put the door bars in, the roof bar and fit the dash.  And then she's all ready for drifting. 

[george]

What do you do to get the plates to weld to the floor nicer?

Speed and amperage settings?

I was having a shit time trying to weld mine in.

[george]

[sideways5hitbox]

gusset the a pillars.  I don't know about the 240 but in my supra when you go over rough terraine the window frame shakes.  If you brace the a pillar with the cage you can get rid of that.

[Wiisass]

On this cage, I'm actually running it a little hotter than I have in the past.  On my mm210, i'm running at 3 for current settings and like 35 for wire speed.  I'm not sure what those translate to for other machines or what the actual values are.  The wire speed might be in ipm.  But I think it's come down to technique.  The Nissan sheet metal is crappy and inconsistent at best.  So you have to focus more on floor plate and sweep down to the chassis.  It seems like a fine balance between burning through and getting it right.  There were a couple spots were it almost went through and actually contaminated the weld because of pulling up stuff from underneath the car.  Which sucks because then I had to grind it down and redo it.  

I think I turned down the heat and wire speed a little for some areas.  I don't remember which ones though and I think it may have just been smaller sections.  But for that I was using 2 and 28-30 for wire speed.  It gave me a little more time to get the weld right and it wasn't burning through, so I probably could've done it on the higher settings and just moved a little quicker.  

What settings are you using and on what machine?


As for gussetting, I woud if it were my car, but this is a friend's/customer's car.  So right now I'm just going to do the 6-point and if he decides he wants gussets of more bars or anything later on, I will put them in.  One thing I don't like about doing a-pillar gussets is doing them with the windshield in.  I like to do gussets on both sides of the bar so it spreads the load and gives more surface area to work with, but with the windshield in place, I don't have enough room to put it where I want it and it compromises it.  But if someone wants me to do it like that, I will, it's just not the way I would want to do it. 

[george]

I've got a Miller 175.  I was using around 3-4 for the speed and 35-45 for the amperage.  I cant remember because it has been a few months but i had a tough time with it.

I definitely agree on the technique. 

Also what thickness are those plates?

[george]

[Vosko]

looks great tim!

[Vosko]

[Wiisass]

George, the plates are 12 gauge or 0.105".  Rules say they need to be 0.080 and smaller stuff is hard to come by.  I would use 13 gauge, which is 0.089 or so, if I could get it easily, but it's not as easy to come by. 

As for welding.  I just looked it up and my welder goes from 35-700 ipm and 30-210 amps.  So if I'm at 35% for wire speed, assuming a linear adjustment that's about 260ipm.  And about 110 amps, also assuming linear adjustment and I'm on tap 3 out of 7.  So I don't know how that relates to the adjustment on your machine, but I figured real numbers might be better than number of taps and turns on the machine. 

Thanks Vosko. 

[finalact]

nice! I wish I could weld that good, awesome job!

[finalact]

[crazyikimasho]

Yeah Im not impressed at all... the bends all wrong, all wrong I tell ya. It doesnt fit section 1.2.44534.234234234 in Websters guide on race spec cages.  I think welding SR blocks in the back of SUVs is back where you go!

[Wiisass]

Justin, I hate you.  There's no way I'm going back to welding blocks in the back of an suv.

[Wiisass]

All that's left is fitting up the dash and putting everything back in the car. 

[midnightsliding]

pretty pimp i did not think the top would fit back over it. cool non the less i like your work.

[midnightsliding]

[Wiisass]

Thanks.  It's nice and tight to the top in the front.  The main hoop is spaced down a little because it looks better.  When the main hoop fits nicely with the top, it looks stupid when the tops down because the hoop sits extra high.  So I made it so it looks better when the top is down.  It's still the same structurally and design wise, I just think it looks better this way. 

I do wish I had a little more room with the top stuff.  But nothing I could do short of redesigning the top and how it attaches and that's not something I want to do. 

Tim

[Battleversion]

Came out good. I like the door bars.

[Built240]

nice