►►►Tales from IronFreak and his shop shenanigans◄◄◄

[IronFreak]

First world problems........

[kingston]

Soooo psyched for ya, man!! Looks great! How much is the Tricktools notcher?

[IronFreak]

The notcher I want is about $600. But it could handle anything.

http://www.trick-tools.com/Baileigh_TN_250_Hole_Saw_Tube_Notcher_TN_250_3871#.Up88XtJDtPM

it allows you to notch after bending which makes fitting MUCH easier.

[AbsorbantNut]

picture of the bender

Love this ingenuity! Please share plans Now 2 more r3v'ers will be caged

[IronFreak]

This is where I got them, I'd give them away but I like supporting the little guy that takes the time to design stuff like this. They're stupid cheap anyways.

Link:

http://www.gottrikes.com/Tube_Bender.htm

I would say I have just over $500 in the bender. But.....I work for a steel company, so I either had, or got the steel cheap. I also have access to a machine shop so all the machine work was free. you don't have to machine the holes, but the overall operation is much better.

[IronFreak]

Din't get jack done this weekend....

That is all.

[unloadedak]

I installed 5 studs and put in a recaro. Then pointed my kerosene heater towards the recaro, sat in it and made racecar sounds for an extended amount of time.

[IronFreak]

I installed 5 studs and put in a recaro. Then pointed my kerosene heater towards the recaro, sat in it and made racecar sounds for an extended amount of time.

Walked into my shop, turned up the heat, sat on the shop stool and starred at the car for an extended period of time, text a guy sitting in a recaro a few times, turned off the heat and went home......

[kingston]

Now is the winter of my discontent...

Didn't do squat, either. C'mon, Ross...I'm living vicariously through you!!

[IronFreak]

Now is the winter of my discontent...

Didn't do squat, either. C'mon, Ross...I'm living vicariously through you!!

Sorry buddy, some stuff came up and I had to leave. Adam and I have a solid game plan to get a lot wrapped up this Saturday. We'll attack it and get more pictures. Also plan on getting pipe bet for some other e30 cages!

[IronFreak]

Got a bit more done, not even close to what I thought I'd be able to do, but progress is progress I suppose. I've been fabricating a long time, but this cage has been a big learning curve. I think going forward after seeing how it fits into the car I'll approach some things different, cutting off several hours worth of work.

Anyways, started on the back. for the sake of ease I cut this large panel out, I'll make that smaller on the next couple cages.





Before I started on the rear portion, I finished welding up the front part of the cage, made sure it was in place and welded the main hoop the chassis. I'll work on the front legs this week, have a box mount idea I'm playing with.



Needs to be cleaned up but they turned out decent.



First thing was to get the rear laterals in, Passenger side was a breeze, the drivers side not so much. One of many things I've learn and plan on doing differently going forward is the diagonal brace for the main hoop. I carried it all the way to the corner, which has made for some very difficult, time consuming hand notches on the pipe in that area.



they turned out well, follow the same path ect. they mount to the chassis right above the rear spring perch.




I guess I got really frustrated with picture taking as I dont have anymore of the cage from this weekend. I did get the first full length x-bar fit, and the fist 2-piece x-bar fit (this small one again took a long time because of all the bars that tie into the same location). With the help of my buddy Adam we also got the front gussets cut out. The cage fits so tight to the A and B pillars I'm not sure I'm going to punch and dimple them as they'd be VERY small holes.

On a more fun not we did fit some wheels. Arc-8 17X9.5 with 275's........mmmm.



I'll get more pictures going forward, I just get REALLY wrapped up in my work and forget the stop and snap pictures.

Until next time.

[deutschman]

Great work as always. Love checking in and seeing whats new here.

[IronFreak]

Thank you, I appreciate it. it's really been a great learning experience, on many levels including patience as I REALLY want to drive this thing. Even with the cage half done, you can tell this thing is going the be stupid rigid.

[DrLeadFoot]

Great build! Just read through the whole thing. So jelly of that cage/bender.

Sub'd

[MyE30]

IronFreak, what is the offset of those 17x9.5 ARC-8s you have pictured above?

Great build thus far!