Fitting a six point bolt in rollcage

Fitting a 6 point rollcage

 

 

Firstly lay out all the parts you have received and make sure they correspond to your order.

These instructions are for sitting the full cage with fixed diagonal and door braces.

Tools

17mm spanners/ socket etc..

Rubber mallet (for delicate adjustment)

Tape measure and marking stuff

Welding set

Wire brush, wire brush on drill bit, Chisels and scraper

Drill plus large drill, dependant on size of bolts

Some oil to cool the drill bit.

Goggles and ear defenders (the steel plate was hard and screeched like a banshee

Spare pair of hands to help with the awkward bits.

Strip the interior away from the points of contact that the feet of the cage will have. The general areas are the area of the floor directly under the wiper stork, same place on the passenger side.

 

 

Rear floor just below seat on the outer walls. Both sides and on the rear wheel arches.

Really this would mean, trims out and carpets pulled well back out of the way, remove the driver and passenger seats.

The cage should consist of the rear cage. 2 sidebars with floor mounts on them, and 3 shorter bars. There will be 4 15cm plates and 2 5x15com plates that are pre drilled.

Then you will have a selection of nuts bolts and washers all 17mm.

Once you have the interior stripped put the rear cage into the car be careful on the centre console if your car isn’t stripped out fully as I’d imagine it being tight.

Once you have the cage wiggled to the rear of the car you can see where the mount positions need to go.

The first thing I did was bend 2 of the 15cm square plates into shape ready to be welded into position.

 

The shape required is a rather loose shaped S the top of the plate is level and the bottom follows the contour of the floor pan.

Once you have got the right shape the feet of the rear cage should slip over the plate nd allow you to mark the rear wheel arches for the plates. Bolt on the sides of the cage loosely and mark the floor where the front feet sit on the floor.

Now remove the rear cage and weld the plates into position. You will need to clear the area around the feet of the chewing gum sound insulation and clean it all back before you can weld it. I found a wire brush on a drill works a treat but makes a right mess.

If you are going to weld it then fine if not this is where you want your mate with a welder to step in. I just tack welded it into place then went along the seams in a really pathetic attempt to make it look nice. See pictures.. if you know someone who can weld get them to do it!

 

Once you have the plates all welded into position then it is time to assemble it for real.

Put the rear section and make sure it all lines up. If it does then drill out the holes on the rear arches. Then put the rear section into position.

Now install the sides and the overhead front cross brace, this can be a bit tricky and was an absolute sod on my one! This is why we have not bolted anything in yet .

 

Once you have the sides and the cross brace in you can jiggle the cage into position and finally start bolting things in don’t forget to add the door bars now .

The rear positions that are already drilled should go in easily if you have lined everything up. You will need someone to help this bit as the bolts are difficult to hold while you are doing up the nuts inside the wheel arch.

I lined up all of the bolts so they dropped though the chassis and had a nut on the underside, the reason for this is if anything does come undone there will be more chance of the bolt staying put than if it was pushed through from under the car. I also made the nuts on the outside of the cage so that any sharp bits are eliminated from the interior of the “safety cell”.

Once you have the bolts installed on the rear section you can gradually work forwards drilling out the holes through the plates. I did this with the cage in position as I am a lazy git and on the basis that I would be bound to put a hole in the wrong place. A couple of the holes meant holding the drill at some funny angles but I got through it all in the end.

The front feet need to be as close to the sills as you can get them, this increases the clearance on the indicator stalk.

Once the bolts are all in the floor you can go round the cage tightening up all the nuts and bolts. When you have done that simply put back the interior and if applicable trim the carpet around the new protrusions re install the seats and then walk to the pub for a well earned pint.

The job took me about 6 hours to do but would have been quicker if I’d had instructions and decent welding ability! But then my car was already stripped out. If you are removing and replacing interior and trying to make it look nice then I’d budget a day for the job.

I have now padded the cage in various areas with padding from Demon tweeks.

Let me know if you find any inaccuracies in this guide..

SteveC