Welding Tips and Tricks

My buddy Scott and I put a roll cage in my nephews Nissan 240SX drift car. This was my first full cage install so needless to say we made a few mistakes, mainly on build sequence, car pre-prep and one or two ugly Fido's butt welds. All in all I was pleased with the final result. Lesson's learned: always weld the door bars in last!!, and I will never again build a car that hasn't been completely stripped of all interior components, wiring, glass and paint! and did I say always weld the door bars in last! I slacked off on taking progress shots so the pics here are of the start and finish. The cage is made of 1 5/8" .095 DOM tubing built to SCCA GT and pro Drift specs. and was 90% mig welded. To say there was some out of position welding involved is an understatement, I think I invented a few new positions! At one point I was reduced to using a #10 lens taped to a paint stir and wearing a nomex hood so I could get my giant mellon far enough into a corner to make the welds.

Alec

More pics

Looks good in my opinion. How or did you get a full weld around the roof bars? Most people I know that do cages either cut holes in the floor to lower the cage or actually cut the roof off completely.
-Jonathan

Thanks, The main cage sits on rocker boxes that are just tacked in place, once the main cage was fitted and tacked I cut the tacks and removed the boxes. this allowed the cage to drop enough to weld the tops. Then the rocker boxes were returned and welded to the floor and sides of the rocker panel, then the main was welded out. The hole in the floor trick was used for years, but from what I've seen lately most people are using the box method, but you could make either work.

Alec

Alec
Do you have a red top or black top?
-Jonathan

Jonathan,
Not sure what your referring too
Alec

Do you have a red or black top SR20DET or do you still have the KA24 motor in it? I assumed since you have the silvia headlight conversion, you swapped the motor as well. Of course you could have a LSX conversion as well.
-Jonathan

Actually that car has a 1JZ Toyota 6 cyl with a big honking turbo on it, he didn't do the conversion himself it was already done when he bought it. These drift guys don't have to worry about homologation so it's kind of run what you brung.

Alec