23 replies to this topic

[wgroves]

Hello all

I am slowly building my spec miata. I am at the point to purchase and install the cage. Any recommendations on a cage brand NASA and SCCA compliant would be welcome along with the pros and cons. Thanks

[Kyle Keenan]

Always been a fan of the miatacage.com cages. Sean is very involved in the SM community and is a huge help. I purchased my car pre-built, but if I was to build a new car today, I'd build it with a miatacage.com kit. Seen these cages take some pretty big hits and the driver was unharmed.

[James York]

First of all, where are you Texas?

Unless you know what you are doing, I would recommend you take it to one of many possible cage builders in Texas and let the experts fix you up.

[wgroves]

Thanks James I should have stated I work at a machining and fabricating business , so fit and welding is no problem. I do not want the expense of design and developing a cage for one car.

[James York]

That's not what I meant either. There are plenty of shops that have built cages for plenty of SM in Texas. Lots. There would be no developing for your car.

But if you can weld and fabricate, I would get the miatacage kit. It should be a piece of cake if you have some skills.

[Jim Drago]

If you can weld and don't to reinvent the wheel, Miatacage is the way to go

[dstevens]

Thanks James I should have stated I work at a machining and fabricating business , so fit and welding is no problem. I do not want the expense of design and developing a cage for one car.

I started building cages for circle track a few years back. I used Bendtech Pro for the design. The rub is having the bender, dies, notcher, etc. The cost of those can be more than the cost of a kit. The only SM cage I've done is for me. The rest is circle track and off road. Bumpers, bed cages, Pre Runner cages and the like.

Most designs are 1.5 x .095 DOM (sporty cars require DOM or seamless mechanical) though one popular kit is 1.625 x .095. Kit costs are between $800 and a grand. FWIW 1.50x.095 Wheatland DOM costs me about $2.80 a ft. Less if I get a ton or so. I've got about 1800# of various size DOM in the rack now.

Two of the most popular kits are the Miata Cage and Advanced Autosports. Both vendors post on the forum. You can weld them up with a relatively small MIG box, 180 amps is plenty. If you are an accomplished welder I've see guys use 140 amp boxes but I like the arc characteristics of a larger box. One thing I don't like about the 250 amp class machines for the Miata is the stock size torch size. A bit of a twist to get into smaller places.

[davew]

I am biased, but I like the Advanced Autosports design the best

Dave

[HoneyBadger - BrianW]

I am biased, but I like the Advanced Autosports design the best

Dave

Totally honest question here... What specifically do you like better? While I have bought many things from you, my cage builder used a Miatacage.com cage and I don't think I have seen anyone with your cage. At least, I didn't realize it was your cage if I have.

[davew]

Let me start by saying that I feel the Miatacage.com kit is a good product. I do not mean to critisize their product. I have installed a couple of them. But not for a couple years. So there may be changes in their product that I am not aware of. I am not comparing my design to Shawns. But to cages in general.

We do not sell a lot of "mail order" cages. Maybe 10 a year. That is not our business model. So the odds of you seeing one in person, outside the midwest, would be slim.

We use 1.625 DOM tubing. This adds less than 10 pounds to the car but adds substantial strength.
Installation does not require modification of the chassis for front down tubes, nor relocating the heater boxes for the dash cross bar.
Heater, defroster and center dash vents still operate normally. OEM dead pedal is still usable.
Maximum sized foot plates strengthen the chassis.
Main hoop goes to the floor, not a shelf
Front down tubes go to the floor and attach verticly to the rocker panels. Not cantalevered off the top of the rockers.
Rear down tubes go back into the trunk near the battery. This greatly reduces crash damage to a car hit in the rear. Cross bar between rear down tubes, in the trunk, stiffen chassis.
Diagonal bar from above the drivers head to the trunk crossbar. Triangles are good !!!!!
Nascar door bars have 2 bends each. No "S" bends. Designed so you can pick what height you want the bars. High, low or angled.
No need for a "tall man version", one size fits all.
Newest version designed for maximum drivers head room.
Kit includes ten 3 dimensional gussets. greatly increases the strength at important joints.
We have several minor improvements/additions in store for our next batch of cages.

There are a bunch of pix on my website of a cage we did a few years ago. I have a new web person on the payroll, so I can hopefully work on improving/updating items like the cage pix.

Dave

[HoneyBadger - BrianW]

Thanks Dave I am a tall guy, as such I feel I need to pay more attention to driver safety that the "average" guy. Your explanation was helpful.

[dstevens]

Tom Hampton in McKinney has one of Dave's cages. That may be the closest. Here are some fab posts from the build. http://www.tomhampto.../tag/roll-cage/

What I did was looked at as many cages as I could, both SM and in other cars and incorporated designs of what I liked. A lot more time consuming than getting a kit but I like to fabricate.

http://roaddog.com/r...ta/fabrication/

[Tom Hampton]

Brian -

Chris Haldeman has seen my cage... Which as dstevens says is from advanced. Feel free to ask chris what he thinks of it.

I like it, but I've never USED it. Hope it don't for a good while.

I'm not a tall guy so I can't comment much. But there is a lot of room behind my seat.

I'm out of the country right now... But, you are welcome to come see it when I return if you wish.

I installed the cage myself. I tacked it, and had a professional welder run the beads.

[dstevens]

I'm out of the country right now...

You're from TX, that goes without saying...

[wgroves]

Anyone of experience or feedback on cage from Roll Cage Components ?

[dstevens]

Before I started bending my own tubing I used Roll Cage for a couple of cages. He didn't have SM cages when I bought from him. The circle track stuff he did was top notch.

[Tom Hampton]

You're from TX, that goes without saying...

When I said "the country" I meant I wasn't in Texas. I would prefer to be in one of the lesser states to here in New Zealand.

[Jim Boemler]

Wow, talk about insulting as many people as possible at once!

[Tom Hampton]

Wow, talk about insulting as many people as possible at once!

I meant that in the nicest way possible.



I'm here for work....makes me....well, feisty.

[HoneyBadger - BrianW]

Wow, talk about insulting as many people as possible at once!

We Texans look at it as more of a matter of fact, than opinion!