This could have went into a bunch of differnt forums but the guys running them are in here I think.


I have my interior stripped all accept for dash. The car will be going into Precission Chassis in a week or so to have the S+W 10 pt put in. The guy at the shop says just leave the dash in and he'll try to get the dash bars in. I really don't want to jam him up so I am going to remove the dash anyway I think.

After l pulled the dash cap off I couldn't help but notice that the supports to hold the dash in are right where the A-piller bars would go through. My question is....How hard is it to re-install the dash once the bars are installed. I'm not going to run the cross bar so not worried about that. Not worried about the dash cap either.

Any thoughts or pictures?

 

It's probably better to leave the dash in and let him do what's required to put the a-pillar bars through it. It's nice to have the tubes tucked up as close to the a-pillar as possible but depending on tube location, sometimes it just isn't possible.

My first cage was an inexperience install. I positioned the tubes where I thought they would work best and lived with it for a few years. Almost a year ago, I ripped out the cage and did another. I bought the main hoop, halo and a-pillar tubes from S&W. These were all the tubes that needed to be bent. The a-pillar tubes I purchased were designed to fit around the dash. Even though my car had very little of a dash except for the dash pad, I just didn't like how the tubes were going to be positioned.

Technically, the a-pillar tubes do not need to stay at the front of the door opening. The cage only needs to protect the driver's body. Your legs can stick out past the cage. The a-pillar tubes can go straight down from the dash. This makes getting in and out of the car a lot more difficult. I could have done a redesign and positioned the bent tubes to tuck up closer to the a-pillar and through the dash but again, I didn't like how they were going to be positioned.

I finally decided on doing the a-pillar tubes in sections. This meant that the dash/knee bar had to be upgraded from 1-1/4 to 1-5/8" tubing. I ran short sections up from the floor to where I positioned the dash bar. It's right up near the top of the firewall. From the dash bar to the halo bar, another short section joins the two together. The ends of the dash bar needed to be capped off and this is an acceptable way of making an a-pillar tube structure instead of a bent single piece.

My a-pillar tubes now run very close to the a-pillars. They attach on the outward part of the halo bar to keep them tucked in and the bottom section goes exactly where I wanted it on the floor.

The final result was much better than my first cage although it's never 100% perfect. After racing with the new cage for a full season now, there's a couple of small things I would change if I could.

I had the benefit of having my Lexan windshield and t-tops out when I put in the cage. It made a lot more access to welding the a-pillar tube to the halo bar. If your windshield is in, you might not get the tubes tucked in as close as you would like.

The S&W kit is a good fitting cage but the best fitting cage is one that's custom bent specifically for you and your car.

 

x2 to Stephen's post. He did a great thread with several pics taken through out the stages of his last cage build. Searching that thread out on here might give you a few ideas.

With the dash out and everything stripped for welding, why not go ahead and put the dash pipe in?


If you "gut" the dash board it will not require nearly as much mounting strength as stock. If you don't have/need the a/c ducting, get rid of it all. Much of the stock mounting structure can be cut out and replaced with much smaller materials thus being lighter and giving you more room to fit the cage pipes.

 

Thanks for the responces. I was going to use any extra tubing because the car runs High tens on motor and will maybe see a mid 9 pass on Spray. However I am only gonna run some 11.0 and maybe 10.0 index with it. I didn't think the crossbar was needed and would add extra weight.

If I pull the dash it's going back in empty. No AC or Heat or extra wiring.

so did you eliminate the extra mounting brackets in the far corners were the bars would go through?

 

Understandable on the extra weight, but are you sure you'll never push to go faster? If you're having the welding done, the minimal extra weight of the cross pipe would be well offset by not needing to go back and add it later.

My current camaro has basically nothing stock about the dash/pillars. Previous cars I have eliminated the stock lower mounts and fabbed brackets that support the dash directly from the pillar pipes.

 

Pull the dash and attach the two points back onto the roll bar. Then the dash is held in place like it was before. I like having the bars out of the way and it makes a for cleaner installation. My cage was a custom one so it is very tight to the A pillar and it attached the upper dash points with the modified factory pieces taken from the A piller. It is a little more work but the result in nicer.

 

i know it's not a third gen! but pretty close. here is some pics of the 97 we did. as you can see we put the bars as far forward to the dash and tight with the a-pillar, but left room to reinstall the factory dash.

just a little trim on the top and bottom of the dash and it fit's like factory. and is completely removable in needed.

 

It's easier to put in the extra tubes now and just live with the slight increase in weight. All the extra tubes serve a purpose. The dash bar, door X bar, roof diagonal, sill bar are not required to get a 8.50 certification but they all help in different ways to protect the driver or affect how the car reacts to twisting and bending. Even if your car only runs 10's, you can still pay and get the cage certified. Certification is good for 3 years and if you ever decide to sell the car, a certified cage increases the value.

I didn't install the funny car cage like in the above pictures into my car. It's not required for the 8.50 certification and makes getting in and out of the car much more difficult. To me, that was just extra weight I didn't require although to add it in won't take as much work as adding in a dash bar behind the dash. If it didn't restrict access to the car, I probably would have put one in. If I ever do decide to put in a funny car cage, I would need to change the rear cross bar from 1-1/4" to 1-5/8" to do it properly.

When I redid my cage, I added a bunch more tubing and I think it increased the total weight about 50 pounds. I'd have to look back at the thread to see for sure. I still managed a personal best at the end of the season with a heavier car.

 

How about a link to that thread of your cage build. Thanks.

 

A simple forum search is all it takes

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/fabr...roll-cage.html

 

I left the dash in and just pulled the top cover to install. I also had the windshield out of the car.

 

That looks good. But under the dash pad there are brackets and heater products blockig the path for the bars. They couldn't have just slid right down through without hitting anything? Did you modify things behind the dash?

 

All of the air cond. and duct work was pulled out years ago. As for the brackets I will have to look at what was done to fit the bar I know it was not much if any work.

 

So is it possible to keep dash in and have 10 point cage made?

 

Now that I have my dash out it is easier to see what modification is required to the bracket that holds the dash on. In my opinion the dash would need to be out to modify the dash bracket over anything. A lot of the heater ducting is also in the way. I needed to switch my dash for a new one anyway because the previous owner cut the heater vents out of the center of mine.
I'm taking mine to Precision Chassis in the next two days so maybe i'll post some pictures when finished.