NASCAR bars are in!

[Hankl]

Well,

I spent this last week making the first set of NASCAR bars, I decided to put them in the passengers side, as they were just a "bit off", and
I didn't want to waste the tubes for such a small difference. Here's what the pass side looked like with the lower bar welded in.

http://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w284/hankl_album/Frame%20Mods/IMG_1221.jpg

This is the drivers side "Mocked Up", prior to final placement and welding.

http://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w284/hankl_album/Frame%20Mods/IMG_1210.jpg

The next three pictures are the bars all welded in, and different views of the bars.

http://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w284/hankl_album/Frame%20Mods/IMG_1232.jpg

You can see good coverage of the main portion of lower body areas, legs and hip are protected.
All that you loose is 3 inches of former entry area, that bar going left to right, in the center of the upper uprights,
is the original location of the door sill bar.

http://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w284/hankl_album/Frame%20Mods/IMG_1230.jpg

If it looks like the last lower bar is crooked, it isn't, that's a optical illusion!!!

http://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w284/hankl_album/Frame%20Mods/IMG_1229.jpg

Passenger side NASCAR bars, from the divers side view.

http://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w284/hankl_album/Frame%20Mods/IMG_1233.jpg

I'll be more than happy to give any one more pictures and the measurements that you'll need to make the same set up.
The NASA inspector will be stopping by in a week or two to sign off on the set up, and any suggestions or recommendations
that he will have concerning making the Coupes NASA ST2 compliant, and SCCA SP (Super Production), will be passed on to all that
need the information.

HTH

Hank :cool:

[Garry Bopp]

Hank,

Lookin' good! I know that you will have it on the road and track soon ...

Garry

[Daytona Dan]

Amazing work Hank...I wish I had me a set of those! I plan to do that safety upgrade on to my car this winter. Obviously the welding is "body off" work but will there be any required modifications to the fiberglass bodywork in order to make everything fit back together?

[Jacob McCrea]

Hank,
That's really cool. I'm convinced that the Nascar-style bars are safer than an X on these cars.
Your welding looks great. What size wire are you using? I am using .035 with a Miller 211 mig and may try .030 in the hopes that it will give me a little more time to make my way around the tubes. Keep up the great work.

[Hankl]

Amazing work Hank...I wish I had me a set of those! I plan to do that safety upgrade on to my car this winter. Obviously the welding is "body off" work but will there be any required modifications to the fiberglass bodywork in order to make everything fit back together?


Dan,

Just about all of this is in side the cockpit, so the short answer is no major Fiberglass work. You will need to figure out the changes to the aluminum panel that goes from the door sill, down to the frame rail, but that will just take a little imagination to make it work. The Aluminum at the back of the cockpit will also have to be modified, but that depends on the rear suspension type. Is your Coupe 3 link or IRS?

From this picture, you can see the door sill to the left of the picture, it looks like a 1" strip going front to rear, that would be a 1"x1" square tube in your Coupe. The Bars are all "In" the cockpit, all the way to the rear section.

http://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w284/hankl_album/Frame%20Mods/IMG_1217.jpg

Here's the frame "Pre Mod" so you can get an idea of what has and hasn't been changed.

http://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w284/hankl_album/Frame%20Mods/IMG_0569.jpg

And one more view to give a better angle of what changed. The uprights are spaced 9" apart, You can see a patch plate under the 3rd upright, that is where the rear
curved section was grafted to the old frame. If you decreased the space between the uprights to 8.5", the 3rd upright would be at the end of the old frame, and
the bars would curve back to meet the rear bulkhead, without any lower frame support. That is what will most likely happen in a 3 link suspension, but the IRS lends
itself to a couple of different scenarios for bulkhead attachment.

http://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w284/hankl_album/Frame%20Mods/IMG_1209.jpg



Hank :cool:

[Hankl]

Hank, What size wire are you using? I am using .035 with a Miller 211 mig and may try .030 in the hopes that it will give me a little more time to make my way around the tubes.

Jake,

I'm using a Miller Passport 180, with .035 wire, ER70S-3, and Argon CO2 mix. Your 211 will give you plenty of power to do the job, the one critical thing is to bevel the tubes enough to have a good root pass with the wire. As you can see below, the uprights are beveled to almost the thickness of the tubing. The cross tubes are only riding on about a 1/32 of tube. This gives you great penetration, and insures a very strong weld. If you didn't do this, you would be welding "thru" the outer diameter of the tube, and not really joining them with full penetration.

http://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w284/hankl_album/Frame%20Mods/IMG_1210.jpg

HTH


Hank :cool:

[riptide motorsport]

Amazing work!!

[rj35pj]

Wow!! Hank! You are out of my league. Great work.

[Russ Thompson]

Hank, great job, man that looks stout! How are you doing the saddled tue ends?

[Hankl]

saddled tue ends?

Russ,

What are those??

Hank :cool: