[rr97cmaross]

I decided, after watching some in-car video and seeing a bunch of flex between the a-pillar and a-pillar downtube, that it was time to put a cage in the car that was "proper" and would be something I wouldn't rip out again. This being the 3rd rebuild of it, I had some serious learning points from the first two times and wanted to implement ALOT of changes. With that being said, my goals were:
1. Enhance safety
2. Enhance torsional and longitudinal stiffness
3. Build the car in a way which would fit rule sets to keep my idea of a "play toy"
4. Attempt to build a tube frame within the factory sheet metal without doing a full conversion.

With that in mind, I'd always liked the idea of creating a truss structure since it seemed to offer the solutions to #'s 1 & 2, and seemed to more closely mimick a full tube framed car. I figured if I could get the design and stiffness out of the tube structure, I could get rid of alot of the factory sheet metal and get the cars weight down. I had played around with many different designs (modeled on FEA software) and found one which I really liked but ran into problems with packaging.

The solution came from some pictures I found of some of Alans work. He built a cage in a Black camaro which was just what I was looking for. Many thanks to Alan, his great work, and willingness to post pictures and help everyone out as he was a huge help in this build.

On to the pics (some of these were taken with a phone, apologies)

(IMG:http://i827.photobucket.com/albums/zz195/silentmover1/IMG00082.jpg)

(IMG:http://i827.photobucket.com/albums/zz195/silentmover1/IMG00083.jpg)

(IMG:http://i827.photobucket.com/albums/zz195/silentmover1/IMG00085.jpg)

(IMG:http://i827.photobucket.com/albums/zz195/silentmover1/P1010004.jpg)