Hi everyone,

I'm looking for a roll cage kit that is of very good quality and fitment to suit my 1966 bug. I've seen a fair few pictures of the Ron Lumas RLR cages and they seem ok.

Does anyone import these into Australia, or make a chromoly cage that is of simular or better quality?

I can get a chromoly cage tig welded into the car properly in cairns pretty easily. There is an andra approved fabricator up here that does quality work that I can have install the cage. He could make the whole cage but has no VW experience. I'd prefer to hand him a proven kit and come away with something that works, and is also affordable.

Wheelie Bars! My new setup will warrent me adding a pair of wheelie bars to the back of my car. Does anyone have any designs they can share, and or pictures of how they are attached to the back of the car? OR even some they want to sell?

Cheers,
Ian

Hello Ian,
The Lummus kit seems pretty popular and may save you some time(=dollars) in fabrication.

The most critical area will be near your front window winders, ask if Lummus kit will clear this on a road car.
He can freight his unwelded kits, but the freight may end up costing you too much. Your local guy may just like to see some sample photos?

As for wheely bars, have a look at the instalation of my most recent set.

The important thing here will be what you can actually fit in there!

Also dont make them too stiff, as this can unload the car, whether they are mounted to the frame horns, traction bar, or suspension points.

Do a search on Cal-Look, you may find some good photos.

Hey ,
Here is the link to RLR, like Dave I think your local chassis man would be your best bet for a cage,he can custom fit the tubing for your particular car. I don't know if RLR does cages for RHdrive or if they are differant,
http://www.ronlummusracing.com/Htmdocs/index_framed.htm 
hope this helps, Mike

Thanks i'll email RLR and see what they have to offer in RHD.

Cheers,
Ian

Hi Ian

An unwelded chassis kit from RLR costs 350 U.S. to ship here
that was a year ago
you'll have a lot less tubing than a full chassis
hope that helps

sean

Hi ya Ian

heres a rough pic of my older model "bond" 6point cage for sure they do to CAMS specs, andra, not sure..they also make em in cro mol now, with the rear bars attached to the wheel arches now rather than under the window like mine....they will also do one/twin cross bars in the main hoop and side impact bars..... as Dave says, issues arrive if you want both the glovebox lid and window winder to clear-you can't have both, drivers side is o.k tho........they still do business out of Sydney.....might be worth the call






....and guess who's wheelie bars ...detach easily with pins at front










[ Edited on 1-2-07 by dumone ]

That looks very nice as well! How do I contact these Bond guys?

I have a flat carbon fiber dash and floor skins, and have power windows so clearance won't be an issue.

Cheers,

Never mind found them.

http://www.bondrollbars.com/ 

I'm calling them tomorrow so i'll post up the prices when i find out.

i found em too, but damn Ian, you must have the worlds best search engine as well as aircooled VW:thumb

cheers

Nobody can hide from Google!

Called Bond Bars the other day. 800 for a weld in, 850 bolt in from memory. And that was mild steel. I didn't get chromoly prices.

The guy I was talking too was in a workshop and was virtually impossible to hear. Didnt seem to friendly either, so i guess he deals with those un-happy V8 and Rice guys all the time...

So i figure i'll be looking at a weld in cromoly bar inside a month after I move house....

Thanks for the help locating these guys.

"Yeah dude, I'm calling up about roll cage prices..."

"Okay, so what car is it for?"

"Well, I don't know! I haven't decided between a 180SX and a WRX. What do you reckon's quicker?"

Or

"I'm calling up for a price on a gage"

"What are you going to do with it, circuit race, drag race"?

"Neither, i do skids and park at macdonnalds on thursday nights"

or

"I need a cooling system for a NOS bottle in my 2001 Hyundai Excel, show car don't ya know"

"If its getting too hot maybe consider relocating it?"

"nah, you see I refilled it with Pepsi and plumbed it into the dash, and I dont like warm Pepsi"

Ian, dare I say something sensible after all the comments above, but the alloy bolt in cages are not really worth a dollar in a crash. I've had a number of serious talks with mates recently about cages and they all said the same.

The first conversation was with one of my mates took his bolt in alloy cage out coz he could move the main hoop in his datto 1600 rally car by pushing on it. And yes it was properly installed. He's just had a proper steel cage welded into the car. Cost about $3.5k, but the car is 10 times safer now.

The second conversation was with a mate who is an engineering signatory down here in NSW for the RTA. He reckons the ally cages are a joke. He said they're nice if you want some shiney, but in an accident they are more of a liability than a help.

I also have another mate with a hyundai excel rally car. His chrome moly cage saved his and his wife's lives last year in a spectacular end over end crash. Everyone thought he was getting carried away when he had the cage installed 3 years back. They all think differently now.

Your car puts out almost twice as much power as the datto and the excel put together. I'd look seriously at a proper weld in steel cage. Might just save your life.

I'm avoiding all bolt in's... they aren't rigid enough like you said.

I'll be going with a weld in chromoly cage. There is a guy that does Andra approved cage installations up here in Cairns that i'll have install the bond bars cage for me. His quality of work is top of the line. I've seen race cars he's done and his tig weld quality can only be described with one word. Amazing.

On another note...

good stuff mate.

BTW, I get what you mean about the nitrous bottle. Coke is sooooooo much better than pepsi...