mrn2obelvedere
04-30-2011, 10:34 AM
I am considering the undertaking of fabbing and installing a cage in my car. First a little back story so you can understand why this comes to mind.
In preparation for pulling the current engine I had the car raised quite a bit so I could easily remove the necessary parts under the car. I consider myself pretty safety conscious and I had 4 stands under the car. Two of them were under the front subframe, just forward of the driver, and another two were underneath the lower control arms, basically there to act as a backup in case one of the stands failed for some reason. My brother needed a couple of stands for himself so he could work on his truck so I decided to just take out the backup stands under the control arms. Keep in mind I have at this point stripped the engine bay of everything except the long block in preparation for pulling the engine. After removing the backup stands I began to lower the jack and my brother commented something to the effect "your car's bending man". See, with the weight of the engine the front subframe was flexing noticeably when the car was only supported just forward of the driver.
So this got me to thinking. If I am installing a cage and there are parts on the car which will flex it one way or another depending on how the car is supported, what is the best plan to take?
1. Must the engine and other heavy items (rear end, tranny, etc) be out of the car when installing a cage?
2. Where are the best places to support the car while installing the cage?
In preparation for pulling the current engine I had the car raised quite a bit so I could easily remove the necessary parts under the car. I consider myself pretty safety conscious and I had 4 stands under the car. Two of them were under the front subframe, just forward of the driver, and another two were underneath the lower control arms, basically there to act as a backup in case one of the stands failed for some reason. My brother needed a couple of stands for himself so he could work on his truck so I decided to just take out the backup stands under the control arms. Keep in mind I have at this point stripped the engine bay of everything except the long block in preparation for pulling the engine. After removing the backup stands I began to lower the jack and my brother commented something to the effect "your car's bending man". See, with the weight of the engine the front subframe was flexing noticeably when the car was only supported just forward of the driver.
So this got me to thinking. If I am installing a cage and there are parts on the car which will flex it one way or another depending on how the car is supported, what is the best plan to take?
1. Must the engine and other heavy items (rear end, tranny, etc) be out of the car when installing a cage?
2. Where are the best places to support the car while installing the cage?