Protouring style 1966 Ford Fairlane

[Tyler D]

Originally Posted by Try2paz

Are you still planning on adding a seat belt bar across? I'm no cage guy but isn't that a lot of load on one corner?

The cage is still being mocked up. You can see how the top hasn't been welded in yet. There will be a bar going across for the straps. I just need to go up there to see how everything fits.

[DBasher]

Looks great Tyler, cool shift knob! It's always nice having 100% confidence in the shop doing the work, looks to be real nice so far. What have you done or have planned for the front suspension?

[Chad-1stGen]

After a second glance I did see that the main hoop diagonal is currently mocked up separate from the node created by the rear down bar and rear diagonal. CC would tell you to combine them into one node.

[Tyler D]

Originally Posted by DBasher

Looks great Tyler, cool shift knob! It's always nice having 100% confidence in the shop doing the work, looks to be real nice so far. What have you done or have planned for the front suspension?

That shift knob was a last minute thing...and hasn't left. Its funny how many comments it gets. I actually started with the front.

This is my first set of wheels. 17x7 and 17x8s. I still have these wheels and i wish they made them in 18x11's.



This is was first brake upgrade. It is the mustang steve brake kit that uses the mustang 05-09 brakes. It was an awesome intro to brakes.



The second brake upgrade is a set of wilwoods and chris alston spindles. It started with me playing around on ebay and finding the used calipers. Digging through parts catalogs revealed that they were the rear calipers to any number of their kits. I ended up rebuilding them and flipping the cross-over tube & bleeders. After the whole brake package and spindles where put together, I saved 12 pounds a side! I thought that was pretty cool.







The very first mod I did was to change the actual front suspension. I went with street or tracks front kit for the 67-70 Mustang. After I started racing, I moved to better shocks from Guy Ankeny. He is a great guy to work with. I have his custom valved coil overs all the way around. The new shocks made the car go from a land yacht that would fall over on itself to something that inspired confidence.



Its hard to tell (& not very scientific) from the picuters but the SoT shocks where not suited for the racing I was doing. You can see the before and after in the pictures. You can see how much the car falls over on it self from the lack of rebound.





As a detail on my previous mods that have been relatively positive and worthwhile. This is my junkyard explorer 8.8 replacing the worn out 8". I couldn't believe how much more that 8.8 weighted. It has 3.73, disc brakes, 31 spline axels...its pretty beefy. The only downside is that the diff is off center. It made the install as I lowered it later on more difficult.



The other really cool mod was the Mike Maier panhard bar and springs. I couldn't believe the difference these things made. It was really interesting to find how much the cars driving attitude would change by just messing with the bar.



Thanks for the intrest in my car! I'm having alot of fun posting these up and I hope I can help someone else go in the right direction!

[Tyler D]

Originally Posted by Chad-1stGen

After a second glance I did see that the main hoop diagonal is currently mocked up separate from the node created by the rear down bar and rear diagonal. CC would tell you to combine them into one node.

I'm sure they would disapprove of alot of stuff I do. I love to lurk over there but there is alot that goes over my head. Can you elaborate on this? possibly with a picture? I will pass it on and see what the fabricator thinks.

[DBasher]

I hear what you're saying on the shocks...The best mod I've done to any car was the JRI CO's on the wife's Mustang, huge improvement! I've got the Mike Maier Inc. pan hard bar as well but haven't driven with it in place yet, good to hear such a positive review.

Looking forward to your progress!

[SSLance]

Love the detailed pics and progress you are sharing. Keep it up.

I'm about to redesign my whole rear suspension as well, so this is inspiring to me. Did you have a good weight of the car before you started this latest round of upgrades? Curious how much weight the car gains.

[GregWeld]

Originally Posted by SSLance

Love the detailed pics and progress you are sharing. Keep it up.

I'm about to redesign my whole rear suspension as well, so this is inspiring to me. Did you have a good weight of the car before you started this latest round of upgrades? Curious how much weight the car gains.

I was wondering that exact same thing. My next car is going to be all about eliminating anything that weighs anything that isn't required.

[WSSix]

Welcome to the site, Tyler. This looks like a great build. Thanks for sharing all the pictures.

What Chad is referring to on your roll cage is the point where the three bars on the driver's side come together at the main hoop. All three bars need to come together at one point also called a node. Currently, the main hoop diagonal is in the bend of the main hoop a few inches away from where the rear bars attach to the main hoop. I don't have a picture but I hope that helps explain the situation. Good luck on the build!

[Chad-1stGen]

Originally Posted by Tyler D

I'm sure they would disapprove of alot of stuff I do. I love to lurk over there but there is alot that goes over my head. Can you elaborate on this? possibly with a picture? I will pass it on and see what the fabricator thinks.

Originally Posted by WSSix

What Chad is referring to on your roll cage is the point where the three bars on the driver's side come together at the main hoop. All three bars need to come together at one point also called a node. Currently, the main hoop diagonal is in the bend of the main hoop a few inches away from where the rear bars attach to the main hoop. I don't have a picture but I hope that helps explain the situation. Good luck on the build!

As WSSix mentioned a "node" is where two or more bars in a cage intersect. Best practice in cage building is to never have a "dead load path" where a bar dead ends on another bar. Currently your main hoop diagonal dead ends a few inches away from the node created by the rear down bar and diagonal. Honestly, it's close enough that it isn't a huge deal (IMO). main hoop diagonals that dead end 5-10" away (which is surprising common) are what really drive the experts crazy.

Here is a pic of what I was referring to.


You could fix it by using the red line to have the main hoop diagonal terminate a little higher/sooner (what I drew) but ideal would be to move the rear downbar and diagonal over to meet the current placement of the rear hoop diagonal.

Another example of common dead load path mistakes are door bars. The harness bar should create a node with the door bar. I see that your harness bar isn't in yet but hopefully it will connect to the roll hoop in the same location as the door bars.

Please note that I've never built my own cage or roll bar. However, I've been looking to install one in my own car and have about 40 hours of research into it and while it took me two weeks reading the 45 page roll cage tech thread on corner carvers from beginning to end was a real eye opener.