Trav’s Race Build: from B6 to Big Bore BP-Z3

bruce · Postby **bruce** » Tue Oct 22, 2019 10:30 am

Your cams have been sent to Austr.......ia!

Scoota · Postby **Scoota** » Wed Oct 23, 2019 9:07 am

bruce wrote:Your cams have been sent to Austr.......ia!

He he, maybe!! Apparently they’ve done a bit of European touring already.... They were made in Germany, then visited Hungary briefly, made a short stop-over in the UK, before finally setting off for Australia. True story!!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Scoota · Postby **Scoota** » Wed Oct 23, 2019 9:19 am

RS2000 wrote:Certainly comprehensive! How are you attaching the harness shoulder straps?

I haven’t layed them out yet, but they will go around the harness bar, which is the horizontal bar that threads it’s way through the main hoop diagonals behind the seat.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

RS2000 · Postby **RS2000** » Wed Oct 23, 2019 9:54 am

I was thinking you might have trouble getting the wrapped straps on the seat centreline with that large join where the harness bar pieces weld to the low angled diagonal? Can always weld on lugs to take eye bolts.

Scoota · Postby **Scoota** » Wed Oct 23, 2019 9:36 pm

WOOOOHOOOOOOOO!!!!!!
The roll cage is finally primed!!!!!!

I’m so lucky to have a helpful father in law that is a panel beater / spray painter. Thanks Pete, you bloody legend!!! He wasn’t impressed about having to use rattle pack enamel (way below his usual standards), but I insisted. It actually came up a treat.

Pete’s visiting again tomorrow to throw on a couple of satin black top coats. The rest of the car is going to look pretty ratty compared to the cage!!

Andrew at TrackArt put me onto the White Knight range of paints. I have to say I’m pretty happy with how they performed. I can’t vouch for their longevity, but at least the various cans all sprayed consistently and the nozzles didn’t crap out with the can half full. The primer worked well. Let’s hope the top coats go on with similar ease.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Scoota · Postby **Scoota** » Wed Oct 23, 2019 9:41 pm

FYI.... I know this is my 78th post about the roll cage, but it will not be my last post about the roll cage. I like it that much. Also, did I mention that I have a roll cage for sale in the classifieds?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

KevGoat · Postby **KevGoat** » Wed Oct 23, 2019 9:51 pm

Scoota wrote:FYI.... I know this is my 78th post about the roll cage, but it will not be my last post about the roll cage. I like it that much.

No problem here, enjoying the detail you're going in to ...

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

StanTheMan · Postby **StanTheMan** » Thu Oct 24, 2019 8:34 am

errr....fark ....what a roll cage :lol:

Scoota · Postby **Scoota** » Thu Oct 24, 2019 9:14 am

KevGoat wrote:No problem here, enjoying the detail you're going into...

Thanks KevGoat!!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Scoota · Postby **Scoota** » Thu Oct 24, 2019 5:55 pm

As promised, more roll cage photos...

The painting is finished!!!

In the interest of weight-watching, I am only applying one top coat. We got a good complete coat all over.... Job’s done!! It’s got nothing to do with the fact that I only have 1.2 tins of paint left. Nope, nothing at all.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Scoota · Postby **Scoota** » Thu Oct 24, 2019 8:23 pm

Hey.... Can someone please clean my shed? It’s a disgrace, and I’m knackered.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

greenMachine · Postby **greenMachine** » Thu Oct 24, 2019 8:27 pm

Weight!?

How much does that cage weigh again … ?

Speaking of which, have you done a test fit for the top - I presume you are putting a HT on it?

:mrgreen:

GR124 · Postby **GR124** » Fri Oct 25, 2019 8:06 am

Stiffest MX5 cockpit in Australia. Scoota I've been Following this build, thanks for sharing mate.

Scoota · Postby **Scoota** » Fri Oct 25, 2019 11:44 pm

greenMachine wrote:Weight!? How much does that cage weigh again … ?

Speaking of which, have you done a test fit for the top - I presume you are putting a HT on it?

He he, yeah... I know the cage looks immensely heavy, but it’s built with relatively thin-walled tube (all legit, of course). When I picked the car up from TrackArt, we talked about how much weight had been added. My memory is a little foggy and I don’t want to misquote him, so I won’t post a number, but I remember thinking “yeah, that’s not an unreasonable weight gain.” Less than I was expecting. I will call him again and post a weight-gain figure at some stage. I should have weighed the car before and after, but I’ve had neither the time nor the resources to do so.

Regarding the hard-top... Yep, it fits like a dream. The car left the TrackArt workshop with the roof fitted and the windscreen taped in with race tape. I’m enormously fond of these pictures, so I’m quite happy to re-post them...

If you zoom in on this one you can see the bottom half of the Jass Performance hard-top brackets, which replace the Mazda latches.

I got mine online...

In this one you can see that we welded the Jass brackets to the front hoop, after some careful chopping and bending of the brackets...

They were welded in place with bolts installed and me leaning on the hard-top.

Back to the question of weight... I’m conscious that the car’s centre of gravity has moved up a little due to the weight of the cage. Honestly, I couldn’t be happier though. It’s a brilliant cage, and it gives me a warm fuzzy feeling about doing lots of racing in the future, with a significantly lower risk of me dying and leaving my kids without a father. Or worse, being crippled and unable to race!!!!

(just kidding).

Longer term, my plan is to offset the weight-gain by installing a Lightyear carbon fibre fast-back. If only I could find one for sale!!! That dream eludes me for now, and honestly I have enough on my plate. In five weeks’ time, I’ll be in Bathurst!!!!!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk