The 24 Hours of Lemons Forums → Lemons Newcomers → where to go to get a cage installed?
Should a cage be installed by someone with direct experience with racing / roll cages? Or could any welding shop that agrees to take the job work? (I'm in the Boston area if anyone has specific suggestions for the New England area)
I assume you're referring to the installation of a pre-bent kit? If not, definitely go with someone who has experience making cages, preferably cages specifically for Lemons. Even with a kit, although any competent welder should be able to perform the steps of installation, I'd still much rather take it to someone who knows enough about cages to catch any of the many less-obvious things that might be wrong with the kit and/or the car while doing the work.
Should a cage be installed by someone with direct experience with racing / roll cages? Or could any welding shop that agrees to take the job work? (I'm in the Boston area if anyone has specific suggestions for the New England area)
So it comes down to two big maybes on having a compentent welder install a cage that you (hopefully) get from Roll Cage Components:
Do any of your folks know enough welding to tack it together in its proper position (all prebent cages still need trimming and fitting unless you have a very specific few cars)?
Are you willing to memorize the "How Not to Fail Tech" .pdf picture book and spend at least 20-40 minutes inspecting the final product before making the final payment?
Cages are tough for a lot of folks so finding a local team could help a lot. Saddly, the closest teams I know are in the DC area.
There's a number of things that are kind of unique to cage building. Order of operations being a big one. How to weld the thing together in an order that doesn't paint yourself into a corner. The other thing is it requires a contortionist to get to some of the positions you need to get into that a welding shop may not be used to. I would seek out someone with cage fabrication experience
Not sure the guy that did my first cage is still around, he was north of Boston. I will go looking.
I really shouldn't sign up for more projects, but if you buy a pre-bent kit there is a chance I could be talked into welding it in if you can drag the kit and car to Nashua. I've kinda been itching to build another cage, but I do not have the time to bend one.
Edit: the guy that built my first cage was Bill who runs Cage This!. His website hasn't been updated in ages, but his instagram suggests he may still be doing cage work? Honestly not sure. His work was great though.
I'll echo what others have said. There is an order of operations to roll cages that not all welding shops understand. Talk to whoever you go to and make sure they understand the rules around the cage and the requirements for the finished product.
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