Bad Cage, (Page 1 of 2)

Based on the shipping labels on the main hoop, that looks like a poorly-assembled S&W cage kit.

What's up with the nut in the middle of the rocker plate on the driver's side?

Seat belt mount perhaps? 

Side question(s) - Can I get some input on our cage?  One of the things I've noticed, we have neither the 'halo' tyoe or the 'main hoop' type.  Although the cage isn't done, if you look at the pictures, you can see the bars are continuous from the front foot wells to the main center hoop of the cage.  Also, there really isn't that much gap as it seems (cage is about .5" away from sheet metal)

It isn't done - things we have left to do,
Does the diagonal bar that goes from the top left behind the driver to the bottom right have to be continuous? We already have the belt bar ready to be welded in and were going to make two pieces for that diagonal. 

Also, we were going to make a cross bar for the top of the cage.  Lastly, we were going to install another door bar with an angle to help triangulate the front bars that I mentioned earlier.

Harness mount. A 7/16" find thread flange nut welded in from the back side.   We put them in all our e-30(and some other cars) roll cages.

I'd like to see the front of those down bars higher, but other than that its OK.  Just add the rest of the bars, you'll be fine..

-John

Maybe just the view, but those rear stays don't look anywhere near 45°. Is that just the nearest solid point?

Get as close as you can to 45*.  +/- a few degrees isn't going to make or break a cage.  A 35* angle to good metal that compresses onto the spreader plate with good welds will be better than a 45.0* angle that creates a shear force on the spreader plate with marginal welds on bad metal. 

The problem is, of course, that the Lemons organizers know that somebody (or team of people) think that because they have a welder and S&W has a prefab cage that makes them qualified to put it together.  So they have to be pretty specific about some of the cage specs.  The absolute scary thing is that people show up to the races with cages like the first set of pictures and expect to race.

Our pre-bent S&W cage is fine, and has passed tech twice with no issues, earning the high praise of "looks decently built."

This particular install ain't so great.

I am by no means a cage expert, but I believe the main hoop diagonal should be continuous.  The harness bar split notched into the diagonal.  But you might want to email the techs to be certain.

I thought the diagonal needs to go from the lower corner (at the floor plate) to the upper opposite corner. To me that diagonal does not look to be correct, since it goes to the 2/3 point of the upper horizontal.

It is standard practice to keep the diagonal about 10" from the left upper corner of the main hoop.  That keeps it away from the driver's head and allows more room for a seat.

another example of "I can do that" gone horribly wrong....so the "team" has to pay for TWO cages...... 

Yes I am a customer or EGR and have been for years....but my cars ALWAYS pass tech, no matter where I am running....Lemons, Chump,NASA, NCRC, PCA....anywhere....it could pass SCCA if they took automatics?