Camaro_Guru16NY

I was looking at the cages last night from wolf racing and from what I could tell the square plates are the same for the weld in cage and the bolt in cage the only difference being that the one is pre drilled and the other is not right?
Wouldnt it be easier to simply purchase the weld in cage which is only 299.99 black compared to 500 or so for the bolt in and drill out the wholes your self and bolt them in and if you want to beld them in later?
or am i missing something?

thanks,
-john

Injuneer

To pass NHRA tech with a bolt-on, you also need a bottom plate for each connection, so the chassis sheet metal is sandwiched between the top and bottom plates. Not sure why the Wolfe price jumps from $285->$575 for the bolt-in. Seems like a lot for 6 extra plates and 24 bolts.

"holes"

sseeya

According to the NHRA rulebook a weld in roll bar/cage in a unibody car has to have the main hoop welded to the "rocker sill area." Click the link below. Wolfe's bolt in bar mounts right on the floor behind the seat (the area where a rear seat passenger would put his feet) with 6" X 6" plates on both top and bottom bolted together as per the rulebook. My point is: I don't think that the bolt in bar and the weld in bar have the same mounting plates. You may want to check with Wolfe on this before you make an assumption.

http://www.wolferacecraft.com/images...bodyplates.JPG

As far as the price difference goes, since I don't work for Wolfe, I can only assume. However there are few differences other than just some extra plates and bolts. The main hoop has short tubes welded on to it that front and rear bars slide into and get bolted in place. These tubes have to be in pretty precise locations or the install will be a nightmare. And, the bolt-in bar comes powder coated black standard. So there is some additional work involved in fabricating the bolt-in bar. Is the additional work worth the price they are asking? I don't know. I guess that is for the consumer to decide.

Camaro_Guru16NY

Thanks guys for the replies. what i was figuring that since there is more piping and fabricating with a bolt in cage like you were stating im going to get the weld in cage since I dont have a problem welding everything together anyway but I was refering to the method that the cage is mounted to the floor plan, if the weld in cage still has the plates at the bottom of the hoop and side pieces I would think that yoou could simply drill through that and have a couple of plates made for the underside of the car for them to bolt through and then just have the plates welded to the car as well, this way I think that it would make it easier to install and get it right.

Also what do you guys think of the Thru-body subframe connectors that they just came out with they are pretty sweet for only 250 bucks but take alot of cutting to get in the car correctly?

thanks,
-john

sseeya

I don't think you can just drill through the floor at the rocker sill. I'd have to get under the car and look to be sure, but I'm pretty sure that's where the rear subframe is, so you would have to drill completely through the subframe. Not impossible, but not easy either. if you are gonna weld the rest of the cage together, you might as well weld the floor plates as well.

They look nice, but as you said, an awful lot of work

Camaro_Guru16NY

Thanks for the info mike i appreciate it....


-john

sseeya

No problem. I have a Wolfe bolt-in roll bar in my race car right now and one of my winter projects is to install or have installed a fully welded in 10 point cage.