1960-63 trucks with 8-12 point cages.

[Super73]

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So my truck is finally going in for the cage. It is getting a 10-point chrome alloy cage and a c-notch. I am very curious to see how others have done the A-pillar bars. Questions I have..

Did you retain the stock dash?
Was the windshield removed?

How about the back. Did you X the rear bars or did you do a halo instead? Guessing it would be easiest to do the X.

How is visability out the back window? Is it a small window or big window?

The chassis guy and I were talking about it a little today and we think that the wrap around windshield might cause a little headache getting the front bars in. I'm tempted to tell him to cut the dash out and put an alum dash and culum in. But not sure that is needed.

If you have pics, I would love to see them. Thanks in advance.

[blackedoutharley]

Who are you using?

I had one in my '63 stepside years ago and it was, looking back, a real pain as a driver.

I had the halo with a cross bar behind the seats.

I assume by "chrome alloy" you mean Chromemoly?

[PGSigns]

With 10 or 12 points here is my suggestion. Gut the interior, all if it including everything in the dash. Remove the windshield and back glass. The windshield being gone allows the bars that follow the door pilers to be welded across the top to the halo bar and the holes to be cut threw the dash for the bars to go through. A dash bar is required and it can go behind the stock dash. I would put solid body mounts in it before you take it to him. Also is he going to put it on a fixture to level the frame front to back and side to side? This gets important when they run the bars out to the front snout and back to the frame rails in the rear. Are you going to run bars from the frame up to the plates welded to the floors that the cage attaches to or just run the 6X6 inch plates? If just running the plates for the four corners of the main cage you can run the bars that come off the main hoop at the seat brace through the floor and tie them to the frame. This will give you 6 places the cage is tied to the frame and get rid of most of the twist and tie the cab and cage to the frame at he main hoop to help keep the cab from folding up if you have a problem. I put a full cage in a Ranger pickup about 12 years ago along with a 514 big block, I will see if I can find some pictures and scan them.
Jimmy

[Super73]

Let me start by showing Joe's work on one of my other vehicles (my 73 Camaro). Check out both links as not all the pics are in one. Joe did all the metal work on this car except for the front suspension (chassis and sheet metal). Oh, and he did not bend the cage (wish I would have had him bend it from scratch) I had bought an Alston cage for the car before I met Joe. I originally contacted him to put that prebent cage in. But he did a lot of adjustments to it.

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=306981
http://ls1tech.com/forums/staff-vehi...oject-1-a.html


Joe does all of his chassis work as a hobby/side money. As you can see by the links above, he does excelent work and does it right. Everything is leveled, well thought out, all tubes are notched with his notcher, not a grinder. He has done work on car/trucks that go 6's to 30's (Fire engines).

The interior is essentially gutted.

We are not sure that taking the windshield out will help on this one for the simple fact that the height of the cab and the shape of the windshield could come in to play. This is one of the reasons I am asking other curved windshield guys what/how they did theirs. The dash / door jam / windshield area is much different on a 60-63 than 64 and later.

Technically a dash bar is not required unless there is something like 6 square inches removed from the firewall. However we will be putting a dash bar in anyway.

Since the frame is narrow, there will be outriggers built from the frame tieing in to the cage. I'm not sure that we are even going to put the main hoop / front bars to a 6" plate backed by the outriggers or if we are going to put it straight through to the out riggers.

We may still tie the diagnal seat back bars in to the frame.

[PGSigns]

Get a copy of the latest NHRA rule book and do the truck to get a sticker good for 8.50. Your quest for speed is not going to stop so do the extra now. While he has it I would put a four link in it and a set of double adjustable shocks. His work looks nice so let him put some hook in.
Jimmy

[Captainfab]

I don't think he has much problem with hooking up. He has adjustable front trailing arm mounts and he has the trailing arms dialed in pretty well. I believe he is running adjustable rear shocks as well. He just needs to get a cage in it next.

Originally Posted by PGSigns

Get a copy of the latest NHRA rule book and do the truck to get a sticker good for 8.50. Your quest for speed is not going to stop so do the extra now. While he has it I would put a four link in it and a set of double adjustable shocks. His work looks nice so let him put some hook in.
Jimmy

[blackedoutharley]

I have seen the truck run and hooking up is not the issue; being safe and in compliance as he gets quicker are.

[Super73]

The truck hooked the old motor all day long. Never really got a chance to dial in the bottle with the old combo. The new 418ci motor may cause a little traction issue at first, but I don't see it being an issue for long (time playing with it at the track to sort it out). The bottle, that will be another thing (2 stage progessive controller).

The old motor NA was pushing the truck to an ET requiring a 6-point. The small first stage hit I sprayed was getting it that much closer to needing a 9 second cert (100 hit on a motor built to handle 300). If the new motor/trans combo does what I think it will, I will be close to the old motor with the small hits best of 10.7x.. Once both stages are dialed in (300-500), well, I should be well with in needing a 9 second cert. It might take some time, but I am ok with that, that is what makes it fun.

I have neglected some safety equipment far too long and need to get it done.

Like I told the chassis guy today, he is going to force me to clean up the truck. I know for a fact the cage is going to be beautiful and it will force me to clean up the truck around it. Thankfully I have a new wiring harness, doors, front end to put on it. I have the tools and body filler/primer is cheap enough.

[PGSigns]

The truck will need hook with the new motor and the spray. The cage will also alter the weight split on the truck and also affect the ability to hook it up. The adjustable trailing arm mount just allows for a small adjustment in the instant center height and he has no way to shorten the instant center. Being able to adjust both the length and height of the instant center can take a lot of time out of the 60 foot and allow adjustments to get the power of the nitrous to the track sooner. The 60 foot went up with the last combination with the gas on so it has a problem with hook. To get the most out of a drag race chassis double adjustable are very useful both front and back. On the back the first reaction of the chassis is extension of the rear shocks and being able control that speed can increase the hit on the tire and with the compression adjustment control how fast the rear is allowed to come back up into the body to allow roll rotation and control tire shake. Side wall construction and tire pressure can also affect the way the shock adjustments work. Here is a pic of a chevy 2 I did about 10 years ago and the car is all steel except for bumpers hood and trunk lid, all factory glass through the mufflers with a 408 small block. The chassis settings on the 4 link were 44" out and 5" up on the instant center and the shocks were centered on both extension and compression. The front was 2 from dead loose on extension and 4 from dead loose on compression. We had to tame it down some from theses settings.
Jimmy

[LeftCoast32]

Here is a link and some pictures of the 2007 TrailBlazer SS we use as a test vehicle. We designed the cage a little different then most. It has 3 seats and the back seat is like being in a Carnival Ride.

Click on the pictures of the TBSS on fquick and you can see some real good pictures of the cage and everything. Thanks for looking!

FQuick Link on the build - http://www.fquick.com/garages/viewvehicle.php?id=14026

[Super73]

PG,

I don't disagree that a 4-limk is the better rear suspension. Being that the drag radial is more tempermental than a slick, I tend to run a little less than 100% antisquat. I find it doesn't hit the tire as hard.

The 60' time on spray went up for more than 1 reason.

The track was going away so I loosened up the front end, perhaps too much on the previous pass. When it lifted the front tires, it blew the rears off from the shock.

The next pass (the pass in my sig), I decided to leave soft rolling in to the throttle since I only had time for 1 more pass (hot lapped the truck). When looking at the data logger, I wasn't even full throttle until close to the 60' mark. I had no tire spin, but the reduction in timing for the spray coupled with the rolling in to the throttle netted a slower 60', but I walked away with the 10 second slip I was looking for.

Like I said before, I never got the time to dial in the suspension for the spray. I think I can make it work with what I have now, but there is only one way to find out.

At some point I would like to do a different front end and when I do, I will be putting a 4-link in the truck too.

[66K10383]

Did anyone else notice the old Subaru in the background on the LS1 Tech Link?
I think its the 20th Pic down
http://ls1tech.com/forums/staff-vehi...oject-1-a.html

[Super73]

We used to play with that suby in the back 60 acers. There used to be a dirt bike track and with 4 of us in the car we could only get about 2-3 feet of air. We took all the doors, hood and hatch off and with 2 people we would get close to 5-6 feet of air with it. Glad there was a push bumper on it as it always did a nose dive on us. Our fun lasted for a while until the batterey mount broke and the batterey found a way to put a nice hole in the radiator.

Sorry for the crappy cell phone pics but these pics are with the wussy driver and the small jump:

[66K10383]

Haha thats pretty awsome! I would of never guessed that. I love those things. They take a beating.I have an 81 wagon I used to go bouncing around in thats waiting on a new engine, first I need to finish my 65 chevy then figure out whats up with the BRAT. Make sure to hold on to that thing and get it goin one of these days, If not then let me know

[1Bad62Pro/Street]

wutnxt truck

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=388977

http://www.dragtrucks.com/promodtrucks.htm


AUTO WELD
61-67 CHEVY PICKUP
http://autoweldchassis.com/rbc.ivnu

Another roll bar option

RON SMITH INSANE 1956 CHEVY Two 671 blowers...

http://www.hotrod.com/featuredvehicl...uck/index.html

http://www.sporttruck.com/featuredve...orsepower.html

http://sporttruck.automotive.com/920...uck/index.html

http://www.dragtrucks.com/index1.html

[1Bad62Pro/Street]

Just seen this post on the other side Super73.
Not bad fryco!
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=477562

[Super73]

Ok.. I am updating this with my build thread showing the start of the chassis work. Please enjoy!!

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=479855