Project Hands-On Honda Continues

The scale tells the tale. With the top off and upside-down, 27 pounds were removed. This would have been difficult with the roof attached.

Our hole-saw-type tube notcher from Speedway Motors worked beyond my expectations. My battery-powered Makita drill had plenty of power to turn it. Priced right for the small shop, it gives a machined fit to tubes.

With the roof out of the way, the rear hoop is trial fitted. This part must be accurately installed, as everything else in the cage is measured by it. Note the board clamped to the top. This lets one person carefully position the hoop. The angle finder assists in getting the hoop parallel to the B pillar.

This is the front spring attachment point we made a collar around it. Three tubes are attached here for strength. The Honda is not a strut car; it is a coilover/A-frame design Were this a strut design, we would have slotted the mounting and used a plate for setting caster and camber.

The bumper mounts are welded to a plate that is welded to the car. This was about as strong a point as could be found on the front. Another bar braces it back to the collar Notice how much Honda has been cut out. Remove anything the rules allow, but maintain the strength with tubing. Add weight where you need it if rules require a minimum.

The rear bumper mounts are braced to the rear spring attachment, which has two other tubes attached. Note the fixture clamped to the mounting tubes. The same fixture is used at the front. This assures all bumper mount tubes are at the same distance apart. It makes building replacement bumpers easy.

The upper "X" brace is welded to the firewall also. Ends attach to the collar and the front cage bars. The "X" doesn't do much for torsional stiffness, but it resists "competition adjustments" to the corners of the car.

The seat should be mounted to the cage. If you level the car to begin with, it is much easier to place parts properly. The seat mounting frame, along with the lap belt attachments, was fully welded before installation. The rocker panel will be removed.

The door bars are taking shape. The top one also strengthens the front suspension. The other door bars are bent at the front and straight at the back. After the front is tack- welded, a tube is cut and placed between the cage upright and the bar at the back. This keeps you from having to make two bends on a door bar that match the distance exactly.Also notice there is no "X" in the floor. The "X" has very little resistance to a side-load impact. There are two crossbars located square to the main rails.

This is what is left of the right-rear corner of the Honda. The exterior sheetmetal will go back on. Three tubes terminate at the spring location plate for strength. Fuel cell mounts can be seen hanging from a cross tube.

With welding done on the top side, we rolled the car over to weld the bottom sides of the tubes. This reduced the amount of overhead welding required. The bottom door bar braces have yet to be installed.

With the car inverted, the remaining floorboard was removed. A fore-and-aft tube, 3/4-inch square, was placed to support the new floor in the driver's compartment. A 2x4-foot piece of 0.049-inch sheetmetal was welded to the bottom of the car.