Building a Cage for Mike

Hey, welcome to Horse power.

Well, it's time to bear down on our heads up Malibu again. In fact, the race is on to get this thing ready for its debut on the drag strip in several weeks. Now, today we bring it a big step further, but I know a few of you might have missed it last time when we bought it, brought it back to the shop and started tearing into it.

Now, this bad boy was just what the race doctor ordered. No rust, no motor, just perfect platform for an easy street racer

back at the shop. We removed the bumpers,

the hood and everything under the hood, including the steering column and steering box

underneath the car. We pulled out the stock suspension pieces along with the rear end and even the fuel tank.

We're going by the rules of the outlaw race and street car association and they say we can bolt on beefier suspension, but it all has to bolt up in the stock location.

So with that in mind, we got a hold of BMR fabrication for a set of their upper and lower control arms. Now these things are 10 pounds lighter than the stock ones. And they're made for 78 through 87 G bodies. They come with all your bushings, bump stops and ball joints and they have a silver vain coat finish. They're using dom tubing that's been mig welded for extra strength and reliability.

Well, out back, we've got some race ready, upper and lower control arms for the Malibu.

These uppers are made from one and five eights inch, 120 wall ro cage tubing

and they come with these thick quarter inch mounting plates.

Now, they're adjustable by just loosening the jam nut and rotating this adjuster here. Now, the lower control arms are boxed and pre drilled for the sway bar. They also come with these heavy duty spherical bearings and that's going to reduce a chance of binding.

Starting up front. We install the upper A arm with the billet cross shaft secured inside the stock mounting location,

then drop in the ball joint

and bolts up the lower arm.

Now, we're using a pair of Bell tech two wheel drive s 10 drop spindles. Now, these will give us a lower ride height up front and allow us to run pretty much any brake set up we want.

If you've ever seen an easy street race car lift the front end when it launches. Well, you can understand why we're using a coil over conversion kit. This one comes from Q A one and it allows us not only to adjust the ride height, we can also adjust rebound to control some of that bounce when the boo does get up in the air. Now, the springs that come with the kit are rated at 450 pounds.

The bottom of the shock bolts up in the stock location on the control arm.

The spring rest inside the original location on the frame rail

and the upper goes through the original stock hole.

Before we start upgrading the rear suspension, we need to do a little tweaking on the rear frame rails. Now, the Osa

rules state that we have to run the stock frame, but they don't say we can't modify it. So what we're gonna do is recess the frame rail from here to here about an inch and a half back. That way we can run a wider drag, radial tire. But first, we need to separate the body from the frame so we can get the plasma cutter in here on this scene

first, then bolt the body mounts,

then position a tripod stand under the body.

Now, we can lower the lift to separate the body from the frame.

What?

So

I know

no,

now that we have our frame rail, recess and box, we have lost a little material. So some of you may be wondering what we're gonna do for extra strength. Well, we're gonna run two cross tubes from inside the frame rail to inside frame rail and tie it into the roll cage for the extra strength. Next thing to do is get our rear end set in here, figure out our right height and our wheel offset. Well, here's what we used to replace the stock rear end. When you consider that over a 1000 horsepower gets transferred right here, you understand why the rear end has to be bulletproof enough to take all that track abuse. Well, we had this one custom ad Ts.

It comes with a spool and 456 gears.

Now, when we bolt it up under the boo, finally, we'll fill it with 40 spine axles from strange engineering. Well, let me button this thing up and do a little test fit.

Hey, welcome back to the horsepower shop and our project Malibu to 79 Chevy that we're turning into an easy street race car.

Now, a while ago, we upgraded our suspension here up front, then went out back to modify the frame rails to accommodate the brag radio rubber.

Well, now is a good time to go inside and build a row cage that will protect the driver and stiffen up the chassis

and to do that, we put the Malibu up on jack stands and make sure it was level front to back and side to side. Now, for material, we're using an engine 581 20 while steel tubing and to speed things up and make it a little easier on ourselves. I sent Joe down to muscle car to grab a buddy. I'm gonna start by welding his bracing it across member. So my strut rod has a really good place to be

you guys taping. Well, what do you think, Joe

Man? We need you desperately down the horsepower for

what? Come on, I'll show you. All right,

I'm gone.

Ok. We got our main hoop and our Halo from Bear's performance products. Now, they don't do any premade cages, but you can give them a call to have them custom make you one to your specs. Plus we got plenty of straight tubing to make our door bars and our frame ties and he's here just in time to give me a hand with this hoop. Come on, tough guy. Let's get this thing done.

Lovely. Looks good.

Now, if this was like a Camaro or another word, it's

a Subra car, you'd have to weld these plates to the floor and then anchor the cage to it because God forbid you ever put it on the roof, you don't want the cage to punch through the floor. There's a full chassis car. So we're gonna cut the holes out,

anchor the roll cage to the chassis and then cover it back up.

Next thing to do is tack weld the main hoop into place

and after making sure it's level

at a temporary support bar,

then with the halo imposition

market,

cut it,

not it.

And tack the halo to the main.

Now, after breaking the bottom loose,

lou can lean the main hoop over enough to fully weld the hoop and halo together.

You're probably wondering why I didn't weld in the main hoop first. It's all about clearance. All I have to do is lean it forward, weld in the halo. Stand it back up. Now it's time to move on to my A pillar bars.

All right, I'm using the tube bender to bend a couple of pieces that are going to run from the halo. Follow the A pillar and tie into the frame. Now, make sure you cut your piece a little long just to be safe.

Now with the pipe notch to fit the halo, you can weld it to the frame.

Then on top

and after using that first piece as a pattern, just repeat that on the driver's side.

It,

hey, how about it, man? Looks good. Thank you.

All I gotta do is welding these gussets up front and then I'll start the back bars. Oh, the back part. Does that involve any uh cutting up a Chevrolet? I always wanted to do that, man,

Joe. Everything I do involves cutting something. Count me in. OK. You're in,

I'll get the plasma cut.

I'll even pose. How's that

with the rear? Finish? The next step is to bend and weld in two bars running from the front of the frame through the firewall and back to the cage.

All right. With this seat mocked up, we can measure for a couple of diagonal door bars. Now, the idea over here is to have the bar pass

about even with the knee and then cross somewhere between the driver's shoulder and elbow. Looks good, Brent.

Ok. You cutting on? Well, how about that,

if I can get out of this thing?

All right, there, cage is all welded in. I think it'll even pass tech lou, man, we couldn't have done it without you. Yeah, you could have slacker here. Just didn't want to work.

I guess you gotta get back to muscle car. Right. Yeah, man, I got better things to do than hang out with you guys.

Nice exit.

Well, now that the cage is almost finished, we've still got plenty of work to do today on the booth. So make sure you stick around.

Hey, we're back. And so is the boo you know, I'm gonna feel a lot safer getting behind the wheel of this thing now that we've got a pretty serious roll cage in it. Now, of course, we've got to paint the bars before we finish off the interior, but we're gonna go ahead and mock everything up. That is after we do a little sheet metal modifications,

I cut out a couple of pieces to cover up this exposed area in the back after making cuts to clear the roll cage tubing.

Now we're also using some one by two square tubing to create mounts for the seats that'll get welded to the floor.

Excellent job there. At

this point of building a race car, there's a lot of mock up and test fitting. Well as with this oe style steering column we got from Flaming River.

It's unpainted steel, at least right now. And of course, it's got the real friendly turn signals and even a tilt lever

at this point. We're just gonna see if it'll install in a position That's just right for the driver.

This is about where it will be once the steering box installed and looks pretty good, but we'll know a lot better once a seat is in place.

Now, we can go ahead and test fit this Kirky drag race seat. Now, this thing usually is covered with padding, but I removed it to drill holes so we can mount it to this bracket underneath. I welded in earlier.

I'm installing this crossbar behind the seats that's gonna act as two purposes, one to brace the back of the seat and two, a good place to mount our shoulder harnesses for the seat belts.

Now, we'll also get the other seat lined up with the back of the bar and then pull everything out and lay in some carpet.

Hey, before the carpet though, let's go ahead and mark

and drill some holes for a shifter.

Now, this thing gets bolted up once the tranny is in place and here's what it is a pistol grip, first quarter stick that's designed especially for GM power glides like ours. Oh, check out this optional feature. It's an electric bumper

that automatically shifts from low to high as you head down the track.

Ok.

With all that handled, we can go ahead and start laying in this new carpet we picked up from AC C and trim it to fit. Now, Joe wanted to get some purple shag, but I figured since I'll be driving this thing all the time, we'll go ahead and stick with factory black.

Of course, fitting. The carpet involves lots of trimming around the cage bars.

According to the rule book, we have to have stock door panels with working windows. Now, these reproductions came from honest Charlie's

and they ought to work fine with our original upper panels

once we get these things dyed.

So after we paint up our roll cage bars, we can reinstall everything you just saw for real then make some serious race ready horsepower in that engine bay. Meanwhile, I'm kind of in the mood for some real racing, Missel.

When we tackle our build ups in the horsepower shop, we depend on quality gear to get the job done, right?

Thanks to Matco

tools. We've got just about everything we need to meet our deadlines fast and efficiently.

So here's the deal. Is it windy out here to you? Very windy. Matco invites us to their annual Tool Expo to check out all the new stuff and well, we said, yeah, sure. It'll be fun. And when they told us where it was, we couldn't get to the airport quick enough. Aloha, welcome to Paradise.

Of course, before Mat

Cos show started, we felt obligated to explore the island of Oahu

to get the lay of the land and sea.

Well, this is it the

Bonz

hike line.

And after checking out the surfing and snorkeling in the beautiful blue water,

some of our crew members made it to the top of Diamond Head crater. A tough hike but worth a tremendous view.

Joe even hooked up with an outfit called Reef Pirates for a scuba trip

down to a sunken World War Two corsair, 100 and 5 ft below the surface.

Yeah, it's been there since the mid forties and you can even sit in the cockpit, plus it's home to a lot of cool fish. And later we had some close encounters with some of the sea turtles that called these waters home.

All right, fun's over

time to go talk to us.

You see every year Matco puts on one of these tool expos to introduce their distributors to everything that's hot in the way of cool new tools. Well, like this

half inch battery operated impact r

no air needed.

There are more than 1500 Matco distributors and the ones who came, heard pitches from vendors who've got some pretty cool stuff to pitch.

It's a cash sale. It brings the customer back to the truck. Of course, this is cleaned,

but that's polished.

There's two different.

You just kind of like wash your car and wax your car. What we doing right now, we waxed

it. It allows you to really work and press down on the bar and give you lots of leverage.

So it's got a unique shape to

it.

This is the new tool. It's gonna make all these guys

a lot of money this year. Last 2 to 3 times longer.

Here at the Mac O Tool Expo, it wouldn't be complete without all their boxes. And they've got the biggest and baddest ones here in a variety of different colors. And hey, if you want a little blink for your box, you can even get one with ground effects. It's amazing how you'd think that all the tools in the world could already have been produced and, and there's always new stuff coming out. There's always new ways

make everyone's life a little easier. And that's really what we do here. What I'm most proud of is it's really been product innovation.

We've been the source for innovation for the last five or seven years and now we're stepping this up and taking it to a new level

and trying to develop tools that really help the technician make more money,

be more productive, be safer at his job and also more comfortable

just for fun. There were some attractions like this ratcheting contest

and special guests from our own power block pal

Courtney Hansen to some pro racers.

We come back to give a little bit back to distributors. They're always here on the grass root, paving a way for us to be out there race on a race track and, uh, we come out here to try to give a little bit back to them because they're always cheering for supporting us and, uh, we're here to smile and hang out with them and have a good time.

Yeah, a good time, a good show and a good sign that Matco

will continue its winning streak of providing the top tools to America's Pro gear heads.

Hey, are you ready for some seat of the past performance from your 86 and older Chevy small block? Well, Edelbrock now offers this

e-bond

that

creates up to five pounds of boost and 500 horsepower on pump gas.

In addition to the blower, you get all the accessories you need.

And this thing is available in a kit with a Thunder series A vs 800 CFM carburetor.

You can get natural or Polish finish like this one

and the price. Well, that depends on the version you choose if you need coil packs for your late model genre

motor. Then M Ss D has these new MS C two coil packs that bolts up right in the factory position.

They accept all your factory connectors and produce a higher voltage with the multiple spark discharge now they are quick easy installation with all the hardware you need to install them. Plan on forking out about 650 bucks for a set.

When you're working on cars, there are tools you gotta have like these and some you just like to have to make the work easier

like this hose clamp remover from Matco. Now, this makes reaching and removing those sometimes challenging clamps of breeze. Plus it locks to keep your hands free.

Here's another cool tool from Matt Co, it's a dual piston brake spreader. Uses this plunger to compress the piston so you remove the old pads or add new ones in seconds. By the way, the flyer goes for about 70 bucks. The spreader is about 52.

Well, that's it for hot parts and this week's horsepower. See you guys next time.

Yeah.