front roll cage...how easy is it to fit?

[nutta29]

Fitted the rear cage to my mini about 5 years ago, and remember it being quite a tricky job. was considering getting a font cage and putting that in too.
Looking on the left side of the headlining, the interior light cover seems to stick out quite a way, it is possible to get the front cage in without hitting it?

if anyone has fitted one before, some advice / tips would be most welcome.

Many thanks,

Adam

[redwedge5]

The last time I had a front cage fitted to a Mini was many years ago and that was a safety devices front cage to a 1976 Clubman. If i remember correctly the cover had to come off the interior light and I couldn't use it - good excuse for a rally style map reading light instead! Also I had to remove the sunlght visors.

[Cooperman]

A front cage is a lot easier to fit than a rear one. Assuming it's an FIA approved cage you'll have the two 'over and down' tubes which run across the door frame and down the A-post to the floor. Then you'll have the cross tube over the screen header, for which you'll probably need to permanently remove the sun visors. Finally the door bars which clamp onto the A- and B-post tubes.
Fit everything lightly first,then finally bolt up when everything is in position. It's agood idea to ensure that the claerance between the 'A-post ' tubes and the screen edge member is the same both sides. In fact, the best thing to do is to remove the screen and weld some 1/8" thick plates to add an additional support and to prevent the cage from banging on the screen frame during driving. Fit these high up on the screen frame. I made the mistake of not doing this on one of my rally Minis and ended up using a couple of wooden wedges held in place with Araldite to eliminate the knocking during competition. It's surprising how much the Mini shell flexes on bumpy roads or under maximum cornering.

I hope this helps.

Peter

[nutta29]

crikey, i hadn't even considered the movement in the shell to cause a knocking. i guess I thought the fact it was bolted to the floor and the rear cage and maybe door bar would be enough to stiffen it up.

thanks for the advice peter, i will take the advice on board in due course (i.e. when i have enough money to buy a front cage!)

peter, you are a fountain of knowledge!!

[Cooperman]

Even if you do't want to remove the screen to weld in the front cage at the top of the A-posts, you can use a half of a wooden clothes peg on each side to ensure the correct alignment before bolting it all up. In fact, you can just leave the clothes peg wedges in place after fitting (trim them back and secure with Araldite, then paint in body colour). With a good quality cage such as a Safety Devices one the cage tolerances are better than the tolerances on the original Mini shell. Mine did rattle when I didn't fit any top supports, although the mis-alignment was only about 3/8", which could have been the new floor alignment. The floor level would only have to be about 1/8" different to give this difference at the top of the A-posts. The wooden wedges in my car worked fine, although as I said, I have since always welded a 1" long x 1/8" thick plate to the A-posts and the cage ever since.