Why you don't want a bolt in Roll Cage.

[F Body]

Before :



After - Note that the roll cage has punched through the car floor



Full pictures here :  

http://forums.themustangsource.com/showthread.php?p=5753663\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://forums.themustangsource.com/showthread.php?p=5753663

[Cunning Plan]

[EDGE]

thats not a proper roll cage dude, thats just a roll BAR, ie, a 2 or at best 4 point hoop that just loops under the midle-ish of the roof.  That damage would have happened if it was welded in too as its punched the bottom of the car clean though.  

It looks like the main problems are:

1/too much force distributed between too few points thus making the impluse too much for the floor pan to take with out....

2/strengthening plates.... doesn't look like there are/were any....

3/ the angle of impact isn't ideal for a roll loop like this, the car basically landed roof down, if the car had barrel rolled it would have held up better,

If that car had a full 6, 10, 12 or 24 point cage it would have been far better as the impact would have been distributed over the chassis rather than on 2 or 4 points...

the problems with bolt in cages are more visible during/after a side impact where the bolts can be sheared or the holes drilled in the floor pan deformed.

[Gator]

i agree with edge welded or bolted thats just point loaded and gone through the floor

[ianjpage]

ouch that is not good at all!!!!