My response! First, thanks to all for your input. The S&W kit was pretty good, but I decided to add some bits and pieces to make it even stronger. Terry Russell helped get me started, as he has had considerably more experience that I have had with this. We added a bar from front to rear on the halo, and ran the rear bars back into the trunk area (they land on the spring mounts). Silly us - we couldn't figure out how S&W expected us to land the back bars, and it turns out that they expected them to be shorties that land in the rear seat area, and the bars we used were supposed to be the door bars (weird, as the darn thing were like 6 feet long!). As you may have just figured out, the instructions sucked.
I also added sill bars, and have yet to make the door bars, but the driver's side will be a swing out. Keith also suggested I add a diagonal bar from the rear of the bar we added in the halo to the right front to stiffen the whole cage, and I'll do that. I also need to fit and weld in the short bars from the shoulder bar to the floor in the back - I just ran out of time.
I hired a welder to do the big welding, and he did OK, but not great. I'll try a different guy for the rest of it. As far as my total satisfaction - I'll give it a "B". It's my first cage and I learned a LOT, and there's several things I'd do differently, but all in all, it's OK and, I think, safe. I need to move the knee bar to above the steering column as Jon's knees hit it (Seldom Seen Slim is my secret driver, and he's always faster than I am). I'm not sure what to do with the stubs from the old lower bar, as I know you're not supposed to grind on the bar. I had to put the two down bars at the A-pillars in upside down from each other, and I'm not wild about that. I may order up a new one and flip the one on the passenger side so it looks better, but maybe it isn't all that important.
On the engine. I just got lucky (like a couple of days ago). Terry found a guy who had what he thought was a Clifford head that he wanted to sell. It was from an old circle track car that had a rod thru the side of the block. Turns out that the class the engine was built for is no longer run, so it's no longer useful and he'd put a small block in the car.
So, I get over there (it was in Fayetteville), and it's not a Clifford. It's a full-on race head from Clyde Norwood - Precision Engine Service! It's a lump port with ALL the goodies, including roller rockers. So this had been a full-on race motor, built by one of the best. So I got the head for a good (for me) price, along with a PES intake manifold, that looks like 1/2 of a V12 tunnel ram. I'd love to pick up the rest of the motor, as it has a Fluidamper, and at least 5 good custom machined pistons. The rod took out the block, so there's no telling what else is trashed, but these motors are pretty stout and it may just need a block and a rod. I have a shotgun for sale, and after that sells I may go back for the rest.
Again. thanks for all your input
Dan
