LOL! You might be right! I now vaguely remember having a similar conversation as you say. Deja vue all over again.... lol

 

She’s getting pretty ridged now. Still a lot of tubing left to install.

We are leaving the trunk floor open and installing a custom tank in the stock location under the car.

 

Ran a string line from the center of the steering wheel to get center in the cage and get the seat centered with the wheel.

 

All mocked up, still need to cut bars to complete the cross bar for the shoulder belts to hook to.

 

We got a lot done this weekend, finished up the main hoop cage area.

Main hoop all welded up.

We got the supports in between our new frame rails in the trunk all welded up.


Trunk tail section all tied into the floor which holds the rear spring sliders in position. You can see how we tied in the parachute mount as well.

 

If your interested I just uploaded a video on Youtube of the cage. Titled (65 nova small tire build)

 

Man, you all do some awesome fab work from a home garage. Hopefully it serves as motivation to me now that I finally have space to work on my own **** at home!!

 

Thanks bud, get out there and just get after it. That’s all I do. I just wish I had more time to work on it then I do. Sometimes I feel like giving up and just buying a car that’s done but there’s no satisfaction in owning someone else’s creation. Besides I don’t have the funds to lay out on something like that.

 

I hear you, there's a whole lot of pride in knowing that you are the one who built it vs buying it. I'm chomping at the bit to get done with moving furniture around and hanging **** on the walls haha. About the time I get done with that I'll be ready to get into the garage and set it up how I want and get to cracking on my c-10. When I sold my house I took some of the profits and bought a bunch of suspension stuff from No Limit engineering for the truck so I want to get to cracking on that, before I'm a slave to cutting 5 acres of grass, good problems though!

 

You mentioned you have a C10 ??? I’m a C10 nut. I just finished a 64 big back window short bed that laid frame. You can check out the whole build on my Instagram account. (#Birch_motor_cars ). I’ve got a 96 GMC Sierra short bed now.

 

Nice I'll check it out. I've got a 71 c10 long bed, was my grandfathers. Mom learned to drive on it and so did I and drove it all through high school too.

 

Installed 1 1/4 gussets off the A-piled bars.

A better view of the gussets.

Evan welding er up.

 

Evan welding up the floor to the frame connectors that come up through the floor.

Welding up the first diagonal floor brace from the rocker bar to the frame connector bar.

Here is the diagonal bar off the rocker bar to the frame connector bar. We will be adding a horizontal bar to catch the front of the seat mount then ad one more diagonal bar from there to the back.

 

Stuffed the tires and wheels under the nova today to measure up for the 9” rear end. 10” wheel, 5” B/S, 275/60/15 tire, I come up with 52” hub to hub with plenty of room.


I think this is real close to ride height.

Looks good tucked up in there.

 

Adding some cross support to take any twist out of the car.

J

Just tacked in, still need to be welded.

 

I decided to add some cross supports under the package tray, boy that strengthens thins up.

Here’s a better picture from the inside looking into the trunk.

Believe it or not this door bar was probably one of the most time consuming bar I’ve built yet. There’s like five notches in it to fit perfectly.

I thought I was going to have to make a bend to clear the factory arm rest on the door panel. It hits it but it closes.

 

I added another small tube over to tie in the factory transmission crossmember.

Here’s a good shot of the front adjustable spring bucket that hangs down through the floor under the back seat.

Sliders at the rear tying in the rear Smith Racecraft split mono leafs.

 

I added theses bars today to support the rear down bars. It turns out they are hidden below the rear side windows which is great.

The main hoop gussets turned out not to my liking so I removed them.

 

Side shot, love that all you really see is the main hoop, everything it hidden pretty good.

 

That's awesome you've gotten the cage mostly hidden!