My Mk2, T45 cage, carbon roof and 'tings!

Hi there, after much nagging from my 'dear' friend, I'm going to put a build up of my Mk2. I got it at the end of August '10 (I think!) and this should take us up to now. I would really like to get it going for this summer, but we'll see!

A little bit about myself quickly and where the projects come from. I used to have a Mk2 20v 3-4 years ago, but sold and have missed having it ever since. I've been helping aforementioned 'dear friend' and his past and current builds (albeit not as much last summer with a new job) and we've always discussed building a Mk2 for me and now its finally happening. His project would be a certain SWB project and we'll call this its annoying little brother ..

Anyways, aim for this one is get a load of weight out (as I'm obsessed) and use it as a fast road/ hill climb fun. This is the projects first stage. All going well, next winter will see the next, hence lots of things being left for then.

Ok, picture time! Car arrived, and day after, we were here. Previous owner had started a strip down himself, hence rain tray missing, some sealer missing and the black painted bits!









Getting most of the underseal off



Dragged into its new home for a while!





On its stands!



Hacking commences!





Floor and wings cleaned and put in etch





Shell is by no means solid. It used to be a rally/ autotest car so needs quite a bit of work. Taking the old cage feet out proved to be an utter nightmare too, all the points needed patched up. Scuttle was a bit worse for wear too and removing it would help with the cage so that came out.



Battery tray had been removed too, but a bit too much has been taken out, so I need to finish that off. VW panel used:

 

Now the real work begins! To help with my later plans, soild top mounts all round, and to maintain acceptable stroke travel with them fitted, all mounts will be extended 40mm using bands of steel run through rollers for a perfect finish:





Then reinforced with the roll cages rear trailing bar plate.



Now, after making the cage in the audi, we wanted to try a kit so a T45 Custom cages one was ordered. Less said the better! Either way, its almost in. We'll go back to making them after this, but I am very happy with the way we've got it to fit now! The main hoop is rather tight! and high! Lovely!





Screen bar is tight!



Door bars mocked





A pillar bar is straight, unlike how they fit them themselves!







Rear bars in





... and thats pretty much where I'm up to! Oh, heres the seats!



... and the roof

 

nom. very nice

 

Muuuuuummmmmmmmmmmm
Yummmy.

 

Thanks! Got a bit more done today, mainly trimming the roof back and offering the new one up. Trimming it right back and I'll be bonding the roof in the gutters at the side. Theres a large area to the front and the back too, so will be plenty strong enough and will make the most of the weight saving up top. Also took out the last roof spar now the main hoops in, although they really do do very little! Also thrown in a picture of the cage plates welded in.

 

Seems a strange point in the build to bond the roof on? Unless its going to be body colour?

Good progress. Another thread im looking forward to seeing evolve.

 

No, its not being bonded on. That will be the very very last thing! Just trimming it to fit so I can put the roof diagonal for the cage right up as it currently doesn't fit at all! Then I can start fully welding all the cage up after the front turrets are sorted and the cage is ran through to them.

 

very impresive build.

 

Mmmmmm carbon roof.

Nice work!

 

Bit of an up date as I'm done some more work with the help of Hamish

Hamish finished the cage welding on all the bars we'd fitted:





Tagged into the shell, lots more of these to go! This ones on the front of the b-pillar. They are done at the back too:



Seat rails in:





Due to some pretty nasty rust all around the seams of the NS strut tower, I decided to take them both out and put some scavenged ones on. These were plug welded on first:



The rolled bands that are raising all the strut towers 40mm to combat the height gained from solid top mounts without just bolting them on top!



Bands were then welded and the top lip heated and bent round to meet the top, then seamed. really happy with the finish:







Turrets then stitched, roughly smoothed down and primered:









Plates were then made up and bent round to run the cage through to the front. I will also be crossing tubes from either end of the dash bar and over to the opposite turret later:





Some other current ones:





Thanks for reading!

 

Excellent. I love this stage in the build of a track car. So exciting to see the structure come together. Looking forward to more progress.

 

Starting to look like a car again which is always a good thing! Glad the cage is nearly done as it was a pig to fit!

Realy pleased with how the raised turrets have turned out as well!

 

Just received my kit from custom cages and having a few issues getting it to fit.

Am I right in saying that you've had to remove a section of the top of the insides of the b pillars in order to fit the cage in?

I've pulled the legs in with a strap and dropped it right to the floor an it's still too wide to fit between the b posts. Did you have the same problem? If so did you speak to custom cages about it?

 

Good work ! looking very neat and tidy, will be watching the rest of the build

 

This cage doesnt look like the spreader plates are meant to be on the floor though matey. Unless you notch/profile the sides like the pic above.

 

mlloyd2000 - Replied in your topic about your problem. Didn't speak to them about it either, prefered to just sort it myself instead of putting it back into their hands

Thanks for all the comments!

 

Loving that fab work and welding, looks like this ones going to be a impressive one

 

The main hoop was a fair mission to get sorted. We settled on the idea of slicing the inner skin of the b pillar rather than cutting it totally out like some have. This way its impossible to see whats been done when the hoop is in, and the hoop and pillar can be tagged together.

Like most things aftermarket they never fit right first time!

 

That is certainly some very tidy welding going on, very impressive and skilled to say the least!!

 

Liking the progress, no holding you back on chunky jobs like lopping off front turrets!