Champion Spark Plugs “Search for a Champion” contest
One of our favorite race teams, Eggboy Racing, needs your help! They’ve entered Champion Spark Plugs “Search for a Champion” contest and need all the views and votes that they can get!
Merkur XR4ti Rally seat frame fabrication
Seat installs are always fun. Nothing else quite like making something fit some floating measurement based on someone who’s not even there. Even more fun when that floating measurement interferes with something the factory put in the way. Multiply the fun by 2 when you are dealing with a rally car.
The Merkur XR4ti Rally Car project needed 2 OMP FIA rated seats installed. The drivers side needed to be adjustable, fairly far forward and high (driver is 5’9″). The passenger side needed to be low, fixed position and as far back in the chassis as possible. So, two completely different mounts.
Factory cat humps right where we need to have seats....
The floor humps for the factory catalytic converter were interfering on the drivers side. The only real solution was to remove the factory humps, fabricate what was needed for the seat frame, and rebuild the floorpan around the seat.
Floorpan Modified for OMP seat mount
The seat mount includes mounting bosses for the OMP adjustable seat mounts, double shear lap belt mounts and sub strap mounts. The frame is also mounted directly to the cage’s sill bar. Using the OMP mount allowed the seat to move forward another 1.5″ and rearward another 2.5″ while allowing up/down adjustment as well.
OMP Seat Mount
The passenger side seat mount was much simpler in design and we utilized our Izzy’s Custom Cages, LLC weld in seat mounts ($38.00 per side or $68.00 per set of 4). Luckily, with the seat placemed as far back as we could, the floorpan just needed some messaging, not rebuilding.
Merkur XR4ti Rally Car Passenger Seat mount Final Seat positions
The final installation turned out great! The drivers elbow fell exactly where we needed it and his seating position and angle was perfect!
More pics of the build on our Facebook Page or on our website at www.izzyscustomcages.com
“Boat Sides” for the Merkur XR4ti
“Boat Sides” are all the rage in Off Road vehicles. They fix many problems at one time. They do away with badly rusted factory rocker panels, and replace the thin sheet metal rockers with something more substantial that will take much more abuse than the original sheet metal.
The Merkur XR4ti, or XRatty as they’re lovingly referred to, was brought to us with frame rails and floor pans that were just about gone.
XR4ti rocker panel repair
The owner also wanted to incorporate a version of our Jack Rails into the cage build. On uni-body vehicles, jack rails provide a solid “frame” to jack anywhere along the length of the factory pinch weld. To replace the inner and outer rocker panels with OEM style sheetmetal was going to be costly. Cutting them back up for installation of the jack rails didn’t make much sense either. This project was SCREAMING for “Boat Sides.”
First up was removal of the existing cancer.
Once the rust was all removed, the plan for the jack rails was put in place. 1.25″x2.5″ tubing was used as a basis for the rails and rockers. The tube was tied in along the factory inner rocker as well as the solid sections at either end of the factory rocker panels.
With the rails installed it was time to seal them back up as well as give the rockers a little more protection from rocks, ditches, yump and the occasional boulder that can be encountered in a Rally. 14 guage steel was used to finish up the rockers and stitch welded on both sides of the car.
For more pictures of the project, check us out on Facebook or at www.izzyscustomcages.com
Rally America XR4ti
We’re knee deep in a Merkur XR4ti build for Rally America. We’ve spent some time replacing the rusty rocker panels
XR4ti Rocker/Floor Rust
with integrated jack rails and “boat sides”… 12 ga. steel sliders that replace the rockers and will help those rocks and small boulders bounce off of the car as it flys down the roads!
Pics of the cage and rocker work can be found on Facebook. If you haven’t already, check out our Facebook page and share it with your freinds.
Nissan 350z roll cage for NASA.
We’ve finished off the Nissan 350z roll cage. The 8 point cage started out for SCCA’s Touring 3 but ended up shooting for NASA’s Performance Touring. Due to the restrictive ruleset for Touring the 350z would have needed quite a bit of reversion (shocks, control arms, aero, wheels, rotors… oh, and melt sheet/sound deadening reinstalled) in order to race in a class that it would ultimately be ineligable for.
Next up is a rear crossmember reinforcement for a BMW 318ti. The ti is becoming a very popular car for M engine & driveline swaps. A problem with the swap though is that people are notching the rear crossmember to clear a bolt on the differential housing. In doing so they are creating a stress point which is causing rear crossmember and diff mount failure. This is also common in the Z3′s and M Coupes and can result in the entire diff mount becoming separated from the chassis.
The ti in question is not only M powered, but also boosted with a supercharger… soon to be turbo’d. It’s easily putting down 350 hp so the owner has decided to be pro-active and take care of the diff/crossmember mount now, before the HP numbers get out of control in the spring.
Daily updates will be on our Facebook page OR at Izzy’s Custom Cages.com
Nissan 350z Rollcage build progress
Great progress on the Nissan 350z roll cage project today! Rear pads finished up, pass. downbar and main hoop pads 80% complete and the pass. side mian attachment points all finished up. Pass. side X is also welded in as well as the main hoop diagonal.
Also picked up 10 sets each of the Street and Race versions of our Honda S2000 Hardtop bractets as well as about 30 sets of front brackets. 5 Sets of Street brackets already sold!
www.izzyscustomcages.com for more information!
Nissan 350z rollcage and Porsche 911 Exhaust fabrication
Our latest project at Izzys is a 2008 Nissan 350z in for a full custom rollcage for competition in NASA’s Performance Touring A (PTA). The roll cage is in progress and we’ll have some updates on our website as well as our Facebook page (see a feed at http://www.izzyscustomcages.com/Home.html )
We’re also in the process of fabricating some exhaust for a Porsche 911. The original exhaust system was a work of art but the Stainless muffler has heat cycled itself out of usefulness. The original manufacturer, GHL Motorsports is no longer in business, or at least no longer making any parts for the original kit (there’s some odd story in the background, but we’re not going there…). We’re fabricating the new exhaust usuing a 2.5″ dual inlet/outlet Magnaflow.
Porsche 911 exhaust system ready for modification
Remember, racing season is only about 120 days away here in the midwest! If you need any fabrication work, give us a call! Only 10 minutes from downtown St. Louis, Missouri. 314-302-3395
Catching up on a few past projects.
It has been a very busy summer here at Izzy’s. We’ve been away from the blog for a while so we thought it’d be a good idea to catch up on some of our latest projects.
NASA TTU Honda S2000 4 point roll bar:
S2000 Rollbar
Some Mazda Miata’s for HPDE and Drifting
NASA GTS2 BMW E30 custom aluminum dashboard and guage/switch pod
NASA GTS2 E30 cage conversion from a 4 point we did a few years back
Adjustable dead pedal
E30 Cowl access
Seatback brace for expired FIA seat
NASA Spece30 (sorry bad pic)
Toyota FJ Bumper
Most recently a FD RX7 cage
Check out www.izzyscustomcages.com for more updates and find us on Facebook!
Busy 2010 summer at Izzy’s Custom Cages, LLC
It’s been a busy summer here at Izzy’s. Sorry for those of you that check in here regularly. We’ve been using our Facebook page to post our daily updates. If you’re not on Facebook, the updates are linked directly to our homepage at Izzy’s Custom Cages.com
Our Honda S2000 Hard top brackets continue to sell like crazy! We’ve even added another version of street brackets to the lineup that are now available!
We’re now booking for mid January, 2011! Get on the list today so that you don’t miss any seat time in 2011!
