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I was thinking of making the roof hoop so it would fit up tight to the roof just inside the roof structure,then padding it and putting the headliner over it so it is hidden. I was going to pad the roof with insulation to make it seamless. I was going to make the rear seat cross brace removable so it could come out when people are in the rear seat. It could be held in with cleavis pins,and have padded caps with snaps to fit over the recievers when not in use.



Hmmm. IF you could put the A and B piller uprights and the halo tucked up into the existing structure so tight they would fit under the existings panels, this could almost work. However, adding a cross bar behind the seats would kill it because you would have to leave a stub hanging out in space for the removeable bar to pin into. That is like just putting a target out there for someone to smash into and would actually, IMO, be more dangerous than a cross bar.

Like quickdodge said, it isn't the problem that you can pad a roll cage vs hitting the stock inner body structure. It is the fact that you signficantly reduce the space your bady has to stretch before hitting anything. If in stock form your head is 6" away from the roof sill, you have that far to move before making contact. By contrast, put a 1.5" round roll bar tube that is spaced 1" away from the sill to allow you welding access and now you only have 3.5" to allow for movement before striking a solid object. 6PKRTSE has a very nice cage in his car, but I'd hate to be in a hard street accident in it, especially with the funny car cage add in, because your melon will be a pinball inside all that tubing.


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How do you think a classic car would do against a newer car (2000's) in a crash? Answer it to yourself and then watch this and see if you were right.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJrXViFfMGk



I would like to see that test with a car that has 2 normal frame rails not saying the results would differ but would be interesting to see.Those impala type bodies up till aroud 64 has a frame sorta shaped like a X and would naturally fold up with a impact in the corner.



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How solid was that Bel Air? Did you see the cloud of RED dust come out from under it? Would an insurance institute looking to prove a point fudge or overlook such a thing?



Exactly. That era of Bel-Air was an x frame design that had nothing but sheetmetal hanging out where the doors are.

That isn't to say our mopars are a bunch better, but an X frame is no where near as good as a perimeter frame.