The steps I took before the car was painted

In order to get the carpet out, I had to remove the gas pedal, break pedal, roll cage, steering column, seats, center console, and a bunch of wiring. While the cage is out, I'm going to work on the connectors that join them together because I had a very hard time with one of them trying to get it apart.

First thing I did was sand the welds flush with the outside of the tubes. This is because I plan on covering the whole cage with leather so removing the welds that are above the surface is a must so the tubes look smooth once the material is on them. I'm also going to drill out the roll-pin holes in the connectors (female side) so the only press-fit is in the clevis pins. I found out that the roll-pins are very hard to install and remove so this will make life much easier. The straight pieces that you see below were easy to remove the welds on because I was able to use my belt sander. I just turned the tubes with my hands as the belt did the work. The rest of the cage is going to be much harder because I won't be able to pick it up to use the belt sander so I plan to use a file and it's going to take awhile. Once all the welds are flush with the tubes, I'm going to take the cage to a guy that is going to sew a zipper in some leather for me. This way I can just slide the material over the tubes and zip them on. I'll place the zipper so it won't show once it's installed and then all the connectors will be covered and should look much nicer. I also plan on painting the whole cage the same color as the car so the tubes don't end up rusting. Besides, some of the cage will still show because the material won't cover every square inch of it. I'm getting very close to spraying paint so stay tuned!!

5/15/05

I've been away from the car for a few days now getting some other things out of the way, but now it's back to work in the garage. Below is the entire cage ready for upholstery. The left side of the picture is the front of the car The only piece that won't be getting covered is the door bar which is removable. The reason for not covering this piece is because it won't be in the car unless I race it.

Here is one of the spots that Bart blended when he had the car. This is the right front fender where it meets the running board. The running board was higher than the fender at this point only so this is why he sanded this area.

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