2014 San
Felipe 250 Roll Over Repairs
The Damage
Body Removal
Fitting the New Body
Repairs/Upgrades to the Cage
Body Work and Paint
Repairs and Upgrades to the Cage
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Having the body off the pan gives us unrestricted access to the majority of our roll cage structure; this is a perfect opportunity to make some improvements and to finish a couple of welds that are incomplete due to restricted access during the original build. We plan to make one safety improvement (add a "center" connecting bar between the "A" and "B" pillars to better protect the occupants in a roll-over) and some fuel cell support additions (the rear of our fuel cell has been supported by the sheet metal "shelf", we want to add some elements to connect the rear of the fuel cell tray to the rear torsion housing). Additionally, our rear bumper was damaged in the roll-over and we have decided to repair it rather build a new one. |
The cage exposed for inspection/repair
The cage itself looks to be in great shape but you can see that the
rear bumper needs some work....
We debated whether to build a new one or just repair the original - we decided
that the damage
wasn't so great that a repair was impractical.
Trevor cut out the damaged tubes and fabricated
replacements
The new tubes will be welded in place with internal sleeves
for additional strength
The bumper actually looks better than it did before the roll-over
now....
No more kinks !
Repairing the bumper was much easier and cheaper than making a new
one......
Trevor welding up the bumper repairs
This view shows the large "hole" in our roof area roll cage
design
This could allow the roof to be crushed "in" far enough that the
driver/co-driver are injured or
unable to exit the vehicle. We learned this the hard way......
Fortunately, nobody got hurt.
Here's the solution; an additional bar between the "A" and
"B" hoops.
The roof can still be damaged, but it's not going to injure
the drivers
(It's not welded in yet, we'll do that next)
Trevor welding the new center bar in place
Center bar welded to front hoop
This is not a "required" element of the roll cage; we are not
planning to "gusset" it.
Additional Fuel Cell tray support
Previously, the rear of the fuel cell was supported by attachment to
the sheet metal "package tray" - no
connection to the roll cage structure; I was never comfortable with that so we
took the opportunity
to add some support. It's not a perfect solution but it at least allows
the cage to share some load....
The Damage
Body Removal
Fitting the New Body
Repairs/Upgrades to the Cage
Body Work and Paint
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