70 Hemi Superbird Restoration..................errr.....scratch that........

[Hemirunner]

The next piece of the puzzle is to weld out the top of the A-pillar joint and add the A-pillar braces. I cleared out enough metal and designed the cage to slide forward and drop off of the #1 and #6 horizontal bars for welding. It's now ready to weld out the top joint and then it can be pulled back into position. Once done it will be welded in permanently.

 

[Hemirunner]

Since I need to pick up another stick of 1" tube before I can make the gussets, I took some time to add chromoly tie down loops to the K-member. They weigh practically nothing and will be real convenient if this thing goes on the trailer or the chassis dyno.

 

[69 GTX]

Nice work, I like the welding hood!

 

[Hemirunner]

Nice work, I like the welding hood!

The autodark goggles are bad to the bone. Really comfortable, no neck strain and no catching/banging the helmet on anything. They also have a torch mode for use with the plasma.

 

[Hemirunner]

 

[Hemirunner]

A-pillar bars are in, fully welded with bracing added. I still need to weld out the braces. You can see in the next picture that the cage is still tilted forward and down for welding.

 

[Hemirunner]

 

[Hemirunner]

 

[Hemirunner]

My A-pillar design leaves a lot to be desired. In hindsight, I should have run them straight into the hoop. It would have been much easier to do the bracing and would have looked much cleaner. At this point, I'm just glad to have them done.

 

[Hemirunner]

A little rattle can black to see how it covers my not so awesome welds!

 

[Hemirunner]

Cage is back up in place and the first door bar fitted. It will come forward one more time to weld the driver side outer funny car bar and brace.

 

[69 GTX]

Great progress.

 

[Hemirunner]

Matching passenger side bar

 

[Hemirunner]

Hopefully this thing slides forward far enough to weld the outside of the joint!

 

[Hemirunner]

Lots of stuff getting done today!

 

[Hemirunner]

Cage came forward and dropped down.

 

[Hemirunner]

You can see how it exposed the top of the outer funny car cage bar and brace for welding. It also let me do the door bars where they attach to the main hoop. I didn't like the thought of cutting of the door pillars just to weld this, lol.

 

[Hemirunner]

 

[747mopar]

Man that thing looks like a set of monkey bars inside!!!! Nice work

 

[Hemirunner]

Man that thing looks like a set of monkey bars inside!!!! Nice work

Thanks. It is a somewhat complex set of tubes, and will probably be dangerous to even drive on the street, but I don't think I'd want to go 200mph in anything less. It does look a bit ridiculous, and I'm really tired of this stage of the build!