Hmm, things i found / stuffed up.......
1. Plan Ahead. Measure twice, cut once. And all those other sayings your father has.
2. I couldn't get the dash frame in around the roll cage / steering wheel / steering column. I may have managed it if I took the steering wheel off, but since the front screen was coming out, I didn't bother with the steering wheel. I couldn't find a way to do the dash frame "nicely", there will be lots of cutting if you run the roll cage down the A-pillar.
3. Try to ensure you don't have to cut both the dash pad and the dash fascia. I had to cut semi-circles out of both, if the front legs were slightly forward or back I could have gotten away with only cutting one or the other.
4. My best tip - remove the brackets on the inside of the shell that the bottom corners of the dash frame bolts onto. I fiddled around for ages to work out how to do things with these brackets in place, but couldn't do what I wanted so ended up drilling the spot welds out and taking the brackets off, was going to bolt them back on but ended up making new brackets that attached to the roll cage legs with hose clamps. Removing these brackets allowed me to move the cage backwards and / or drop the main hoop downwards for ease of welding, with the brackets still on, they "locked" the cage between the firewall and the bracket.
5. It seemed a simple thing, but the window net mounting bar caused me lots of headaches. Initially, I ran it between tabs welded to the inside of the cage (ie on the driver's side of the cage), but then the last bit of bracing I welded in got in the way. I couldn't run it outside the cage (between the shell and the cage) as the cage was too tight to the shell around the A-pillar. I ended up with the front mounting on the inside of the cage, and the rear mounting on the outside, with the window net bar crossing under the top of the cage. I'm hoping the CAMS scrutineer will be OK with this - American regs say it must run outside the cage but I can't find any detail in the Aus regs. Oh yeah, allow for the mandatory roll cage padding as well when working it all out......
6. Work out how to do the rear harness bar if you're putting it back near the rear bulkhead between the cage backstays. I couldn't do it and still meet all of the following requirements :
Meet angle requirements for harness straps.
Have mounting bushes the correct distance apart for harnesses compatible with HANS devices.
Clear the diagonal between rear legs / backstays.
The driver's side is good, but the passenger side just doesn't work. I would have had the same issue with Driver's side if I ran dual diagionals between the rear legs, but I only ran one from just behind driver's head down to the mounting foot on the passenger backstay. If I ever need to have a passenger harness, I'll buy one that will wrap around the other harness bar I have in the main hoop.
7. Get a copy of Schedule J of the CAMS manual and read it over and over. I went as far as making notes on anything that I thought related to me.
Now that its done, I'm pretty happy for a first attempt. 2nd attempt would be better in a lot of small ways, but it seems very comprehensive.
Dodgy window net mounting arrangement :
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