Progress!!!!!
Cage. Check.
Doors close (and open). Check.
Firewall trimmed and reinstalled. Check.
I cannot convey how well the cage matches exactly what I was looking for. We had a good planning session last week to plot out exactly what we were going to do regarding the build. We had the NASA CC&R .pdf pulled up on a laptop and worked our way through the cage, tube by tube, with that. Only had to rebend one tube (front hoop) once. Things went extremely well!
In the end, I think it came out fantastically and should be able to get a NASA logbook (that's just personal opinion at the moment though). Regardless, I'll be happier when I hit the track with it instead of just a hoop. Hopefully it'll never get "used".
Plans now are to finish trimming up the body and then strip it all down to basics and start the build. As I go through it, I can't bring myself to cover up the alu with powder coating, although I think I'll be doing the lizard skin treatment on the interior and some sort of bedliner treatment on the underside. At about this point I keep coming back to doing the black like Ron McCall's, as I think that looks GREAT. We'll see in the end what I do, but I know I have to strip it down and get it ready.
Once I get through that it'll all need to come back together. There is one complication coming up though. I have a sabbatical coming up in June and will be taking some vacation on top of that- to the tune of 11 weeks. I seriously debated working on the car through it but in the end will be going climbing for a large portion of it . I'll be around here a little longer but mid-June through start of Sept, I'll be on the road. I'll probably end up posting some trip reports (like
THIS ONE of last summer) from the road to bore you all with.
Anyway, on with the pics!
And PS - It was SOOOOO cool when I closed the doors for the first time and they went, "click" and were shut! These small victories are incredibly rewarding.