Pulled the tube bender out of the moth balls for a small project

[O4L]

There is a bit of an art to bending pipe. I built a couple of stock car roll cages back when I was racing.

The ones I built were designed similar to this one and custom made for a full steel bodied car.

 

[SlugSlinger]

How long did it take to build something like that? What did you use for the design? Did you have design drawings?

There is a bit of an art to bending pipe. I built a couple of stock car roll cages back when I was racing.

The ones I built were designed similar to this one and custom made for a full steel bodied car.

 

[O4L]

How long did it take to build something like that? What did you use for the design? Did you have design drawings?

It's been about thirty years ago so I don't remember exactly how long it took. I just remember using all my spare time building and working on race cars for several years.

Back then we didn't have the internet so I just found pictures and drawings of NASCAR roll cages and went from there.

Like I said, these were full bodied cars with just the doors and front clip removed so I custom fitted the roll cage to the inside of the car body. It was a lot of work but it was also fun at the time.

My inlaws were plumbers so they had a nice pipe bender setup. I would cut, bend, and fit the pipe and do a little tack welding then my brother in law would finish weld it all up.

I wouldn't have the energy or drive to build cars these days but back then I was ready to conquer the world.