Hi,
I am looking at getting a 6 point bar from them while they have their 20% off sale until christmas. My question is, can the weld in bar be powdercoated before it is installed, and then just touched up over the visible welds, or do the welds need to be directly on the metal. Is the bolt in cage just as sufficient as the weld in? It would seem that the cage would be hard to paint once it was already in the car. Any ideas or input is great,
Thanks,
Brandon

 

You cannot weld over powdercoating--it must be metal to metal.

A weld done properly will always be stronger than a bolt.

 

You could do what you're thinking of, sort of. If you tape off the ends of the bars where they'll be welded, before powdercoating. Then once the bar is in, find a matching paint (I did this, a black satin powdercoat and black satin paint were virtually identical), do the reverse tape thing, make sure you don't spray at your roof liner, and off you go. I'd recommend that route, then the bulk of the bar is powdercoated.

Dave

 

Yeah Dave, i was thinking something like that might work, thanks for the reply. How many cage to cage welds are there, im guessing, just where the two fron bars meet the main hoop, and where the two rears meet it, so 4 spots? Does the crossbar come already welded?
Thanks
Brandon

 

Sounds right.... I've never seen the Wolfe bar in pieces, so I don't know. But I'd guess the cross bar does not come already welded to the hoop.

Dave

 

Just curious, wont you lose a lot of the paint within like at least a foot of a weld point, I know steel doesnt transfer heat quite like aluminum, but if you are tigging the whole weld point at the same time seems to me it will get quite hot within 2 feet of the weld hense either fading, chipping, or melting the paint??

 

I can never remember the various kinds of welding techniques... mine was a chromoly bar, welded by a good cage builder. The powdercoat was unaffected an inch away from the weld, maybe even closer.

Dave

 

If its chromemoly it was TIG welded, I guess powdercoating can handle higher temps though, since they do have to bake it on at like 300*. I would guess if you just painted it and tried to weld it it wouldnt work so well.

 

IMO the bolt-in bar is plenty strong and you can take it out when you sell the car. You can also get the powdercoating without worry. If you put it in and don't think it's stiff enough, you can always weld it. I've got the 6-point 'vert cage and it's fantastic. Really stiffens the car a ton. Unless you're really small, get the swingouts. It's very nice to be able to remove them for daily driving.

 

So are there 6 plates total that mount to the car? Do you have to drill holes to mount all 6 plates, and is there a plate that goes on both sides? Why are you thinking of welding yours brook, just to stiffen it up??
Thanks
Brandon