Tech inspection questions

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Penstarpurist

Penstarpurist

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So my son got the 10 point cage welded in, subframe connectors and welded the down bars to them. I called tech at the dragstrip and they said to bring it down whenever and they can do the inspection. I forgot to ask them, was hoping you could answer a question for me. Can I prime and paint my cage ahead of time or do I need to leave the welds exposed and unpainted until after tech inspection?
 
Don't grind or sand the welds down, I don't think paint will matter at all.
 
brian6pac said:
Don't grind or sand the welds down, I don't think paint will matter at all.
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Penstarpurist said:
So my son got the 10 point cage welded in, subframe connectors and welded the down bars to them. I called tech at the dragstrip and they said to bring it down whenever and they can do the inspection. I forgot to ask them, was hoping you could answer a question for me. Can I prime and paint my cage ahead of time or do I need to leave the welds exposed and unpainted until after tech inspection?
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For sfi certification size and wall thickness.
Local track tech probably just size and arrangement of cage.
Paint is OK. They frown on welds that are ground to cover up bad work.
 
brian6pac said:
Don't grind or sand the welds down, I don't think paint will matter at all.
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Okay, perfect. That's what I was hoping. The welds are good. So no grinding required. Do I need to have a hole drilled in a tube for them to check thickness or take down a piece of some of the cut off?
 
One question are you getting the cage certified?
 
I think the div 6 inspector lives in Washington he’s on the nhra site
 
I am not sure if the local drag strip guy does cage certification, or just tech on the whole car. I guess I maybe assumed that he did. But if the inspector guy lives in Washington and they didn't have me make an appointment with them just said to call before I headed over. I don't know what the car will run overall. I doubt it will be in the 10 flat range. Its a mild built 400 on pump gas, iron headed, 410 sure grip, and stock converter. The cage is in big part to the fact that my teen son will be running it as well and is a heavy footed the other reason is we definitely want to build the car over time to be a low 10 to flat 10 or better and didn't want to have to go backwards with putting roll cage in afterwards. The car was stripped to a bare empty shell for massive rotted metal replacements and bodywork. So it made sense to me at least to install the cage we hope to justify growing into. The car will see bracket racing in the future. We are building a violent 383 next for it. But wanted to be safe. The cart before the horse I'm sure. But otherwise the wife wasn't going to let him go big block or racing without my guarentee I built it safe.
 
The horsepower/weight e.t calculator says I would be in the 11.57 e.t range. Of course that being an estimate of horsepower as I haven't had it on the local chassis dyno yet. Hopefully very soon, and they have a guy that tunes it for max power while it's on there.
 
You only need a certed. Cage 9.99 or quicker 11:50 to 10:00 what you put in is what the rules state roll bar 11:49 to10:00 hope this helps
 
I had a full cage in my old car that could have certified, but we weren’t running in the 9s, so we didn’t bother. It did raise concerns with some over zealous tech guys here and there. Seems they see “cage” and expect you to run the number that it becomes a requirement.
 
A body said:
I had a full cage in my old car that could have certified, but we weren’t running in the 9s, so we didn’t bother. It did raise concerns with some over zealous tech guys here and there. Seems they see “cage” and expect you to run the number that it becomes a requirement.
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I had wondered about that as well when we were installing it.
 
It was no huge deal, but still required some clarification. We also installed a window net just to avoid problems on the suggestion of my chassis guy.
 
I've raced there for the last few years with my duster and it barely got into the 11-5 range and I've had a roll bar in their eight point and just took it out. Make sure the car has good tires and good alignment and tight bolts. Obviously you have a Driveline loop. I recommend taking what you got and getting out there and getting racing and getting some experience or him I mean. Definitely I put a roll bars and stuff in the car for when my son was driving it. I think the under 10 second certification is done at the beginning of the season. You're going to be nowhere near there. They're just going to make sure you have a roll bar in there period If you're down to 10 seconds. If you want to get hammered with tec go to PIR in Portland. And you'll get 10 times your bang-for-your-buck especially for practice and stuff like that on Friday and Saturday nights. I know it's a bit of a drive for you but Saturday night would probably be better with no traffic. Anyways you'll be fine....
 
I think your definitely right about just getting out there making passes and getting experienced with the car and competing against other drivers and setups. Thanks for the advice jpar. I'll look for you next month at the mopar nationals and stop by and introduce myself. If you are okay with that.
 
A body said:
It was no huge deal, but still required some clarification. We also installed a window net just to avoid problems on the suggestion of my chassis guy.
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If the tech guy/girl knows what to look for ie.3500lbs car 400 hp you’ll be good no hassles I love teching at the races
 
Penstarpurist said:
I think your definitely right about just getting out there making passes and getting experienced with the car and competing against other drivers and setups. Thanks for the advice jpar. I'll look for you next month at the mopar nationals and stop by and introduce myself. If you are okay with that.
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Absolutely. I'm usually there and very receptive to friendly people.
People enjoying their hobbies together in a fun safe friendly environment with GREAT POTENTIAL FOR GOOD BBQ!!!
I'M IN!!
 
If you go to Woodburn I recommend driving your car into your staging Lane putting your Tech card under your windshield wiper and walking away. Come back in about 20 minutes and you'll be good to go LOL
 
I think safety-wise at thet speed the best thing I thought I did for safety was definitely good new tires good front end alignment and I like to put it up on jack stands and go through everything with some wrenches and try and tighten everything or just checking everything and then you've done the best you can and also besides all the obvious like good brakes and stuff like that LOL I do feel having a spool keeps the car in a straight line also on the Dragstrip unfortunately also in the corners on the street LOL
 
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