Autocrossing in STF required that we keep the interior. Now we're stripping the car and caging it for road racing.
It's fall in Florida, meaning we still sweat profusely in our garages. No, don't pity us. We'll be OK.
Our cage guy, Joey Stokes at Stoked Metalworks, has built several Fiesta cages in the past.
Stokes TIG welds all of his cages. The type of coated metal used as part of the car's structure, though, was difficult to weld cleanly.
We finished off our autocross season in the Fiesta by taking it to SCCA Solo Nationals. With that out of the way, we could finally start tearing out our Fiesta’s interior bits like we’ve been wanting to do all along.
So we began. The interior is built such that starting at the back is a must. Remove the seats first, using a T-50 Torx bit on a ratchet. An extension will help. Keep that bit handy for the seat belts, too.
The pieces that aren’t screwed in have little clips that pop loose with just a bit of manual persuasion. Translation: Give it the ol’ grab-n-yank.
We bought a cage kit from Sbox Engineering, then delivered the car to a local cage builder: Stoked Metalworks, a one-man operation run by Joey Stokes. He’s built the roll cages for Irish Mike’s Racing‘s Ford Fiestas, so we felt we were in good hands.
The MiataCage kit is very complete, with lots of little details: tabs to hold up the front windows after you remove the regulators and all the other stuff inside the doors, for example, and a piece to mount the power mirror switch to as well. It’s a robust design made to meet the regulations of SCCA, NASA, World Challenge and Grand-Am racing all at once. Just put it in, pick a venue and go racing. We like that.
Soon, Joey will be finished and we’ll be able to fully convert the car to B-Spec… uhm… specs. Stay tuned.
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