ok so i was looking at the S&W race cars roll bar for my mustang. really good price, it just needs to be welded together...

can you weld a mild steel roll cage with a MIG welder or is welding a cage something you should TIG instead?

 

depends on the gauge steel and what your mig can weld up to, most small migs do up to 1/4 inch and the larger ones easily do 3/8's and up

 

Its best to let a professional do it. Or buy a pre-fab drop in.

 

+100,000. After letting a welding shop do my torque boxes, I wouldn't take my car anywhere but a chassis shop to get a cage done. They are the best at doing it right the first time. Without holes in the floor

 

Mild steel can be welded with MIG, chromoly must be welded using TIG.

 

thats a huge safety item and an integral part of your car dont skimp on it and mig it, get it tig'd tig welding penetrates so much deeper and really joins the metal together a lot better aka much stronger weld points

 

Not really, if done right either process is just as strong as the other. TIG is harder to do well and will cost more. When I was at the fab shop we would MIG entire chassis and never had issues. It all comes down to the skill of fabricator. In reality, if you have to ask this type of question, you are probably not ready to weld up a cage. There are tons of critical things that come into play when building a cage that must be done right in order for the cage to protect the driver the maximum amount. Things like harness mounting angles, down tube angles, door bar angles etc.

 

I'll agree with JD on this deal.
Many of the smaller 'MIG' welders look like they do the job but
it's real easy to get a good looking weld that was made 'cold'
and has no real strength to it.

 

i happen to work at an autobody shop, and just did a 91 m3 road race car. I believe the manufacture was AutoCage, we MIG welded it, and used a smidge of bondo over ungrinded welds for a functionality, good final look and sprayed the cage all for 700 dollars +the price of the cage. It looks EXCELLENTwe notched the dash slightly pulled the door panels, did some minor stuff to make it fit, I think it came out awesome, and were just a mom and pop body shop that occasionally gets restorations and odd things like a cage install. PM me and ill get you pics tomororw with my camera if you're interested

 

Don't be surprised when that cage fails tech because you filled the welds with bondo. Tech inspectors want to be able to see the quality of the weld, visual is the only way for them to inspect the weld since they cannot xray or mag test them.