Why do people cut out the front end and replace with steel tubing?

My guess would be for stop the front end getting fucked from knocks and bangs, and if it does break ita going to be cheaper to knock up another one as apposed to buying and front bumper for say £500

 

More clearance for wheels for extra lock.
Ease of access to everything.
Internet points.

 

Progression, I only did it to mine due to too many front end crashes, only so much can be massaged back with my hammer skills. Was easier and neater to chop and rebuild the front end. Rear end will be getting similar treatment with any more accidents from Armco, all looks good from outside. Really pains me to see people breaking cars with minimal front and rear end damage.

 

Those people that do it due to continual impacts then fixes weakening the metal i can understand.

Those that do it for fitting big tyres with big lock in a competition car i can understand.

Those that do it because they've bought a welder & an angle grinder and want to show off their "fabrication skillz" can eat a dick.

 

Some cars are just necessary to protect what's there.

MX5, for example, doesn't have a solid lower radiator support (it's supported from the sides) so I've seen a few low MX5s have an off track excursion and banana the radiator around the ARB.

Mintfab make a tubular crash bar for it but I've seen people build it further for future proofing if you want more flexibility with fitting intercoolers etc.

 

I wanted to have a Vmount setup. Does that go under "eat a dick"?

 

The point i was trying to get at is people do it for no apparent reason other than they are bored.

They seem to have no imagination so they copy what "the pro's" have done, justifying it with a bunch of "in the future when i run 70 degrees of lock" or "i scrubbed my wheel once so took drastic action"

They should be looking at bigger issues and thinking about designing a solution for it. Completely tucking an exhaust is one thing that hasn't been perfected yet, or a custom/modified front swaybar to avoid rub on full lock, or bolt-in braces for the rear subframe, or reducing the stretch on rear axles when running low & upright rear wheels (narrowing subframe/shortening RLCA's/repositioning RLCA mounts etc etc).

So many things to attack with a grinder and welder but people still insist on pointlessly cutting the front off cars instead

The next time you see someone tube front their car for no good reason and call themselves a fabricator or what they are doing fabrication, slap them and tell them they're an idiot with a grinder.

 

I'm seeing people cutting of the rear ends as well. For using fiberglass panels.

 

I've tubed a car due to crash damage as didn't like it a bit wonky up front although was still drivable.
Mx5 I'm doing will have a bit of tube work due to under protection for rad and cooler.
I also think they look better.
Bending tube is a talent on its own, if I owned a car that wasn't crashed and had to learn to bend tube it would be a great way to learn tube bending and notching to tig standards.
Each to there own. Eating dick, bending tube.
Driving is better in some respect so change to a tube when you arnt in a mid summer drift day session or somthing!

 

I'm gonna tube the front end of my Mk3 MX5, to design an easily accessible simplified layout of all the bits I need access to. Currently the car has a tonne of factory trim and panels all over the front, you can hardly see the radiator from the engine bay, it's at an angle too. Going to turbo the car at the same time so redesigning everything rather than a re-hash of what's there seems more simple.

Each to their own, not everyone likes MX5's anyway so I'm used to thumbs down.

 

Post pics of your tube work guys

 

100% on point. Especially sucks when people do it to what were otherwise pretty clean normal s-bodies. Tubeframes, like anything, are only cool when born out of necessity.

 

This guy has it correct
You don't do it for easier repairs
Its done as a repair

 

Would like to see one done to an E36