Yeah, that might be for another build, once I'd seen how much further you need to take the cage I realized its something I could never take on the street so that in addition to not wanting to rebuild parts in the drivetrain every 20 or so passes has me reassessing the build some.

Mini flexible tig rig, with short gas lenses, maybe a mirror.

I felt going I to this that I had done adequate research though there seems to be more then is explained in the NHRA guidelines, I fully expect to be in the 7s with this car and might have to do more research

Just make sure there is no porosity, slag entrapment, undercut or grind marks on the finish product. Its metal it can all be fixed before you cert it. Good luck.

I get its quicker with mig, however the sides of your plates appeared are away, which is why I had suggested tig. Not putting it down just a suggestion.

I'm about to weld in my cage this week, with the floor panels being as thin as they are I'm going to tig them in as well, focus the heat on the plate and walk it over to the base material then quickly back to the plate, have more then one weld ready to go at a time so you can run a little then...