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A cage for the Jimmy! Progress pics and worried questions (!) post 18!

blowedupmotor87

blowedupmotor87

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Hey y'all, I am finally in my motorsports chassis fab class so, I am now learning about welding and am going to be building a cage for my 87, I have been looking through a fair bit of people's builds, y'all do some sweet work! I was actually wondering if anyone might have some basic plans for a cage for an 87 K5 that I might could purchase from ya? I've got some ideas but, this is a whole new thing to me so, I need a starting point.

Here's what I've got brewing so far thought wise:

Material: 2" DOM but what thickness would y'all recommend?

Seats: Twisted Stitch buckets up front, Twisted Stitch bench out back

Harnesses: ditch the stock belts and run 4 point harnesses

Goals for tubing design:
1. have a cross bar behind front seats for harness mounts and a cross bar behind rear bench for harness mounts
2. all seats will mount to cage (should I make any front seat adjustability, is there a way to?)
3. triangulation but not TOO much visiblity lost

Any suggestions/help would be much appreciated! Thanks! :D
 
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1 3/4 dom .120 is a good start, 2" is big and more $$$$ and not needed.
 
Agree with above....120 wall will suffice. On my Blazer I'm planning on building the main section that protects the driver/passenger out of 2" DOM and the rest out of 1.75". The front of the Blazer will consist of 1.5" HREW.
 
onetonbb74 said:
1 3/4 dom .120 is a good start, 2" is big and more $$$$ and not needed.
Click to expand...

RGV72BLAZER said:
Agree with above....120 wall will suffice. On my Blazer I'm planning on building the main section that protects the driver/passenger out of 2" DOM and the rest out of 1.75". The front of the Blazer will consist of 1.5" HREW.
Click to expand...

Is 1 3/4" DOM really that much cheaper than 2"? I haven't priced it yet.

RGV72BLAZER said:
front seat adjustability...sliders
Click to expand...

I was thinking a slider for the driver's seat, I reckon that's the only one that needs one. Will that compromise the integrity of the seat mounting too much?

9" Jimmy said:
If you're on a budget like I am, the 1.75" .120 will do. As far as your seats, check out www.hyperformance.com, just some more money saving ideas for ya. I'm cheap!:D
Click to expand...

Thanks bro but, I've got seats. My GF bought me a set of Corbeau Baja Ultra buckets for the front as an anniversary present. I bought a matching rear seat. All black vinyl, they look sweet (but I need to lose some weight, they are a tight fit, LOL!)

Thanks for the info y'all! Keep it coming!
 
How much did the rear bench run you in that set-up? I'm looking for an all black vinyl rear bench as well, but like I said, "I'm cheap"!:(
 
9" Jimmy said:
How much did the rear bench run you in that set-up? I'm looking for an all black vinyl rear bench as well, but like I said, "I'm cheap"!:(
Click to expand...

Just under $400 IIRC for the 42" bench. I bet there's less expensive brands out there though!

colbystephens said:
in portland last year it was about $1/foot difference!
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$1.00 a foot ain't horrible I don't think. What maybe $100 extra (100ft or so in material) in a full cage?
 
guess that's all perspective. $100 to $150 is quite a bit of cash, as far as i'm concerned. additionally, when you look at percentage, it's an increase of 25-35% in the cost of the material for the cage. that's pretty substantial.
 
colbystephens said:
guess that's all perspective. $100 to $150 is quite a bit of cash, as far as i'm concerned. additionally, when you look at percentage, it's an increase of 25-35% in the cost of the material for the cage. that's pretty substantial.
Click to expand...

I thought material cost would be MUCH higher though! So, even at $150 more than another option, we are still below what I thought it would be! IDK where I got my ideas from but, I had figured on almost double the price per foot so, hey, it's a bargain compared to my thoughts! So, my perspective on it's a bit weird in that respect! Thanks for the info bro!
 
Mine is 2 inch 120 DOM... I bought 9 sticks of 2 inch and 1 stick of 1.75.
I decided to go with the 2 inch because I thought it would look better considering the size of the rig. I am very pleased with how it worked out. Remember you will be wasting some tube due to bending mistakes and having to have an extra bit sticking out for you to bend with.

Here is what 1k of tubing looks like...

DSC01823.jpg


all the staked cage flanges and gussets

DSC01866-1.jpg


how a 115lb guy and myself got the cage back into the k5 after finish welding and paint...

DSC00652.jpg



done

DSC00694.jpg
 
:waytogo: SWEET CAGE! Thanks for posting up pics Gabe! Got two questions for ya: What wall thickness did you use? and, how do the staked cage flanges work? Thanks!
 
I'm going to build my cage with 1.750" DOM .120 wall.

1.750" X .120 wall weighs 2.089 lbs/ft
2.000" x .120 wall weighs 2.409 lbs/ft
 
Its 2 inch .120 wall, The staked cage flanges work great. Just be sure to attach them to the frame. Mine are attached at 6 points.
gabe
 
morgan...1 3/4 .120 hrew...thats all your gonna need..im sure if you ever roll that georgous truck of yours you will be putting together another and the hrew will protect you just fine...my whole truggy is hrew and i have no problem with it

my links are 1 3/4 .250 wall dom
my boat sides are 1 3/4 .12p dom
and my drag link and tie road are 1 1/2 .243 wall

thats all the dom thats on my rig
 
Making some progress!
Gutted for the cage:
gutted.jpg


B pillar layout:
rollbarlayout.jpg


B pillar underside mount (so hoop centers on body reinforcement (two separate plates, might tie together sometime):
Bpillarplates.jpg


Side shot of hoops (hoops aren't crooked, the pic is, view screen on digital camera is busted so, I can't see):
twomainhoopssideview.jpg


Looking at the hoops from the back:
fittotop.jpg


(Excuse the dates, the camera has a busted screen so, I can't see anything to fix it) I've made more progress than this but I have been thinking and I have a BIG concern:

HELP PLEASE!-Big safety question:
Is my design pre-biased toward roll over failure?

Reasoning behind this question:
If you look at my pics, the hoops are essentially hexagons, which now that I think about it, make for a VERY weak shape. Will the side bends cause the cage to be able to "squish" downward under the weight of the vehicle if I end up on my lid?
eek.gif


I am having a lot of trouble figuring out triangulation to prevent it. The problem is, I'm thinking I need lateral triangulation to prevent that type of failure? and that no amount of longitudinal triangulation will fix the problem? But, the placement of the B-pillar hoops prevents a direct X brace due to the fact that it would conflict with where the backs over the rear seats need to be (they extend back slightly past the B pillar hoop). On the back hoop, it would be difficult due to the forward lean of the rear hoop (it goes vertical then I bent it forward 20 degrees above the bed rails to match the top's profile). Any ideas to make it safe? Are my concerns warranted? It's the first one I've built so, I am starting from scratch. Thanks!
 
I understand your concerns and i'm no expert by any means but i think you are correct that the amount of angle you have on those tubes isn't going to support the weight of the rig properly should it go over on it's lid. Secondly, from an astetic point of view i personally don't care how it looks either, i would rather have the cage as wide as possible and the bars as straight as possible upwards.
 
You can probably bend them back out a little bit with the bender

It doesn't work very well though
 
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