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Cage and Floor

pauly383

pauly383

Daddy383
Joined
Jul 22, 2001
Posts
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Location
Mesa , Arizona USA
I know cage gets tied to frame , but do I make the floor around the cage and leave body mounted with rubber bushings ? How many have the whole body/floor/frame/cage tied together ? Any problems ? Does the body need to have some give and flex apart from the frame flex ?

EDIT : I have an idea

How about I take square tube and go from body mount to body mount on the frame , put on the boatsiding , weld what I am keeping of the body to that , and once body is solidly on frame with new body bushings , I make the floor /forums/images/graemlins/ears.gif
 
i used to think about a full cage tied to the frame, but abandoned it as i would want the body to move as it needs to as it moves. in a full truck that is nt a trail only rig then i woulednt care how it looked. But now i am considering a full cage tied to the floor at the under body suports and then re enforceing the under body. then mount my seats and belts to the cage.

that way the frame and body can move as they may and i and pasengers are protected. /forums/images/graemlins/waytogo.gif
but hey thats just me.
 
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i used to think about a full cage tied to the frame, but abandoned it as i would want the body to move as it needs to as it moves. in a full truck that is nt a trail only rig then i woulednt care how it looked. But now i am considering a full cage tied to the floor at the under body suports and then re enforceing the under body. then mount my seats and belts to the cage.

that way the frame and body can move as they may and i and pasengers are protected. /forums/images/graemlins/waytogo.gif
but hey thats just me.

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That's how I did mine...

rene
 
Do like they said. Cage to body, seats to cage, seatbelts to cage. That way you are strapped to the cage and you go with the cage in a roll. You need to make sure though that the body support isn't terribly rusted out (replace/reinforce them if they are) and the new floor will be strong enough after you replace the old.

You should also integrate the sliders into your cage. Are you going to boatside it (you should)? Make sure you boatside the rig before you do cage work so you don't have to redo the cage.

Not boatsiding it would be a big mistake. You should get your rockers as high as you can. That is one of Rob's secrets to wheeling 35" tires. He has the rocker clearence of 38's or better.

A clocking ring should also be in your future for the 208 so you can get a flat belly pan. That is unrelated to the topic but and FYI. Since you are replacing the floors you won't have to worry about the floor interference problems if you build the floor to allow for clocked Tcase.

Harley
 
Can I do the floor in stages so body doesn't have to come off or sag ? Looks like if I do the front floor , mounts , and boatsiding , I can then do the rear with the front cab solidly mounted up and stable . I can build motors and do almost anything I try , but never done this before /forums/images/graemlins/thinking.gif
 
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Not boatsiding it would be a big mistake. You should get your rockers as high as you can.

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/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif smart man!

Marv
 
My approach to it:

I cut out the rockers and grafted in 3x3, 3/16" wall tubing....kinda' boatsided since they are raised up to the bottom door hinge (had to cut 4" off the bottom of the doors). The original (rusty) floor was cut out to the trans tunnel. I then ran 1.5", 1/8" wall square tube between the rocker and the original body "subframe" near the body mount locations.

2" angle was also ran between the subframe and the rockers for the seatmounts. The new floor is 1/8" plate......I used the 1/8" stuff so I could incorporate the floor as part of the overall body support (versus building a floor support and then just skinning it with sheetmetal). The floor is welded to the what is left to the original floor on the inboard side, the original subframe, and directly to the rockers on the outboard side (I had to slot the inner sections of the A and B pillars to due this, and then rewelded them to the floor). The seats are currently bolted right to the floor, with the two outer mounting bolts also going through the above mentioned angle iron support.

The cage, which will be started this weekend, will be bolted and/or welded to the 1/8" plate floor with reinforcements coming from the rockers to the underside of the floor where the cage mounting points will be.

For right now I will be using the stock seats and seatbelts, but will hopefully switch to harness's and racing seats next spring. I'm thinking with this design that I can keep the seat mounts and lap bolts mounted to the floor, with the shoulder straps on the cage since everything is directly tied together. For the seat to come loose from the body, and the cage, it would have to rip both the 1/8" floor and angle iron supports off the rockers........if that happens I think there will be more to worry about.......
 
I would say this best approach is make it run, do some cage work and seat supports. Have fun (the most important part) wheeling a few trails and see what gets dented. Then trim that section off and wheel it till it looks like a long gone /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif Green Blazer /forums/images/graemlins/bow.gif that was still street legal.

6478Marv_s_OL_green_blazer_Small_-med.jpg
 
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do some cage work and seat supports.

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I have no safe way of wheeling it until floor work and cage work . Floor is mismatched panels screwed or welded on together , and the mounts I wouldn't trust /forums/images/graemlins/doah.gif
 
Scrap the floor, it's over rated anyway. Get a sheetmetal pan over the tranny/t-case spread from frame rail to frame rail so you won't get burned by fluids. Then at the top of the bottome hinge you will attach your sliders (it sounds high but it will be awsome). Run some supports from the sliders to the body mounts. Run the cage to the sliders and the seats to the cage. Then if you really want run plexiglass or expanded metal from the slider to the tranny hump pan.

that is just my .02

as jay mentioned, get is wheelable and hit the trails.

PS I am already panning a re-do on my cage to allow boat siding.
 
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as jay mentioned, get is wheelable and hit the trails.

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Well I doubt it would be anytime soon , I hafta source some more fundage . What sucks is I just turned down a whole rusted out van with a TBI 350 running for 300.00 cause I'm between right now ( and now everyone who reads this will want it , so don't ask me ) . I am getting the axles and truck paid for and its gonna sit and I can do the stripdown and cutting first and wait . I need a lot of stuff for this . I don't even have any real rear springs and U-bolts so I can remove Rob's straps from the axle /forums/images/graemlins/k5.gif
 
I am going to take some pics of the mounts tommorrow and see exactly what I need to do to get it strong /forums/images/graemlins/k5.gif
 
Well it turns out the rust is rampant , had to cut it out to see the worst of it , I have more pics , will post in my webshots later . Turns out all the patch panels in the floor were from a Maroon Metallic Z-71 pickup . And check out the custom 2 leaf 56's and Green u-bolts we used to load the truck on the trailer /forums/images/graemlins/rotfl.gif

6508Floor_removal_009.jpg


6508Floor_removal_010.jpg

6508Floor_removal_004-med.jpg


6508Floor_removal_002.jpg

Now this is where the boatsiding has to go , really high up , I want to keep the bedsides .
6508Floor_removal_013.jpg
 
im the /forums/images/graemlins/hack.gif god, /forums/images/graemlins/peace.gif /forums/images/graemlins/peace.gif thank u
 
yikes! I feel your pain... yours is worse though /forums/images/graemlins/eek.gif
who's about to eat catfood?
 
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yikes! I feel your pain... yours is worse though /forums/images/graemlins/eek.gif
who's about to eat catfood?

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thats me and my copenhagen catfood. /forums/images/graemlins/waytogo.gif /forums/images/graemlins/whistling.gif
 
LOL ooh... always a good snack /forums/images/graemlins/yikes.gif /forums/images/graemlins/histerical.gif
 
good eatn and the girls love it /forums/images/graemlins/histerical.gif /forums/images/graemlins/rotfl.gif /forums/images/graemlins/screwy.gif
 
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yikes! I feel your pain... yours is worse though

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It aint all that bad . Boatsiding and new steel front floor with body mounts extending to where the the back seat starts and then I'd have a spot to mount a cage . In the back a simple tube frame with body mounts and I can screw a simple floor down , run eyes to the simple frame and then I can strap my trailbox and cooler down . No resto here , I have a pretty truck for that , doing the interior up before long on that /forums/images/graemlins/thumb.gif
 
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