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My new cage

Leper

Leper

1/2 ton status
Joined
Feb 18, 2005
Posts
4,436
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4
Location
Dallas Baby!!!!
What do you guys think of my progress so far?
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Last one is mine and my sons 79
 
Fab work on the cage looks good.It would have looked nicer if it was closer to the body. Exo cages definetely look better when they are nice and tight on the body.What kind of tubing did you use?BTW that's a nice clean Blazer :thumb:
 
I thought I needed it out from the body. If it was closer I was afraid it would just be pushed into the body when I was squeezin through stuff. The cage is mostly schedule 40 pipe. It was welded very well though. The tie ins at the frame are schedule 80 and the bumpers are 2x8x.25 wall.
 
82dieselburb said:
BTW that's a nice clean Blazer :thumb:
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Thanks. It was a Air Force Patroll vehicle at a base in South Dakota. 86000 miles. And I have a book of maintenance records. It's not a cucv though. Base model and I almost left it alone. lol
 
Looks good. I assume the idea was to be able to take the top off too? Looks like it should be able to sneak through. :thumb:
 
txfiremank5 said:
Looks good. I assume the idea was to be able to take the top off too? Looks like it should be able to sneak through. :thumb:
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Very observant of you.
 
Caged

agree with 82dieselburb, That's a reallyt nice clean Blazer. I like the colour. The cage looks really well made. I especially like the quality of the tube-bending along the lower rails , how they follow the wheel arches. Looks like a factory job! Are you a fabricator, did you have pro help?
Do the lower rails act as rock sliders and/or jacking points?
I think you're ok to keep cage away from body as it is such a clean body.
I guess the steel rims are larger diameter but the alloys were v. nice wheels.
Well done buddy!
 
Kiwi John said:
agree with 82dieselburb, That's a reallyt nice clean Blazer. I like the colour. The cage looks really well made. I especially like the quality of the tube-bending along the lower rails , how they follow the wheel arches. Looks like a factory job! Are you a fabricator, did you have pro help?
Do the lower rails act as rock sliders and/or jacking points?
I think you're ok to keep cage away from body as it is such a clean body.
I guess the steel rims are larger diameter but the alloys were v. nice wheels.
Well done buddy!
Click to expand...
A friend of mine has an old hand operated bender welded to a lift. We used it for all of the bending. His name is Bubba. He is crazy good at welding and bending. He would measure and mark and I would pump the handle on the bender. The lower rails are schedule 80 pipe, and yes they are sliders. I am going to boatside them in a couple of weeks(.25 plate on the bottom and 1/8 diamond plate on the top to use as a running board). The wheels are the same size, it didn't look right to me to have the alloys on with all the beef of the tires and cage. There is just something about black wheels that I like.
 
You're lucky indeed to have a Bubba on hand. Yes the black rims do suit the cage. I'm not familiar with the terminology there so I dont relate to "Schedule 40" Or "schedule 80" sizes. What does that equate to? Just wondering how much weight the cage has added to the truck? Did you have to boost the suspension in any way re: roll/sway etc?
 
Schedule 80 is about 1/4" thick. We figured it added, including bumpers, about 600 lbs. Because the cage adds the weight over the enitre vehicle it's about the same as carrying 3 passengers. I didn't notice the suspension sitting any lower. I had just finished the lift when we started the cage. The truck drives different than it used to, but I think it's a combination of the 35s and the lift and the cage. :cool:
 
A few people have told me to use gussetts. Is that really required? I think that the welds are strong enough.
 
Gussetts

hi Leper.
Gussetts are little tri-angular reinforcement plates welded across each corner of a join. They would certainly add strength to the frame (U hav to hav them in every direction at every join to be effective) but at the cost of both weight and looks. they would make the frame 'look' really heavy i think. As an exercise, you could print a copy of your photo of the finished frame and 'draw in' the gussetts with a black marker pen to get an idea how it would look. Pretty ugly i would think.
 
As long as you are happy with your handy work, thats what counts. as far as gussets go, you are a bit limited with an exo-cage. You do have a couple places that you could triangulate your cage, but you also have to consider cluttering the thing up. Smaller 1'-0" gussets on a 45 degree might be what your looking for. You may also consider running tubing thru the body to the frame where you can. Just a thought. Nice bending work!
 
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