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Roll cage finally done

Desert Rat

Desert Rat

Fetch the comfy chair
Joined
Oct 19, 2002
Posts
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Location
Tri-Valley, NorCal
Finally got the roll cage done. I had a guy in Livermore do it for me. He has his own shop that he does other work in, but does side jobs. He normally does NHRA car fabrication and this was his first 4x4. The tubing is 1 3/4 x .134 DOM. This is probably heavier than I needed, but the guy was used to fabbing 1 5/8 x .134 so I went with it. Before anybody starts screaming "NOT ENOUGH CROSS BRACING", I am putting seats in that recline along with a back seat for the chilluns. I would have liked to go with some cross bracing behind the front seats but practicality won out. I have two seats I bought that are racing style that recline. I also bought the largest Tuffy center console. The cross bars have tabs on them to mount the seats and the center console. I also had him put pull handles on the front down bars for ease of access. I painted it today with gloss black appliance enamel. The finish is ok, but hell, it's just a rollcage. I also had him make me some tabs on the rear hoop to fab up a rectangular tailgate type piece that I can bolt in when the back seat isn't in. This will make it like a smaller pickup keeping all my gear from flying forward. The passenger seat has a small bracket under the seat that pivots on the tubes allowing it to be pulled up and forward for rear seat access. I also had it made with tabs to mount the stock seatbelts on the rollcage instead of on the body for obvious reasons. There are more pictures here: http://community.webshots.com/user/douglasgrant

Rear_shot_1.jpg


Rear_view_1.jpg


Passenger_side_2.jpg


Driver_side_1.jpg


Passenger_side_tabs.jpg
 
In addition to the rollcage, I had the shop add a tube onto the front of my 4x4 Iron bumper. It came out pretty good if I do say so. There are tabs on it to mount some lights later.

Front_view_4.jpg


Front_view_3.jpg
 
A single diagonal on a Halo isn't uncommon. It is triangulated, and with .134" wall it'll take one hell of an impact to collapse that part. Frankly that part is stronger than the untriangulated 'B' hoop...:whistle:

Rene
 
muddybuddy said:
looks real good. how much did that cost ya?
Click to expand...

Well, the guy doesn't want me to give that up since I was his maiden voyage in the 4x4 world and he plans on doing some more. But, it was probably about $1,000 less than most shops would've charged me for the roll cage and front bumper.
 
ryanstrucking said:
Thats a nice looking cage.
I take it your putting the rear seat back in with a cage like that?
Click to expand...

Yep, I will put the stock rear seat back in. However, down the road I am thinking of putting some of those quick disconnect type tube connectors on each side rail, running two tubes off the side rails down low, and putting a custom rear seat hung on those two tubes that I can remove quickly and easily.
 
One of the other reasons I didn't X the front cab was headroom. As it stands, on a good bump I won't wack my head if I go straight up. Had I X'ed it, I would've had very little clearance between the top of my head and the bar. With the thickness of the tubing, I should be OK.
 
Yup, there isn't that much headroom in that area, especially with the steel half cab. I went with the 'V' which accomplished the same thing for head room...and is no stronger than the single diagonal (just looks symmetrical)

Rene
 
The shop did a couple of trick things that I was impressed with. First, they took the floor plates and had them stamped with a square hole. This let us use carriage bolts so that the bolts on the plates would be low profile. Second, he made some narrow strips to go in between the cage plate and the floor so it wouldn't flatten out the rear deck. Underneath there is another matching plate with raised bars to match the floor grooves. One of the next projects I am going to have him fab for me is some rock sliders that bolt to the frame. This will be after I Line-X the entire interior though. I also have to get some padding on some of the bars. I will probably go with Kerkey roll cage padding with Pro-Comp neoprene Wrapz to keep them in place.
 
got ya, just reading about cages, you always read about triangulation, so that all i was thinking
looks damn fine
i am waiting for DPI to start his cage kits. Hopefully i will be able to go up there and get it put in.
 
Oh, and this guy TIG welded the whole thing which was nice. It sure kept the spatter down so I didn't have to wrap the entire interior in asbestos blankets or something.....
 
I read that you are using seats that recline, do they go completely flat & if so, is that a design goal?
The reason I ask is that I'd like to see some diagonalization in at least the main (B pillar) hoop. Even if that's only a couple kickers that start on the floor at the inside edge of the seats (w/ a walk thru gap btwn them) & pick-up the hoop at the body waistline. Oh dang! Center console = no walk-thru center.
Well, OK how about a single from the inside edge of the pass seat up to the hoop at driverside bodyline?
From what I've seen of your posts you've put a lot of thot into this, so take my suggestions for what they're worth.

Other than this concern I like what I see. Clean and simple w/ no 'dead' tubes.
 
If I had to do it again, and I suppose I could still add it, I would do a couple of small tubes on the B hoop like the tubes the run back to front that the seat belt is attached to and maybe even some at the rear hoop. I don't know how much extra strength they would add, but it certainly wouldn't hurt. It kind of came down to exactly how much metal I wanted to put in there. Given the size of the cage with 1 3/4 x .134 wall DOM tubing, I suspect I've added a bit of weight. So, I tried to be strong, but somewhat sparing. Between the doubler, the front and rear 4x4 Iron bumper, winch, Corp14, D60, the tires and rims, 45 gallon steel gas tank, and all the gear I haul, my engine is going to be put to the test. Somewhere down the line I will swap in a GM crate 383 stroker, but I'm going to run the existing 350 until it croaks.
 
Desert Rat said:
Well, the guy doesn't want me to give that up since I was his maiden voyage in the 4x4 world and he plans on doing some more. But, it was probably about $1,000 less than most shops would've charged me for the roll cage and front bumper.
Click to expand...

i respect that. its a great lookin cage:bow:
 
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