Project: I have no idea what I'm doing (Moved from p4x4)

[Boss]

In other news, I decided to start cleaning up my tub and get to work on the cage while I wait for links. The tub looked like swiss cheese around where the old cage bolted in. You can kind of see some of the holes I had to fill in in the pic below(I freaking hate welding such think metal, but I think I'm getting better) What does everyone's frame to cage tie-ins look like?

Here's what I'm thinking:

That is exactly what I did. Must have saw it somewhere.

 

[Boss]

Well it turns out I'm full of shit. I did it this way.

 

[Sandy Johnson]

Well it turns out I'm full of shit. I did it this way.

I like that way a lot better. I'm actually thinking of redoing mine up front and am definitely not going to do the same setup on the B and C pillars. Not going to try and invent the wheel or anything, so I hunted around and this looks like a good setup(similar to yours): https://motobilt.com/collections/rol...-bushing-mount

 

[Poriggity]

Loving this build. Makes me want a yj again.

 

[Sandy Johnson]

Thanks!

My fabrication skills are pretty weak and I don't really own the right tools for making a cage, so I figured I would do the right thing for the back half of this thing and try to build one one myself.

I wonder how much of this tubing is going to actually make it into the cage and how much is going to wind up in the scrap pile?

 

[Trazer75MT]

Said sweet build there. Now sweet build here.

 

[Boss]

I went full retard last night and cut the frame out

I remember when I did my rear links I sat and looked at it for hours until my head hurt. I said fuck it and ended up with this on my welding table.

It was so satisfying to get that mind fuck out of there.

 

['92 Vegas YJ]

Rig is looking good. Can't wait to see how the rest of it comes along.

 

[Rockwood]

Thanks!

My fabrication skills are pretty weak and I don't really own the right tools for making a cage, so I figured I would do the right thing for the back half of this thing and try to build one one myself.

I wonder how much of this tubing is going to actually make it into the cage and how much is going to wind up in the scrap pile?

Most of it. 1.75x0.120? How many foots? Get a notcher and one of these guys yet?

 

[Sandy Johnson]

Most of it. 1.75x0.120? How many foots? Get a notcher and one of these guys yet?

1.75 x .120, 80 foots, yes and yes.

 

[Rockwood]

1.75 x .120, 80 foots, yes and yes.

Nice. My enthusiasm to cage my XJ is waning... Damned real life crap keeps getting in the way.

 

[92 Green YJ]

Looking good. Lord willing I’ll be ordering tube myself here in the next couple of weeks.

 

[Sandy Johnson]

Got a bender on loan from a friend. I decided that I should see if I could actually do this thing sooner rather than later.

So I put on my thinking cap and got to work. I haven't pushed the sin button on a calculator in 20 years until yesterday. I think the last time I used SOHCAHTOA was for the SATs in 1998. Note- drawing is not to scale :

After a sufficient amount of over-thinking, I decided to give it a go:

The tube is a little long where it connects to the tub because I wanted to leave some space for screw-ups. I don't have my wheel well tops on yet, so now I have to wait to cut until I know how much taller those end up. Guessing 4" right now, and the tube is already about 3" too long out of there, so I'll probably be taking ~7" off. As of right now, the part parallel with the tub is actually off by 2.5*. I also still needed to clean up where I cut the old tube off the b-pillar hoop and notch the new stuff on that side, except I lost my 1 3/4 hole saw . Gonna run by the hardware store maybe tomorrow and pick up two new ones (one to use and another for when I lose that one). All said and done, it should move everything forward another 2" or so.

I was pretty happy with how my first bending attempt came out so I made one for the other side too:

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[Sandy Johnson]

It seems like the max number of pics we're allowed to have here is 5 per post. I think I'm going to harass Austin about maybe bumping those numbers up.

In other news, I had a big win on the shipping front. I finally got my back-ordered fuel bezel so I could check and see if my attempt at hacking out a hole to fit it was actually correct. I got a lot closer than I thought I would:

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Stoked. Some people are probably wondering why I got plastic instead of blinding aluminum or whatever. I like plastic because I don't get sad when I drag it across rocks. :D

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[gt1guy]

It seems like the max number of pics we're allowed to have here is 5 per post. I think I'm going to harass Austin about maybe bumping those numbers up.

In other news, I had a big win on the shipping front. I finally got my back-ordered fuel bezel so I could check and see if my attempt at hacking out a hole to fit it was actually correct. I got a lot closer than I thought I would:

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Stoked. Some people are probably wondering why I got plastic instead of blinding aluminum or whatever. I like plastic because I don't get sad when I drag it across rocks. :D

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I'm not seeing any pictures in this post. Just a couple little boxes where the pics should be.

First I've heard about the 5 pics per post. I've been coping my build thread over to here and I've put dozens of pics in a single post many times so far.

Do you run a soft or hard top? If you do, make sure you double check that it still fits before you start burning in the new section of cage. Beats the hell out of an "oh fuck" later on.

 

[Boss]

some people are probably wondering why I got plastic instead of blinding aluminum or whatever.

Wtf you talking about here? Dont make me read the whole thread. You babble too much.

 

[Sandy Johnson]

I'm not seeing any pictures in this post. Just a couple little boxes where the pics should be.

First I've heard about the 5 pics per post. I've been coping my build thread over to here and I've put dozens of pics in a single post many times so far.

Do you run a soft or hard top? If you do, make sure you double check that it still fits before you start burning in the new section of cage. Beats the hell out of an "oh fuck" later on.

Well shit, apparently I'm bad at internetting today. I'll have to go look at it when I've had less whiskey to drink. Bad news about the top- I've been looking for a deal on a LJ top, but haven't found one close to me yet, so yeah.. winging that part a little bit.

Wtf you talking about here? Dont make me read the whole thread. You babble too much.

Yeah, that's what I do, you should see when I really get on a roll in GCC:rolleyes:. I think it was supposed to say "blinging" instead of binding. For some reason I have had a few people become real passionate when it comes up the I'm just using the OEM plastic replacement fuel bezel instead of some funky aftermarket metal one. I don't get it, but I figured I'd nip that one in the bud before someone went off on this thread.

 

[gt1guy]

And then?

 

[Sandy Johnson]

And then?

Sitting around waiting for a pair of wheel well tops from motobilt so I can finish the cage and move on to other things. I guess they got slammed with requests, so even though I put in my order weeks ago, they just shipped on Friday. Been doing a bunch of not really exciting stuff like putting sending unit in the gas tank so my gas gauge works and lengthening stuff like tail light and fuel pump wiring to reach the extra 15" out back.

Not a lot of pictures, but here's one of the fuel sending unit in:

I now have tons of other excuses as well. We're supposed to have a new baby any day now(due date was June 10th), and two of our three sites at work had workers come down with the 'rona so our protocols required that we shut them down and send everyone that was in the building that day home for two weeks. Today is the first day we re-open those locations.. but the people who normally staff them are all home for the next two weeks. We also lost two of our IT techs(one was at each site at the time of exposure), so I need to jump in and help cover their jobs. Going to be an interesting week.

 

[Sandy Johnson]

So wouldn't you know it, wheel well tops finally showed up from motobilt and a day later my wife has our baby. Two weeks later and I finally had a chance to do some things again.

So I starting cutting some more holes in things.

And then I pulled out my already bent tube from a month ago and stared at it trying to remember what to do next(also I may have sold our trailer and bought that thing in the background, long story but it has a cummins 12v swap and some other cool stuff).

Finally arriving on inspiration, I mocked up everything and cut the tubing down to where I wanted it, then I used my super special CAD setup/paint booth to make sure I could duplicate the other side:

After that one thing led to another and I tacked some stuff together(dont look too closely, my welding mask had the battery die in it, so I did everything with safety squints):

Aaaand about this point, my toddler decided to wake up from his nap, so the passenger side will have to wait for another day.

 

[backchat]

Congrats on the Kiddo! My Jeep has been parked since my first kid... almost 15 years ago...

Keep up the progress!

 

[Drakeslayer]

I've looked at those wheel well tops, how strong are they really? What are your plans for the bottom side? Tieing the cage plates to the frame? How close does your diff come to the underside of the floor?

 

[Sandy Johnson]

I've looked at those wheel well tops, how strong are they really? What are your plans for the bottom side? Tieing the cage plates to the frame? How close does your diff come to the underside of the floor?

Wheel well tops are beefier than the stock body panels, but not strong enough to rely on them to support the c pillar by themselves in a rollover. I'm using motobilt's cage tie in kit and some 1.75" .120 wall tubing to connect to the frame.

Link to motobilt kit: https://motobilt.com/collections/roll-cage-parts/products/roll-cage-bushing-mount

The upper links on my truss just barely peek through the floor at full bump.

 

[gt1guy]

Are you going to have room between where the cage lands on the fender well and the top of the shock tower to make a tie-in support for the tower?

 

[Sandy Johnson]

Are you going to have room between where the cage lands on the fender well and the top of the shock tower to make a tie-in support for the tower?

yeah, I could make something fit, but I was thinking I could just run some tube down to the frame to tie in where I cleaned off the paint like so:

I am by no means a cage safety scientist, however, so I'm open to other options.

 

[gt1guy]

Are you still planning to support the top of the shock tower off the cage?

 

[Sandy Johnson]

Are you still planning to support the top of the shock tower off the cage?

Not sure. I'm going to check with my fabrication skills and see if it happens. Not looking good though, since I can barely weld properly when I have lost of room and can see what I'm doing...

 

[gt1guy]

Any update?

You're kid should be old enough to drive by now

 

[Sandy Johnson]

Any update?

You're kid should be old enough to drive by now

Stalled out after the baby and dragging a motorhome project home. Hopefully, the motorhome will be done this week and I can get back to the jeep. It's all part of the plan to be able to GTFO and go camping with the kiddos. We're supposed to go to Utah and visit my bro-in-law in September. He really wants to go take me wheeling around there, so the goal is to be done with everything by then.

The shitshow that is the motorhome project is over here:
http://www.travcoforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=3990

 

[gt1guy]

This look on your face is not conducive to getting anything finished this week.