So, after many months of thinking about doing this, and being somewhat discouraged about what I have seen out there, I decided to take the plunge. I am posting this stuff in case there is anyone else out there that wants to tackle this, or if I can answer any questions for anyone crazy enough to go down this road.A huge THANK YOU goes out to my buddy Brian Smith, Fabricator Extraordinaire, who if he never sees another Rover in his whole life, it will be too soon. I think he might listen to me a little closer next time when I tell him how cramped something is. This started as a trade because he owed me a small favor, now I owe him a huge one.The whole cage is 1 3/4 .120 wall 4130 chromoly. We used almost 90 feet total. The cage is fully tig welded around all of the joints, and wherever possible, stitched to the body itself, so it won't rattle. We really wanted to make sure that anything we did didn't impede the already ridiculously tight openings in the truck, or make it any less civilized. After pulling the whole truck apart, Brian was able to fit most of the cage behind the headliner, including the gussets.Since the headliner was falling down when we started, it seemed like a good time to fix that too. Special Thanks to Eric Thorsen from the Upholstery Shop for fixing up the headliner, which was also way more work than it should have been. Not to mention the scavenger hunt to find the perfect material, and enough of it.Start to finish was 3 ½ weeks total.Anyway, here is a link to the pics with a couple of notes.
Pics-a-Plenty...
Front window, showing the "Brinks" bar
Other side
Close up of the curved windshield bar. It's good to have friends with nicer tools than you.
Top left gusset
Top right gusset
Super secret corner gusset plate in front of the dash
Front bar disappearing into the dash
Left side front main hoop, through dash and plated to lower a-pillar
Right side...
Roof, a-pillar & b-pillar area, in progress...
2nd row area, a little later on (seats are back in) Shows b-pillar and c-pillar (main hoop) area. Notice extra bars in roof to keep the kids safe.
Rear shot of c-pillar and d-pillar (another complete hoop)
Rear shot, a little earlier on in the build
Super sexy b-pillar bar. No blockage to getting in and out of the truck, or adjusting the seats
Kids seat belt bar, ready for 5 points (once they are out of their car seats)
Minor modification for sunroof drain tube
From the back cargo door
Back quarter, with part of the interior back in
Front passenger seat belt bar, still allows the seats to go almost all the way back
From the back
The whole shebang
The whole shebang, with new skin
Had to trim the a-pillar plastic to make the bars fit right, so they got wrapped too
Front roof section, obviously
Back roof section with plastics back in
Close up of rear bar. It couldn't be totally hidden, but I think it worked out OK
Front to back, from the front doorThat's all!
2 comments:
If you would have had to pay for that cage how much would that have cost you?
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