Cage for my wife's CJ-2A!

That is some awsome custom work!!! PLEASE post pic when installed.

 

Wow, thanks for all the compliments everyone, that's way nice of you! I put it on the cj2a page too, so if you frequent both sites, I apologize for the redundancy.

Here are shots of it in the jeep. I hope they turn out for you. I am working on the frame tie-ins, they will connect at all six points with the stock body sandwiched between the feet of the cage and platforms off the frame tie-ins. My main goal is not to alter too much of the stock jeep, so I am making the frame tie ins bolt on, so there is no welding or excessive drilling on the frame itself.

As I mentioned, I tried to keep the windshield and dashboard hardware stock and functional. It all fits inside the aftermarket soft top, and I made the door openings as large as possible so that it wasn't any harder to get in and out of the little jeep.

I wanted to build it in a way that was completely unique and functional, and I love blending elements of the old and the new together. It was a pretty fun project. I am also working on a removable rack for above the rear cage section, a tire carrier for the back of it, and a dimpled aluminum or molded composite roof section for the cage. New seat brackets may end up being tied into the cage in the future. First, I have to get some engine work done on the old flathead though, so most of that will have to wait a little bit. I am not sure why the PO painted the jeep this color, the stock color was Normandy Blue which I think looks so much better, so we have plans to repaint it the stock color.

I used an Airco 250 mig welder and a model 3 tube bender. I don't have any plans, as someone asked, since I just built it as I went along using the jeep as a guide, but if you need some measurements I may be able to help you there.

As a side note, my 5 year old nephew Matthew bent the passenger grab bar with me, got to start the kids out early you know! It's amazing how much my sister's kids talk about their uncle's jeeps...It drives their parents nuts, but it makes me smile! Thanks again everyone!

 

That is awesome.

 

Great lookin cage!!! Where are you from?? Do you do alot of fabbing?
NICE CAGE!!
Sam

 

Awfuly nice of you to build her a cage since it looks by the seating arrangement she won't let you ride with her!
Really nice job and great attention to detail my hats off to you.

 

That thing is sweet

 

I live in southeast Wisconsin, less than an hour southwest of Milwaukee. I used to build transmissions and gear boxes for jeep people in our local club and beyond. Lately, I build custom axles, and do a lot of tube stuff, because I find it pretty fun and interesting. Now, work and college keep me pretty busy, so when I get some time in the garage, it's a real treat!

Daniel

 

Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!!!

 

Hey Daniel, Rit from the 2A Page. Damn, I wish I lived next door to you.

 

That's not a rollcage - that's a WORK OF ART!!!!!

Very nice. You have mucho talent when it comes to bending tube.

 

Nice! Please post pictures of it after it's in the Jeep.

 

Oops. My bad. I see the pics now. Yeah, that looks pretty tough.

 

2 words

SA WEEEETTTTT

 

I think youre onto something there buddy. DO you know what it weighs?? I wanted to go all out on a cage, but it turns out that gussets, and triangles, and additional supports add some serious weight. What kind of engine are you running, and have you noticed a difference in ride and drive power. The 4 squirrels under my hood would never agree to lug that extra weight around. Let us know when you get it rolling.

 

I can figure out how much you love your wife!!!

That´s a beutiful piece of work

I gonna start working on mine and to be honest this will give me more idea about safety

Please put and approach of weight and tube thickness u used, would U?

Ed

 

Wow Wow Wow Wow!!!!!

 

Hi, sorry for the delay, it was midterm times for college these last couple weeks!

I haven't weighed the cage, but I believe a fairly accurate guess would be that it weighs somewhere near 100 pounds. The bulk of the cage is 1.75" x .120" wall mild steel tube, the smaller tubing in 1.25" x .083" wall. I am actually running the stock L-head four cyl., and our other jeep for crawling runs a propane powered AMC 258. I am part of the low HP, low gears crowd, I guess!

Personally, I wouldn't worry about the extra weight from gusseting if I were you. The priority to most any cage is safety, and a sound, well thought out cage design is the key to that. Sometimes it is a misconception that heavy gusset plates are needed in a cage, most race car and chassis builders recommend using gussets that are equivalent to the wall thickness of the tubing being used. Super-thick gussets welded to thinner walled tubing is overkill in many peoples opinion.

Another way to stiffen structure is to use "shear plates", as I did on the front of this cage below the windshield. For clarification, I call a gusset a reinforcement that spans between structural pieces almost like a spiders web, whereas a shear plate is a plate that is surrounded by structural members on all sides. The dimpled shear plates on this cage are a relatively light 14 gauge steel, but the dimpled holes increases the plates rigidity, and reduces weight at the same time. One added point about gusset and shear plate placement...some builders place them so that the gussets and plates are located on the center line of the tubing, but this can cause the gusset to collapse the tube if it were subjected to a crash or a roll. The strongest place to mount gussets and plates, according to most race car engineers, is to weld the edges of the gussets and plates to an outside or inside edge of the tubing, so that the plate or gusset sits just flush with the surface of the tube structure.

To illustrate this point, which I may have not described well, I have pictures below of the rear crossmember I built to run a 4-link, using stock TJ front coil springs, on our rockcrawling jeep. The large shear plate shown is mounted on the edge of the tubing frame beneath it where it can provide the most support without risking collapse of the tubing. Also, the plate is only about 0.10" thick, yet the dimpled holes allow it to be more rigid and weigh less than a conventional flat piece of steel. By using the lighter shear plate, I am able to avoid the added weight and complexity of additional tubing to reinforce this same area on the frame. For more illustrations of these points, check out the cages and frames on most desert trucks or professional race cars, these are valuable guides for us novice tube benders!

Sorry for the longwinded explanation, I guess I should have warned you guys not to get me talking jeeps, because I may talk your ears off!

Daniel

 

Do you have a special punch press to get the dimpled holes, or do you have it done?

 

OOOHHH CRAP , I think i just wet myself!!!!!!!!!

Wow that looks good ,, about to build mine but certainly wont show the pics now ,, it would be like comparing Catapilliar vs. Tonka