I am getting so aggrivated with this roll cage. i am having no luck at all getting the bends right in the front passenger area. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/angry.gif" alt="" /> i am getting ready to cut and weld every bend in the front just to stop the pain!!! j/k but i am getting pis*ed waisting all this tubeing my learning curve is getting very expensive.

Did you make a template or "use the force"? I was going to rip some 3/4" plywood at 2" . cut them to length and gang nail(finish brads) them together at the proper angle. Make a few of these for every crucial bend in the cage. I'll be practicing my welds on my sliders before I attempt this chore. I was also going to buy a tube bender from Harbour Freight.

thats what i have and it works great and i am using a 6' peice of flex exaust pipe and it seems to work well i just cant handle these 20' chunks of heavy a** tubeing myself oh well i will give it another shot tomorrow with a new attitude.

Does your bender have an angle guage on it? Mine was approximate at best, but it at least allowed me to duplicate a bend so both sides wound up the same.
I first drew it up in a 2D cad program. I drew my straight lines to represent the outside edge of the tube. I then had the program put the bend radius in. I could then dimension the straights, the length of the bend, and then get the overall length. It also showed me where the bends would start and stop.
I also read up on Pirate4x4. They have a great tutorial that describes a system of snapping chalk lines on the floor. I used both systems together and I never missed a bend. Well, I did have one that the overall width at the bottom was 1.5" too wide, but hey... Some judicious pulling and prodding kept me from having to waste it <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />. This was with a JD2 bender, and my first experience with it. I do know that the front hoop has many different bends per side. One of course that goes from across the top to down. One bend above the dash allowing the bar to hug the Apillar. Next, it bends just past the to of the dash back towards the front of the truck. One more bend back to the floor, and ALSO sort of back out to the outside. This one is a compound bend.
One idea that I'd seen AFTER I did mine was that some cages will run the middle hoop side to side, but then instead of a one piece front hoop, use two bars running from the middle hoop forward to the windshield and bending down to the floor. Then connect one straight bar across the top of the windshield tying in those two bars. This is how my rear half is done.

i cut about an inch over the window height and just beat the window part flat then folded the sections between windows and rear door area and welded together, gonna add aluminum bedrail to top of lip, but i only made it half chop so the front half is still covered, it rains here lots!

Great pictures, guys! I'm almost positive I'm going to do the same thing when I get the engine wiring all under hand on my Turbo Monty. I do have to figure out a roll bar, I want something similar to LT's

One of my old coworkers offered to lend me an airpowered sheetmetal cutter he has, I think it's similar to an air chisel or it is an airchisel with a different attachment on it that makes smooth cuts and no heat like a grinder or sawzall <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

Keep up the good work!

Hate to hijack but...




Dave have you built a top for your montero? Not that I'd ever be able to do that to mine, but I'm just curious. Also, what size shackles are you running in the the rear? thhose look huge! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/evil.gif" alt="" /> Love the color scheme too.

Can't help you with the shackles, but he's working on a top.

Check out the progress.

Pretty damn spiffy work, if you ask me. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />