Topic: Finished my cage

[RRMike]

Well I got the front part of the cage put together last fall but it started raining and my bender is outside so the rest got put on hold for the winter. 

Well, the weather finally turned so I got the bender and notcher out and finished up the rear part around the bed.

I hear triangles and trapezoids are good?









I tried to keep it as close to the body as I could and still have a small gap:






And no the license plate isn't permanently there.  I just had to throw it on to drive the truck to where my bender is.  I just haven't figured out where to put it yet.  It's taller than the bumper so if I put it high enough to not hang below the bumper it hits the tailgate when open and if I put it even with the top of the bumper it hangs below and gets bent to hell when I drag the bumper.

[*** YELLER ***]

nice work are you gonna mount the spare on the cage in the bed




 

[RRMike [OP]]

Probably.  I'm not sure exactly how I'm going to build the spare mount yet.  I thought of building it on the lower cross tube but it would extend the spare down into the bed, which would be fine and help the rearward visibility issue but I don't know yet what I'm going to do for a toolbox.  I planned on putting it in the back of the bed, that's why I left that area open and didn't triangulate between the two crossbars, but I don't know if I like having to mount the spare up so high.  It will kill being able to see out the back window.

[crawlerdan]

i like it...except for the cowl bar, looks to me like it shold be lowered a little. i really like the bed part...looks baja esq.

[RRMike [OP]]

I agree with the assessment about the cowl tube.  I didn't want to have any problems with interference with the wipers or changing windshields.  The one in it is cracked so I want to replace it and maybe after that do a "/\" from the cowl bar up to the A pillar cross tube.  The seats in the rig are out of a new accord and it sits you up really high with a power height adjustment to get your head against the roof if you really want so it hasn't been an issue as far as visibility.  When I'm sitting in the truck I can see the top of the bumper over the cowl tube so it doesn't hurt visibility just aesthetics.

[BLACKDOG]

I like the bed part of the cage.  Other than not being able to slide stuff in that is taller than the bedsides. Kinda sucks that you have to put a crossbar over the tailgate like that   Looks good though


I just drilled some holes in my tailgate, and used some small carriage bolts (rounded head) to mount my license plate flat on the tailgate, like how yours is taped   I took off the latch cover plate, and just drilled through the outter skin.  To get it off, you'd have to cut the bolts, cut the skin, or go through the process of removing the latch cover from the inside to unscrew the bolts  

[RRMike [OP]]

Blackdog,

You had me a little confused there for a second but I gotcha now.  No I don't haul anything in this truck except tools and spare parts.  It's an off road only rig.  I have an 82 long bed that hauls the garbage to the dump and stuff like that.  I wasn't worried about access to the bed.  I just don't like flatbeds and wanted to do something to support the cab portion of the cage which was pretty weak IMO before I built the rear portion to prop it up.

[RRMike [OP]]

Allright,

Got some paint on it:

[crawlerdan]

 

[Gittinit]

Is that chrome paint? The paint definately make that nice cage stand out.

[RRMike [OP]]

No it's not chrome.  It seems to look a hell of a lot brighter in those pics than it does in person.  It looks a little darker than the tubing looks  with no paint.  It's definately not okie chrome though. But I did think about it