Roll Bar Project.

Im building a roll bar/partial cage for my 49 3a. This is something Ive been wanting to do for awhile. After talking with Jpet last year I decided to go for it. FYI Im not taking credit for this design. Jpet told me about his idea and I "borrowed" his 3D drawing from one of his threads.

The plan is to build a roll bar that follows a similar shape to the factory 2a bows. I want my canvas top to fit and the bar to not look super obvious. I love the simple old 2a look.... So I wanted to avoid a big full cage. I wont type too much... the pictures and videos should explain things. This bar will be tied into the frame.

This is the Image from Jpets thread.



Jeff Was kind enough to stop by the other night and let me borrow his bender. It was fun and helpful to chat about roll cages, jeeps, etc.... THANKS Jeff!



Bender Since this was used on BAM BAM maybe it will give my jeep some special powers! Smile






Right now Im in the Prep phase. I Have the bender....Material is ordered. Now im working on building a tubing notcher. The harbor frieght one looks like a piece of junk and a good one is out of my price range. So I started building one out of stuff I had laying around.

 

More updates



Working towards center











56 feet of 1.5" .124 wall tubing.



Tub mount pieces and frame tie-in plates.

 

Cool,
What did you pay for your tube? Is it DOM or HREW?

 

Its HREW, i paid $3 per foot for it...

 

Any trouble bending it? Is it more or less difficult or the same? I would assume the strength is similar? I want to build one too!

 

I’ll let you know. I haven’t bent it yet. The guy at the metal shop said there would be no difference in bending it. He also said it would be plenty strong.

 

Well I finally made some progress....















It was cold in the shop today. My toes were cold and I ran out of time. Hopefully I will get more done tomorrow. There is a learning curve to this....Progress should go faster now.

 

With HREW I always bend with the weld on the side of the tube. This way it does not shrink or stretch the weld. Now sometimes you can't avoid it a little.

 

looks good for, there is definitely a learning curve to bending

 

Today I got the other bow sorted out.






I'm quickly learning this is not a fun one man job... holding everything straight...working the press, lifting things in and out to test fit....measure, make marks... would all be easier with an extra set of hands... I had to get creative today.

Now im trying to figure out how I want to mount the bars to the tub. I bough angle iron and plates but the ribs on the tub cause issues..

 

I’d slide the angle iron to the left in the pic, it might tuck under the tub lip a bit. bolt down through the angle and tub, and bold through the side of tub and angle.

 

Bars would be welded to angle iron

 

That’s what I originally wanted to do....if I can get away with it, I will go that route. When I ordered the steel I thought it would be the ticket! Haha doh!! We will figure something out.

 

More progress... I decided to just get new angle iron. Went with 2x2x.250. Now it fits perfect.
I got the uprights tacked in and started fitting the top. So far so good. I'm pleased with how the top fits. Now i'm fitting the braces. I will get to try out my tubing notcher soon. Once theyre welded in Ill focus on the frame mounts. Hopefully This will be wrapped up soon!

 

Made some good progress today. The main part of the cage is fitted and tacked in place. I fianlly got to use my tubing notcher! It worked well.... The angled cuts were slow and a bit tricky to get just right but they came out good. The straight cuts were a piece of cake and came out perfect! I drilled the tub and have everything in place. Now I can focus on the frame braces and pull the cage to finish the welds and paint it!

 

Heres a picture from the back... if youre looking straight at it you cant see the cage. The canvas openings are not straight but I made the cage square so it doesn't look funny with the top off.

 

Super killer and beautiful!

 

Very nice work Seth.

 

Thanks!

Everything is all welded now!

Here is clip from today.

 

I wasn't gonna ask a question, but you answered it.

Nice stuff.