Dutch's (Unfinished) Cage Pics

Everything is just tacked together -- mainly because I want to sit in it after he does the seat mounts. Seating position is really picky for me - between moving the front seats back and lower (for forward visibility), and the back seat forward and probably a bit higher, I want to sit in it before final welding is done and make sure it's comfortable.

And yes, I expect to be able to sit semi-comfortably in the rear seat. My hope is that I'll be riding back there someday with the kids up front driving...

 

No.

I'm not convinced that's a good idea on these old Jeeps unless you've also got a fully boxed frame. Since the frames were designed to flex, I'd expect frame cracks from around where the cage tie in was done - moreso on this longer CJ6.

Since the seat and seat belt mounts will all be incorporated into the cage in the worse case of cage and body seperation we should stay strapped into the cage.

 

The rear diagonal bar was in my spec...but the fabricator knows I don't want a rolling jungle gym and thought the diagonal kinda tipped the scale in that direction.

He'll still add them if I want them, but wants to wait for everything else to be done first. He thought with all the seat tie-ins etc. it wouldn't really be needed for strength, and I like the idea of keeping some visibility out the side windows.

We're not sure yet if the seat belts will be long enough to mount on the rear down tubes and still be long enough, so that diagonal might end up being needed for belt mounts anyway.

There will also be two more overhead spreaders added yet.

Thanks for the comments guys...I still want to verify that I'll be able to sit in the back seat and not hit my head on anything...if that's the case then we're good to go.

John - keep in mind that I can go about 2" higher with the main hoop since the softop is that much higher on a 6. That's why I had you measure yours that one day...

 

Thanks Nick...

On the floor plates...one of the things that isn't done yet is the tubing that will come over the fenderwells and run side to side, parallel to the floor for the back seat to be mounted to.

I'm wondering if those tubes will effectively act as large fenderwell plates during a rollover -- in other words for the cage to poke through the body those whole tubes would have to go through...

Or am I all wet?

 

Just back from visiting the cage in person, and I'm feeling better about it. Turns out the "short" design is going to work great for the rear seat belts, as the rear down tubes will be a perfect spot for the seat belts to mount. If the cage went all the way back I think the belts would be too short, and an additional tube would have been needed.

Good thing I went and did the test-sit, as all seat locations had to move back. Front seats are going to be a good couple inches lower than they were originally, between that and adding an intermediate w/s I should have the same forward visibility as Billy... Angle on the pedals still felt good too. (Wondering if Billy is going to have the opposite problem in this Jeep when done that I had in Animal...

The rear upper side to side bar will get slightly redone, adding some small bends at each end to push it higher/out. This will add some headroom (if I sat in the rear seat and really leaned my head back it would touch) and also let the spreaders run parallel to the side bars.

Toolbox lid might need to hinge the other way or just pull out for access, no big deal.

He also had the smaller floor plates on top in the pic...so he'll mount the larger ones on top instead (about 3/4" larger all round..)

 

Good deal. When is it supposed to be finished?

 

Sometime next week.

 

between that and adding an intermediate w/s I should have the same forward visibility as Billy... Angle on the pedals still felt good too. (Wondering if Billy is going to have the opposite problem in this Jeep when done that I had in Animal...


Cool.......I can lay down and sleep in the front seat!