Un-Bending Benttoy's f-toy

[desertoy]

Mike and Jake Wright decided to have Dalton Fab do a little work on their f-toy. they have been competing it for the last 2 seasons and it has probably been on it's lid 10 times, so for obvious reasons the cage is a little bent.

It had a pretty good bend in the top of the cage above the b-pillar on the passengers side and the whole top was bent to the right about 2 inches.

You couldn't really tell but Mike Wright wanted to get it fixed right and add a little bracing so it would n't bend so bad in the future.

We could have just replaced the bad tubing and jacked the cage back in place, but since we assemble the chassis and we have the parts in stock, we decided that it would be cheaper (less labor) to just cut off the whole roof and install a new one.

[desertoy]

I'll get a couple of pictures up as soon as my cell phone starrts cooperating.

[SanDiegoCJ]

You gots pics of the process ? I think it would be interesting to see a "photo-essay" of the job.
Edit: Damn, you said you'd post pics as I was typing.

[desertoy]

shitty pics I know but it is the best that I can do.

[desertoy]

side

[desertoy]

rear

[desertoy]

this is the main problem. This is the bar that goes from side to side in front of the drivers compartment that the windshield V-bars weld too. See how it is bent up on one side and down on the other?

The reason for this is, that roof took a side hit and bent the whole thing to the side. If there had been bars that went from the bottom of this tube opposite of the dash bar that goes to the frame, this wouldn't have happened.

[desertoy]

Here is the replacement bar installed.

[SanDiegoCJ]

John, were the original tubes HREW or DOM ?

[Lazybum]

It's only been over 7 times... so far

and the original tubes were HREW

[SanDiegoCJ]

Originally Posted by Lazybum

It's only been over 7 times... so far

and the original tubes were HREW

Thanks.

[Heywood]

Looking good! What a great deal, the benifit of having a spec chassis.
I got a replacement tube from Mike bent&notched to fit $14

My shit is pretty bent up, Ive been wanting to do a new top like you are doing, but everytime I go wheeling I roll and think Im glad I didnt fix it allready.

[Mustard Dog]

I'm glad John and fatty are getting some practice in, mine's next

[Tim Florian]

Would D.O.M. make a differance on the inner bars? I know it makes a differance when it comes to the tubing smacking on the rocks. But would it help the twisting and tweeking?

[desertoy]

These pic's suck so I went out and bought a new digi cam at lunch. It took me until now to get the software downloaded

The new top is DOM.

[desertoy]

Here's the new top

[desertoy]

Here's the new cross bar.

[desertoy]

Jerry decided that they needed one of our cnc plasma cut pedal mounts also.

[desertoy]

Tommorrow he will add an X-brace behined the driver, add the braces from the windshield bars to the frame, and then start on the suspension.

[benttoy]

Looking good !! I cant wait to wheel it. looks like Ill have to stock up on more green paint

[Mustard Dog]

Originally Posted by benttoy

Looking good !! I cant wait to wheel it. looks like Ill have to stock up on more green paint

Get it stitched up and come out to the Hammers for the Roxy Bash in Sept

[benttoy]

when in sept is it? we need more seat time

[azyota]

Looks good. I'll be interested to see how you brace it differently. Reminds me of when I had my old class 5-1600 car, and sticking new roofs on it.

[desertoy]

Here's the drivers side brace that we installed.

[desertoy]

Here's the pass side. They both go to the fram on the same plane as the windshield bar. If they had their shock mounts mounted to a hood bar like most people do, we would add another brace that goes from the frame where the window brace is, to the upper shock mount and then another one would go back down and foreward to the frame inline with the radiator.

this forms a truss affair that locks in the whole front end. If Todd's rid had this done, the front frame rails wouldn't have bent.