Bro-coma.. getting unbro-d

[ErikB]

The new tube work is beautiful. Kinda reminds me of a tribal tattoo, which is good and bad depending...

[tom tom]

Originally Posted by ErikB

The new tube work is beautiful. Kinda reminds me of a tribal tattoo, which is good and bad depending...

He's gotta follow the bro theme all the way to the end.

[Booger Weldz]

It just keeps getting better! Eriks right abt the design vaguely looking tribal, yet cool. Ur really pushing form into function! U got skills matt

I know U know the roof and stuff are gonna have impressions from the tubing so tight everywhere. Amazingly the cab and tube(frame mounted) get 'flexed/shifted' momentarily like 1.5"(or more) w hard wheeling...the sunroof may need to be lexan or plexiglass very soon. It would be cool if u kept it and made it removeable in the summer months w no doors for that open feeling? ( the one thing i really like abt jeeps and miss on the 84-89 fourrunners).

[Booger Weldz]

Is There anyway to run the crossbar on the A pillars below the windshield under the cowl? I got mine really tight by notching it for wipers, but it still stood out and looked like ass IMO. Theres room in there but u have to avoid the wiper linkages...U could even step down to a 1 1/4" tube for that since it doesnt get hit by rocks and only sees compressoion??

[Fawk Awph]

my coilover hoop runs behind the engine, ill look for a pic, im almost thinking that would be a good solution for not having it above the body. it could then easily connect to the a pillars or shock hoops, or everything hah.


it touches the cab all the way across.

[Booger Weldz]

Originally Posted by Fawk Awph

my coilover hoop runs behind the engine, ill look for a pic, im almost thinking that would be a good solution for not having it above the body. it could then easily connect to the a pillars or shock hoops, or everything hah.

There ya go!! Ive seen what i described once on an 84-88 truck. He avoided all the wipers stuff. Im sure it wasnt easy...Ur idea seems more realistic and not such a PITA

[doof89]

Originally Posted by -Matt-

my whole brake line setup with all the fittings, proportioning valve, line lock, and braided stainless was right around 500$. i have 40ft of braided stainless so thats where most of the money is. and some of the special fittings that convert right out of the masted cylinder to -3 and a few other ones were pricey. they were all custom so he crimped what i wanted.

in my opinion its so worth it though. they are so easy to work with, clean looking, pretty much indestructible, and all are reusable.

also similar to hydraulic line you can buy the DIY fittings. so if something gets destroyed on the trail im able to fix them myself with a few special fittings.

word... i need to completly redo my breaks so at least i have a ball park idea now

[Taco-Runner]

Matt

When are we going to see the rear coilovers mounted up?

[-Matt-]

thanks everyone for the compliments. i really appreciate it, im not ignoring people when i dont comment back on that stuff, i just dont care to bump my thread with a bunch of thank yous

and paul. i know exactly what your talking about with the window bar on the A pillar. i gave it a good look over a week ago and completely decided no on it. as you said i was gonna notch it for the wipers, but on the this cab i would have to notch the tube so much to even get it close to where i wanted that i figured it would be pointless at that point.

and if i ran it like what callen was talking about id have to make some gnarly bends just to make that work out, and id still have to attach it to the frame. also on my rig i have a few things mounted to that area of the cowel. doing this would be possible and im not saying its a bad idea.. im just saying plating/boxing it in, and attaching it to all that rigid sheet metal on the body is going to be just as strong if not stronger and way less work and less cluster. i promise you guys when im done with attaching it there. the tubing its self will fail before anything happens where its attached. also im attaching it up under the fender really high up, almost to the same spot that i would attach a bar anyways so the strength and rigidity will be there.

i like all the brainstorming from people, it helps a lot, even if i dont take the suggested routs at least it creates ideas for other people.

just got news from my boss im ending my swing shift next week and going back to days so ill probably only be able to get a few hours a day on the truck after work. kinda puts me out for mcr, since it was already a close call. i was kinda expecting to keep my schedule till the end of this month, but things change.

my goal is to have the cab cage 100% done by then end of this weekend. that will be a huge pain in the ass step out of the way. at least with the back half, i dont have to follow a cab and i dont have to pull everything back off to weld and paint. im hoping it will be easier than the other tube work. getting pretty burnt out on tubing.

[-Matt-]

Originally Posted by Taco-Runner

Matt

When are we going to see the rear coilovers mounted up?

hopefully soon, if i finish the cab tube work this weekend, then i can permanently mount my fuel tank, get that all done, then start of the back half tube. once i get it tubed enough to attach the coilovers ill post up the bling.

[-Matt-]

and im digin the tribal reference, never thought about that untill you said that erik, but i can totally see it.

[smacaulay]

We did a similar setup to what you're planning for my 4runner...not the best pic, but ended up super solid. Kick ass build btw!

[-Matt-]

there we go, that will almost be identical to how im gonna do mine.

[ryantowry_81]

only down side is you cant open the sun roof anymore.....

looks great though.

[Mike Honcho]

Who wants to open them anyways? they suck. besides they seem to leak 1/2 the time.

[-Matt-]

Ya its just personal preference. I never cared for them. Didn't ever use mine. Just annoys me. I even put the inside cover on so sun didn't come through, and so when I would snow wheel condensation couldn't drip on my head.

[-Matt-]

was barely able to pull the cage off in one piece since its so tight, had to man handle it and got a little body damage from the removal , but id rather that then leave it partially unwelded, or having to take it off in sections.

got it all welded and cleaned up, ill paint it tomorrow morning when its cool out, was way to hot to cleanly spray paint today. thought id throw some pics of it off the truck, i thought it looked kinda cool just chillin there.

[mrkarl]

i used to worry people would compare our trucks and mine wouldnt be as cool. now i dont have to worry about that anymore

[Taco-Runner]

Well I like it, and he shouldnt ever have worry about a rollover either.

[-Matt-]

ya im pretty happy with how the triangulation came out, seems like it will be stronger than what i was shooting for, it will take a lot of stress off wheelin a newer truck, and make me feel a lot safer.

its always fun wheeling a truck with a cage

[Mike Honcho]

Nice work. cage looks killer.

Now this might be a dumb question, but did/how did you prep all the tube work to ensure cage wont move when being fully welded? Talking about the bars that mount to frame and sliders shifting?
I was worried when i did mine that it would shift some, so i had a fire blanket on the truck the whole time i built it and when i was ready to pull it off and fully weld it, i welded about 1/2 of every joint, then removed the cage.
Just trying to get a idea.
Thanx

[-Matt-]

at first i was a little concerned about it warping with welding but when i realized the cage didnt move at all once i broke the tacks to take it off i felt like it was fine to hammer down. theres so much triangulation in this cage that just judging from my experience i doubt it moved enough to even notice.

on a side note, the original back part i did was already fully welded up before i even started the rest of the cage. so that was one less thing to warp. and also added a lot of rigidity to hold the rest of the tacked cage together.

i have a feeling the B pillar that attaches to the sliders will be the only thing im gonna have to wrench on a bit with a big pry bar to get it back where i initially had it. when i put it back on ill start tacking it where the cage is good and at that point ill tweak what ever needs to be tweaked.

usually either a big pry bar works well, or i can temporarily tack on another long piece of tubing to pry on parts of the cage where its needed. if its really bad ill do those things and heat it with a toch a bit. once your done tweaking it you'd never know.

if you were gonna weld up a partially complete cage... id be more concerned, but not on a fully complete, tacked to shit cage.

when i go to finish it off ill let you know whether it warped bad or not.

edit- welding half of it like you said with using a fire blanket would be a good way to go about it, to make sure it doesn't move much. only downside is you cant really start and finish welds where you want and depending on how close the cage is to the cab it could get frustrating.

[-Matt-]

for the people that have never used a rapid strip grinding pad i would highly recommend getting one for any finish steel work. i used the shit out of one of these for all the tube work. when i would splice a piece of tube together, i would use a regular flapper disk to get the weld back to being flush with the tubing, then id hit it with one of these rapid strip pads, it will get rid of all of those 'flat' looking grinding marks that are hard to get out of round tubing. makes the finish look like original tubing. plus there really handy for other stuff.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00755XY2Y/...hvptwo=&hvqmt=

[Booger Weldz]

I prefer those, but the rubber pad w sandpaper style wheel is WAY cheaper if ur doing a lot of splicing/finish grinding/etc. If u hold the wheel flat on the tube section(not angled so it removes material faster)the splice can actually be ground down so its invisible to the naked eye as long as u dont get it hot again and the weld shows up again as a slightly raised section. I always try to get the splice where theres another tube coming in as a node. Technically though, if u used a piece of tube the exact ID/OD its potentially stronger anyhow...

I built a pretty elaborate bed cage for ira's white 4 door with several holes thru the bed(6or8?) so it attached to the frame PLUS it had to be removable... LOTS of welding w a welding blanket on the truck. But even more finish welding after we pulled it off the truck... I wish i had an oxy/acet torch so bad to correct the warpage....it was a MF to get back in alignment w floor mounts and heim joint bolts(used to make it removeable in places)...i even had temporary false bracing Welded on it to minimize the pull!

[GreaseMonkeyGarage]

The rear behind the cab just makes me think, Biohazard.

Bad ass brotha!!!!

I dig the rolled tube. Usually all that you see are hard bends that don't follow body lines.

Very clean.