Building my second ever roll cage and mounting my vice.
Update time guys...........................
I got the project Maruti up on the hoist and fitted a new exhaust.
Roll cage next!
Now if this was a proper comp spec cage then I would want to mount through the body to the chassis, but as its just a farm/hunting vehicle I decided to mount it to the body.
I used 3mm for the body mounting plates and made sure they all had a fold in them and were bolted on 2 different planes.
Front A pillar mounting plates.
Bent and tack welded on some tube for the first hoop.
I tried to match the angles and height of the standard windscreen surround.
B pillar hoop mounting plates.
All M8 bolts with big washers on the underside.
This next hoop needed 4 bends in total so took a little bit more working out.
Once I was happy with the position I could tack weld it in place.
I drilled down and added an M8 bolt to help secure the mounting plate for the A pillar hoop as it was just held in place with an M6 bolt into an original captive nut.
I cut and notched a piece of tube and tacked it in place at the bottom of the A pillar hoop.
I cut and notched 2 pieces of tube.
These were to connect the 2 hoops.
At this point I was pleased with how it looked but upon sitting in the vehicle I realised I'd cocked up massively!
I'd tried to match the angles and height of the windscreen/A pillar of the standard car and I'd then used a spirit level to make the B pillar hoop the same height.
This resulted in there not being enough head room to comfortably/safely get in and out of the car and also when bouncing around off road there was a very real danger people would bang their heads.
Rather than scrap it all or try and raise the hoops I had an idea!
I cut and bent some more 3mm mounting plates.
And then bent and notched some more tube.
This would give loads of head room and clearance for getting in and out of the truck and I had an idea to integrate it into the protection tube over the lights I wanted to mount on the front.
I also welded one of the 2 tubes I'd cut to connect the 2 hoops, in the middle of the car where there was no risk of it being in the way.
As I said previously I'm choosing to do this project on a tiny budget! My idea being to do it as cheaply as possible using where possible second hand parts already in stock, to save an old Suzuki/Maruti from the crusher, create a cool truck and make the company a few dollars in the process.
So I had the idea of mounting some lights on the top of the cage, not only will they be very useful on a farm vehicle with people stood in the back shooting at night, but they will also look really cool!
But rather than putting new lights on it I chose to use some old second hands one which we would probably never have sold anyway, so killing a few birds with one stone so to speak.
Second hand KC lights.
Made some tabs.
Tacked them on.
And bolted the lights on.
I cut, bent and tack welded on some thick walled 25mm tube across the top of the lights to protect them a bit.
I still had one of the pieces of tube left that I'd cut and notched to connect the 2 hoops as I'd only used one piece in the middle and would you believe it just happened to be the perfect length to connect the 2 pieces of tube I'd just bent and welded on. Complete fluke!
So I used that and notched 2 smaller pieces. These bits of tube would help connect the B pillar hoop with the rest of the cage.
Seat belts next!
They normally bolt to the B pillar, so they would need to mount in a similar position on the roll cage.
Cut and drilled some 6mm flat.
Tacked them on.
Welded the tube to the rear cage mounts and bolted the 3mm mounting plates through the body using M8 bolts and big washers.
Cut some alluminium checkered plate to fill in below the cage as the back of the dash looks quite ugly as its normally covered by the windscreen surround so is open in places.
Drilled and riv-nuted it on.
I cut the fuel filler neck in half and inserted a piece of tube between the 2 with some hose clamps to extend it to account for the 4" bodylift.
I found an old bull bar in the Suzuki parts warehouse. It didnt look particularly great but I knew with a little bit of work it would look perfect on the front of the project and would help finish the front off nicely.
It was also something we were unlikely to ever sell, so in keeping with my idea for this project of using up old second hand/unsellable parts it would be perfect!
Got it on the bench and welded some mounts on it to account for the 4" bodylift.
The cage was now complete and could be removed for fully welding.
I just finished welding it before it was home time.
The next morning I cleaned all the welding splatter off ready for powder coating.
I then put it in the trailer to take to the powder coaters.
I then thought it would be nice to run the wires for the lights inside the tube of the cage rather then have them cable tied to the outside of the tube.
It was easy to drill through the 3mm bulk head mounts and there was already holes in the bulkhead below where the tube is which was nice.
I drilled one 12mm hole in the roll cage which is just enough room for a rubber grommet and the wires. Again not something I could do on a proper comp spec cage as it wouldn't pass scrutineering and it is adding a weakness, but on this I think it will be fine! If this cage does get used it will hopefully only be a slow roll over/onto its side anyway.
I added the checkered plate and one of the Vitara diff casings I've shaved to the trailer, hooked it up to the 60 and took it all to the powder coaters.
Next week were sending the truck to the carby man so he can clean and adjust the carburetors and get it running a bit nicer, then I can sand down and re-spray the body work, then add the powder coated cage, tube doors, lights and get them wired up, make and fit a tow bar, paint and re-fit the bull bar and then shes nearly ready to sell!
We've already got 4 people really interested and its not even finished!
Were hoping to do a few more after this one and if they keep selling we will hopefully keep saving and transforming them!
They work out a lot cheaper than a quad, they can carry a lot more stuff and people, they have a working heater and stereo and there ideal for shooting vehicles as stood on the back your shooting down at the ground which is a lot safer encase you miss, particularly on farms where theres livestock and other people around.
The Miller rep dropped me off a Dynasty 200DX on Friday so I can spend a few days playing with it to see if its the right machine for me.
I had a little play on some pipe.
I think its an amazing machine but I have been getting cold feet slightly as to whether I'm doing the right thing spending/investing that much money on a welder!
I could by a Kempi, Lincoln, Esab etc. for a lot less money and they would probably be almost as good, but then I do really like a lot of the features of the Dynasty.
But $7k RRP for a welder!
Will come in very useful in the future though building custom comp spec roll cages out of exotic metals like chromoly (which is something I'd love to get into) and for welding stainless and alluminium.
I dont know!
But with only 1 week left at TAFE then 3 months off for Christmas I need to get something sorted very soon so I can keep practicing.
I finally got round to fitting the freshly cleaned up wood working vice to my new bench.
Whoever had fitted the last vice had made a hell of a mess of it!
So the first job was to repair the old bench, which I found out this week is over 100 years old!
Cut it out square.
Cut a piece of oak to fit.
Clamped, screwed and glued it in place.
With some of this awesome polyurethane glue.
Sanded it down.
Flipped the bench upside down.
Got some coach bolts and tasmanian oak.
And made the vice fit.
I just need to cut some more oak to repair all the damage on the top of the bench from the old vice being fitted wrongly.
I've got a load more carpentry work to do for the guy I did the other work for so the bench will come in very useful over the next few weeks, as will LJ carrying 5 meter lengths of wood on the roof!
