Time to update, wow, it has been a while.
I never liked the full cage that came with my Scrambler so it is gone now. I have had a LOT of people climbing in and out of the back of the Jeep and the cage made it nearly impossible plus I bought a Scrambler because I like how a Scrambler looked and wanted to resemble one so . . .
Got to meet Scott Anderson down in Arkansas, great guy and we swapped some parts. I now have the full hard doors, half cab, bulk head and stock roll bar.
It made for a 3 color Jeep:
It is my intent to keep the stock roll bar, even with the wheeling I do. I turn around the back seat with the back to the bulkhead so the passengers are protected. Then I tied all four mounts to the frame. Once again, looked around the shop for what materials were laying around then figured out how to make them work:
Welded the bracket into the frame and also to the bottom of the rockrails. (That will be easy to cut if I need to remove the rockrails) and bolted it through the plates on the stock roll bar:
I also added a cross member (2x2x1/4) from one frame tie in to the other and welded it bolted the back bolts of the seat to it so the rear seat is tied in to the frame as well.
I already had frame tie-ins for the previous cage. Those were used for the back plates for the stock roll bar:
That does hard mount the tub to the frame as well. I have to say, though, with the Bilstein shocks and the 40" tires, I really do not notice much road vibration surprisingly but, over the years, I've lost site of what a smooth riding Jeep would be like, lol.
Of course, it needed some paint as well:
Sanded it:
and shot some Case Orange enamel "implement" paint from the farm store.
$23 gallon plus $10 for hardener and $11 for reducer.
The next project is to paint another hood and windshield since 5 minutes after putting this one back together I got all excited to drive and get home to see a buddy waiting for my at the house, I forgot to latch the hood. No one was hurt and I am grateful for that but, damitol!! I picked up another hood, windshield and windshield frame for $160 so, all in all, not an expensive mistake except to my pride.
After that, it is time for the front portion of the cage. I am going to build it so that I can remove the top crossmembers, etc. It will be bolted in using the billet roll bar brackets that can be found using 6 bolts. Will be plenty solid enough for my purposes.
Then it can be removed in the fall when I put the half cab hardtop back on.
The windshield hoop will remain in the cab with some other bracing and perhaps mount the seats to the tubing so front seats are tied into the frame as well.
Project after that will be freshening up the other Olds Rocket 350 I have on an engine stand. It is out of a '69 Olds Cutlass. I found out the one Rocket 350 I have in it now is from the early 70's and has the emissions head on it and it is more restrictive, etc. The good news (I talked to an Olds specialists . . . his nickname is actually Dr. Olds . . . awesome!) I have a very good performance manifold on it so that is good.
The engine in it is very tired, using oil and has a knock at highway speeds. I am pretty sure I can get through another wheeling season with it though since I am not getting out too much this year.