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Postal full cage-with a couple twists

Side view of the dash/A-pillar mount
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See the sweet, sweet legroom!
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I'm not as completely pleased with the floor patch, the floor really needs replaced entirely. At least it's better than the Flintstone action I had before and it's pretty solid.
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B-pillar armor tie in, this one was easier for them to go to the tube than the plate.
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A-pillar armor tie in on the passenger side.
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A-pillar tie in on the driver's side
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C-pillar tie in
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Spreader layout
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Kate and Laura checking out the new setup :D
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That looks great, Eric! I'm impressed with how they manifested your planned rocker tie ins. Keeping the tie plate separate from the foot plate is a great idea, making the build a lot easier! Nice leg room on you side. Question- why didn't you have them do the other side the same? Glove box?

Ok- now I'm really pumped about starting my cage. Looks like week after next if my time table is correct.

Congrats, Bro...I like it!:thumbsup:
 
Thanks, I'm really happy with it. While I was waiting for them to finish the final reassembly, I checked out their scrap bin. TONS of cool bits of tube, channel, box, etc. I asked and they let me grab a boxful of them. I want to try out my welder now and make some little add ons and things. Might get into that tomorrow.

Yeah, on the other side of the A pillar, the glove box would have been a problem and it simply wasn't needed. The custom bits added cost, so I told them to just go with the normal setup.

Kate can deal ;)

If it wasn't obvious, my initial plan was to keep the tie-ins separate because I wanted to be able to remove the cage if needed. Welding the tie-ins to the plates would have forced me to hack it up if I was ever lucky enough to do a tub swap or :eek: frame-off.

BTW, anyone got some LJ/TJ seat belt sets sitting around?
 
The cage looks great. Why don't you put the dash pad back on? You may need to cut the ends a little to make it fit.
 
John N said:
The cage looks great. Why don't you put the dash pad back on? You may need to cut the ends a little to make it fit.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I might look at the pad, but I kinda dig the look without it. That said, there are some pretty serious rust spots from where the stock windshield gasket and frame were leaking so badly while it sat in AK.

Also need to find a solution to get access to the glovebox again.
 
bigwalton said:
Also need to find a solution to get access to the glovebox again.
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Two ideas- you could cut a strip off the left side of the door- so the door would clear the bar- and just attach the small strip you cut off to the dash.

Second idea is way more complicated. If you cut the door, and put a spring loaded hinge on it, the door would "fold to clear" when opened, and then "unfold" to close....
 
Very cool cage!

bigwalton said:
Also need to find a solution to get access to the glovebox again.
Click to expand...

Maybe in the future you could do a custom dash blank, then you can have the glovebox closer to you, like in the FSJs, within reach! :thumbsup:

I'll bet you'll be doing something soon with those bolts sticking up right under your accelerator foot :eek: Maybe some buttonhead bolts with the nuts on the bottom?
 
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I was looking at this pic, (forgot it was RHD) and was thinking, W T F?? too funny

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you might want to get some bottom head bolts for those mounts. the way those bolts and nuts stick up where your right foot is is gonna drive you crazy!!

looks awesome though!!!! gonna have to steal a few ideas off of this design for my Scrambler
 
Awesome

That looks great Eric, I saved some of the pics for when I build mine.

What type of tube did they use? And it looks like they mig welded all of it, why that insted of tig?

Bo
 
First, huge props to Matt Klein (ScramFam) for having the initial idea that got all this going and for having saved off the initial pictures we took to JCR to design ours. I'm REALLY glad he gave me reason to finally get my act together and do this.

Randy, those were the things I was thinking on the glovebox (though not the spring hinge, that's interesting). I feel like I saw someone who added some wire to the hinges so that the door actually slid over to the side after you opened it to come out from behind the cage. I'll get the door off today and look at the options.

jeffs, I saw John N's custom dash and that's exactly what I was thinking. This is also part of why I wasn't worried about them chopping on this dash (the didn't end up needing to) to make my A-pillar mount work.

I need to go through and tack a bunch of nuts to the mounting plates and add lockwashers elsewhere. I didn't have a problem with those nuts driving it home yesterday, but I bet you're right. Just flipping them over so the heads are up would be fine. I want the grade 8 stuff there.

Karma, :thumbsup: I got a LOT of looks and double/triple-takes on the highway coming home. It's one thing for people to notice when you're driving on the right, but it's completely obvious when there isn't even a SEAT on the left.

TX, I forget the exact dimensions on the tube. All DOM. I think they're just set up for MIG and for this application, I don't think that's any problem at all. Only times I think TIG is a big deal is when you're going for the very prettiest welds possible or using more exotic materials and neither was the case here. There's some very pretty welds on this though, I have to say.
 
cage

VERY nice bigwalton. Thats a good looking cage. Great idea to tilt the pass. grab handle on the dash bar in the down position. Mine comes straight out and I can't tell you how many times my wife has hit her head on it when leaning down to get purse or something from the floorboard. Anyway your cage does look great and the extra thought you put into it really shows...
 
jeffs396 said:
Maybe in the future you could do a custom dash blank, then you can have the glovebox closer to you, like in the FSJs, within reach! :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

That's one of the reasons I did a custom dash in my 7, I was able to move the glovebox over 1.5" so it clears the cage. I needed to put the E-Drive switch somewhere still.
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B-B-C SCRAMBLER said:
VERY nice bigwalton. Thats a good looking cage. Great idea to tilt the pass. grab handle on the dash bar in the down position. Mine comes straight out and I can't tell you how many times my wife has hit her head on it when leaning down to get purse or something from the floorboard. Anyway your cage does look great and the extra thought you put into it really shows...
Click to expand...

I have to give credit where it's due, things like the position of the grab handles was all on JCR. Neither Matt or I are cage builders and while we worked off of the photos that Matt found, details like the grab handles are the "standard" for JCR. I really like (and would have never thought of) the grab handles where the horizontal member comes into the B-pillar. Seeing them there when I went to pick it up, I was like "well duh, that makes perfect sense".

Daryl @ JCR was very concerned with the final look and function, particularly the "flow" of one piece to the next, so that it looked "right". He threw out some nice ideas and I thought it worked great to have he, Matt and I all talking it over together, because one of us would have an idea or comment that the others would like or build on (no pun intended). I thought it was one of the most fun parts of this process and got me really psyched.

I guess what I can say is to look for a shop that has a good "feel" when you talk to them about what you want. Be sure they're willing to do what you want and not whatever they feel like. Daryl certainly was happy to work with us (I can't speak for Matt though of course) and liked that we came in with an idea and photos to work from.
 
How to keep the stock glove box door with a cage

Modified the glove box door today along the lines of something that I saw somewhere online way back when.

Pulled the door off, this is what the stock hinge looks like. The two ends attached to the door hold the riveted pin and the hinge rotates.
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I ground off the end of the pin with a Dremel and it knocked out easily with a nail/hammer.
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I cut one side of the mount on the box and drilled out the other with an appropriate sized bit so that the piece attached to the box door is now what rotates. I notched one end of the hinge to allow me to attach a 2" 6x32 stainless screw with a nut to replace the pin. I ground off most of the threads on the screw to allow the door to rotate more freely. Then I put the screw through the mount on the door and secured it with a locknut to provide a solid stop when sliding the door over.
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This is a closeup of one when installed.
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So what I do is unlatch the door, open it a bit, slide it to the right and it opens clear of the cage. Reverse it to close. You can't see the modification when the door is closed and I retained my stock door with the neat stickers. :cool:
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Thanks, I know I saw this kind of thing done somewhere sometime in the past. One of those things you stash away in the back of your mind when you see it, but I didn't keep a link. I'm not sure if this is the same way that one was done, but it sure is simple enough.

Have a go at yours. It doesn't take that long if you get the hardware in advance.

EDIT: One thing, the only trick to the way I did it is drilling out the remaining mounts on the box door. One of them can be reached with a normal drill bit chucked right at the end, the other one is harder to reach. I had a bit that was too small a diameter, but really long and I used that one and sort of wallowed the hole out some. I did get a short bit into it, but the edge of the door had a go at the plastic on my drill chuck.

In the end, to get it free enough, I still went back and ground off the threads between the nut and locknut so that it moved left and right easily. You could also try to bend the mount on the door open with a pair of needlenose, but I thought that risked bending it or pulling it off the door.
 
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Great Job!

Looks great. I may "borrow" a few ideas also.
 
That is a slick fix, Eric! Way better than my cutting suggestion....
 
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