Still posing
The main hoops of the cage are 3/8", the cross bars and kickers are 1/4. Was going to weld but decided to bolt together. The front hoop was difficult, several dog legs to get it to start at chassis, kick out to body width, then forward to start at dash then bent back to match windshield profile. Getting the other side to match was even harder-wow. The back hoops was easy & the rest was fairly easy, just time, fit drill thread. After making the 1st front main hoop, I discovered I needed to make cage removable, cause the body wont come off over the cage, the top of the cage is wider. I still haven't done anything with the ends of the kickers, right now there just hanging. Im either going to make an other cross bar to tie the ends, or (probably) make a high lift and bolt across. The ends of the main hoops bolt to chassis.
Wow-its looks pretty cool, well looks like a jeep (&almost as functional as a real jeep.... :-)
Got headlight stickers on and the winch stickers (from the betty body). Looks better than the painted line and hook I think.
Also got screen behind the grill, not that you can see it.
How do you like my red coffee pot? Well that's what every body says "wow nice coffee pot"-it supposed to be a fire extinguisher...Made the gages with some left over bug silver decals. Used a hole punch to cut the small ones, the large one is made from the outside left over black circle from the betty headlights decals when you remove them, i stuck that on more bug silver and then cut out. I used a marker to make graduations (tried to letter but looked like crap). Cut slivers from red HPI decals for needles. Silly-but kinda cool. Oh, you can almost see grab bar. Just a hoop of solid copper wire with ends bent up, once poked thru drilled holes it stays put (like a peg board hook). The glove box outline again is left over out line from the betty winch line decals.
Rear view, made tow strap out of some weird tie I had, its got two wires in it, sorta resembles strap material. (update, the unattached rear cage kickers came loose, lost my tow strap on the rocks :( Need to get it done)
Again, this came out way better than I thought it would, even though attention to detail was limited and some of my execution is crude. Just wanted to make a jeep. Next page is pics of 1st run. This isn't a body you want to compete with. Other than a complete waste of time, this was actually fun building. The added weight of the cage seems to make it want to lean, kinda flops to either side, I added some spring spacers, that helps. See how it behaves in the rocks.
Nuff for now
