SKIP
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With a hard bashing weekend coming up, my buddy is dying to fly his new SS without fear of damaging the engine.. I havent made a cage in quite some time cuz the hand made mounts were taking a long time.. So I had a few made and I am fabing one up for him.. I thought I would share the construction of the Twisted half-back cage with you so those of you that like to fab your own parts, you can get an idea how I do mine.. Its really not all that hard if you have cutting grinding and welding experince..
Some say these style cages are ugly... maybe they are.. but you can not agrue that they are the answer to the hardest of hardcore basher..
I start with the steel tube that the ID is the same as the OD of the plastic solid rod.. Sometimes you have to sand down the rod because the OD tolerance isnt as good as the ID of the sleeve.. I cut the sleeve at a very steep angle and cut the lengths of rod to 19" (for 1.5" ext and 18.25" for the 1" ext/LCG)..
I then tack weld the sleeve to the mount... The side with the pipe takes the most set up time.. Place the mount on the truck and put the sleeve up there wheil you put set marks so when its on the table you can line them up when you tack weld this one.. With a 1.5" extention there is plenty of room.. If your running LST shocks the back sleeves will be set as forward as they can be set...
Bolt the mounts on the truck.. Take the rod and bend them as you want.. I use a heat gun and make sure the rod is heated all the way through.. There is a fine line where that is.. Too little and you'll get a white stress mark on the bend.. Too much heat and it will thin out and get bubbles.. TAKE YOUR TIME...!
One you get one side bent up, you now have reached th hardest part of this fabbing... The bending of the other side.. bending isnt all that hard, but getting the other side to be a match to the one you already bent is tough to say the least..
Now you can work on the cross braces.. these need to be notched for proper structural integrity.. You can use a .5 butterfly drill and drill down the center of the rod.. That gives you a notch like you want..
These are not a metal cage that doesn't flex.. these cage are designed to flex.. So give your self some room for it to flex.. This is about the best I have found as far as flexxing room..
Thats where i got to in 2 hours.. I will finish it up today... more pics to come and if there is a step that you want to see, just ask..
Some say these style cages are ugly... maybe they are.. but you can not agrue that they are the answer to the hardest of hardcore basher..
I start with the steel tube that the ID is the same as the OD of the plastic solid rod.. Sometimes you have to sand down the rod because the OD tolerance isnt as good as the ID of the sleeve.. I cut the sleeve at a very steep angle and cut the lengths of rod to 19" (for 1.5" ext and 18.25" for the 1" ext/LCG)..
I then tack weld the sleeve to the mount... The side with the pipe takes the most set up time.. Place the mount on the truck and put the sleeve up there wheil you put set marks so when its on the table you can line them up when you tack weld this one.. With a 1.5" extention there is plenty of room.. If your running LST shocks the back sleeves will be set as forward as they can be set...
Bolt the mounts on the truck.. Take the rod and bend them as you want.. I use a heat gun and make sure the rod is heated all the way through.. There is a fine line where that is.. Too little and you'll get a white stress mark on the bend.. Too much heat and it will thin out and get bubbles.. TAKE YOUR TIME...!
One you get one side bent up, you now have reached th hardest part of this fabbing... The bending of the other side.. bending isnt all that hard, but getting the other side to be a match to the one you already bent is tough to say the least..
Now you can work on the cross braces.. these need to be notched for proper structural integrity.. You can use a .5 butterfly drill and drill down the center of the rod.. That gives you a notch like you want..
These are not a metal cage that doesn't flex.. these cage are designed to flex.. So give your self some room for it to flex.. This is about the best I have found as far as flexxing room..
Thats where i got to in 2 hours.. I will finish it up today... more pics to come and if there is a step that you want to see, just ask..