[DesertTRD]

Here is the photos so far.. I am almost done. Basically i need to put up about 6 more bars and i need to weld everything up, right now its all tacked incase i need to move anything. The dash is already notched and fits right into place, I am only loosing my air vent on the drivers side and the defog. Which isnt a big deal. This is definatly not an easy task and very time consuming, but so far seems worth it. I would like to thank Jason, John, and Cheriso Dan for the help.

http://www.securitybuilders.com/schafer/cage/
http://www.securitybuilders.com/schafer/cage1/
http://www.securitybuilders.com/schafer/cage2/

 

[TacomaNova]

Here is the photos so far.. I am almost done. Basically i need to put up about 6 more bars and i need to weld everything up, right now its all tacked incase i need to move anything. The dash is already notched and fits right into place, I am only loosing my air vent on the drivers side and the defog. Which isnt a big deal. This is definatly not an easy task and very time consuming, but so far seems worth it. I would like to thank Jason, John, and Cheriso Dan for the help.

http://www.securitybuilders.com/schafer/cage/
http://www.securitybuilders.com/schafer/cage1/
http://www.securitybuilders.com/schafer/cage2/

looks good!!

 

[Wgasa84]

looks good. did you do all of that the night I left? Thx again for helping John and myself muscle that bumper on.

 

[DesertTRD]

looks good. did you do all of that the night I left? Thx again for helping John and myself muscle that bumper on.

naw most of it i did today, i was going to do alot yesterday but david was in there for most of the day until about 5pm, then i worked until about 12. today i started around 1 and left around 10.

 

[Deserttaco]

Cory, do you have any other pictures of the dash? I am thinking of building a cage, but i want it to go down into the dash, and hug nice and close to the A-pillars (I want to impact interior room as little as possible)? It looks like you have accomplished what i was looking for, or very close to it. How about a couple of pictures of the roof where the bars are and how high and tight you got them...

Thanks buddy

Steve

 

[snowchucker]

lookin good....but god damn that looks like a crap load of work.

 

[DesertTRD]

lookin good....but god damn that looks like a crap load of work.

I will get more pictures of the dash up close, it was very very very hard to route threw it, because i wanted to keep it as close to stock as possible i had to do it differently than normal... its still strong its just different.

first thing I had to do was seperate teh A piller into two halves, the first half is the top and second is below the dash line. this is because of routing threw the electrical and the passenger side of the truck. The passenger side I had to put two bends total in teh lower tube to route around some select components. on the drivers it was pretty much the same, it was alot of guess work as to the bends, i would bend then try then bend again until it fit right. they are still pretty straight, it was just a small routing issue. then ontop of those i ran 1 bar from one side to the other, this bar had to have a slight bend in it for the stock dash bar. There is a stock .90 wall tube in the dash, i had to notch this tube on the drivers side to get anything to line up, after i notched it it was weak, so i got some exhaust tubing and cut it in half and made a patch, this patch made it about 10x stronger than what it felt like stock! basically i ended up patching from the hole to the cage bar then backto the hole again. (i will take a closeup of this)

the A piller bars are not perfectly straight with the A pillers, they do come back a little, I did the best i could and it came out pretty decent.

overall I would say its comfortable up front, the way i routed into the floor up front made it so i didnt lose any legroom at all.

 

[DesertTRD]

lookin good....but god damn that looks like a crap load of work.

crapload is an understatement, let me put it this way, i know why shops want over 2k for a cage now.... LOL Its alot of work

 

[hawthorne]

if you wana race do you have to do something about the sunroof?

 

[Half Baked Taco]

Corey, it looks as if it's coming along really well!! ...very well thought out!! Are you going to punch through the cab to the bed or is that the overall design?

 

[DesertTRD]

if you wana race do you have to do something about the sunroof?

im not sure, i know ryan lewis had his cage checked by art at the last mdr tech and art said its race legal, and hes running a sunroof with the same configuration as far as teh bars over head.. so im assuming its allowed. i dont think this truck will ever be raced, its more of a toy for me than anything.

 

[DesertTRD]

Corey, it looks as if it's coming along really well!! ...very well thought out!! Are you going to punch through the cab to the bed or is that the overall design?

yes eventually it will cross over into the bed, i just didnt do that yet because i am waiting until i secure the cab to the internal cage first, otherwise it will rip the hell out of the sheet metal on the roof.

 

[Bear]

Corey, I noticed that you tied it to the frame like it should be done, but I did not see any (maybe I didn't notice) but when you went through the floor, is that a continous piece?

when we did my cage, we decided to actually put plates on top of and below the floor board to sandwich the floor board. This theory is to allow the frame to move and not force the cage to flex along with the frame causing it to rub or knock into the A pillars or other verticle surfaces.

These plates are also going to have polyurethane between them to keep the noise down, along with grade 8 bolts.

I am sure you have thought this sceniro out as well, I am just curious what your solution or thoughts were on this.

edit material:

I just went back to your photos and noticed what you did in tieing into the frame, but my question remains, what have you concluded to do in regards to addressing the frame issue?

 

[DesertTRD]

Corey, I noticed that you tied it to the frame like it should be done, but I did not see any (maybe I didn't notice) but when you went through the floor, is that a continous piece?

when we did my cage, we decided to actually put plates on top of and below the floor board to sandwich the floor board. This theory is to allow the frame to move and not force the cage to flex along with the frame causing it to rub or knock into the A pillars or other verticle surfaces.

These plates are also going to have polyurethane between them to keep the noise down, along with grade 8 bolts.

I am sure you have thought this sceniro out as well, I am just curious what your solution or thoughts were on this.

The cage should go to the frame, not the cab, if its on the cab all its going to do is push threw the cab sheetmetal and smash you, if you put a bend and went to the frame using your plate your ok. but the more solid the better, also it wont knock anything when im done because the cab is getting solid mounted to the cage using plate. i dont want my cab to move at all, and my seats are being mounted to the cage also, not to the floor. Basically the cab is there to keep the dirt out and the cage is the structure im using for the truck.

On another truck i know of they made a small elbow that had a plate at both ends and he welded one end to the frame and the other bolted threw the floor to the cage. i plan on using some plate and putting plate over the holes and welding the cab and the cage together as one.

I dont know if im confusing you or not, but when its done I will snap some pictures.

 

[Bear]

The cage should go to the frame, not the cab, if its on the cab all its going to do is push threw the cab sheetmetal and smash you, if you put a bend and went to the frame using your plate your ok. but the more solid the better, also it wont knock anything when im done because the cab is getting solid mounted to the cage using plate. i dont want my cab to move at all, and my seats are being mounted to the cage also, not to the floor. Basically the cab is there to keep the dirt out and the cage is the structure im using for the truck.

On another truck i know of they made a small elbow that had a plate at both ends and he welded one end to the frame and the other bolted threw the floor to the cage. i plan on using some plate and putting plate over the holes and welding the cab and the cage together as one.

I dont know if im confusing you or not, but when its done I will snap some pictures.

actually you answered my question perfectly. or at least I understand what you are saying. My first concern was that it had to be mounted to the frame, I was just unsure how to do so without having the frame and cage move one direction and the cab move in the opposite causing the steel to crash into the sheet metal. I am not ready to "hard mount" my cab to the frame just yet, but I think we have a decent solution with the plate sandwich.

Basically you are doing what I am was talking about. I haven't finished my cage as of yet. (right now it is just bolted to the cab) But it has always been planned to be plated using that sandwich method I described. The "leg" that is being mounted to the frame is going to have a 90º bend in it. But I have also thought about making it a 45º, just haven't made up my mind yet. Either way I am sure it is going to be a rock magnet. But it is basically going to have 1/2" worth of plating around the floor board once it is finished with a plate welded to the side of the frame similar to yours.

I did mean to tell you that the cage is looking great! sure is fun isn't it? (that is sacrasm BTW) But everyone is already telling you that it is looking good so I just neglected to say it. Keep up the great work.

 

[ocmike]

Makes me want to do mine now.

 

[DesertTRD]

actually you answered my question perfectly. or at least I understand what you are saying. My first concern was that it had to be mounted to the frame, I was just unsure how to do so without having the frame and cage move one direction and the cab move in the opposite causing the steel to crash into the sheet metal. I am not ready to "hard mount" my cab to the frame just yet, but I think we have a decent solution with the plate sandwich.

Basically you are doing what I am was talking about. I haven't finished my cage as of yet. (right now it is just bolted to the cab) But it has always been planned to be plated using that sandwich method I described. The "leg" that is being mounted to the frame is going to have a 90º bend in it. But I have also thought about making it a 45º, just haven't made up my mind yet. Either way I am sure it is going to be a rock magnet. But it is basically going to have 1/2" worth of plating around the floor board once it is finished with a plate welded to the side of the frame similar to yours.

I did mean to tell you that the cage is looking great! sure is fun isn't it? (that is sacrasm BTW) But everyone is already telling you that it is looking good so I just neglected to say it. Keep up the great work.

do the 45 for more strength, 90's work but if you do em i would suggest throwing a gusset on it opposite of the 90.

 

[DesertTRD]

Makes me want to do mine now.

haha take a good look at mine then remember ive been working on it after work for almost a week straight now.. and ive still got ALOT to do.

 

[OOwballer]

corey what are the ratchet straps for?

 

[DesertTRD]

corey what are the ratchet straps for?

that was to hold the dash in place while i was checking for fitment.