Roll Cage Continued:

     While building this cage I've been spot welding all the joints together so I can remove the assembly for final welding. I highly recommend NOT welding your cage together while in your Jeep like I know some of you have! Removing the cage makes things far easier to work with and you'll get better quality welds. Okay, now that that's out of the way, we removed the cage we welded up all the joints and added some gussets for strength. Once the welding was done I went ahead and grinded off some of the nasty spots, stuff like welding splatter and a few minor screw ups on my behalf. From there the cage got a bath using just your ordinary household garden variety carwash roll cage soap while using an ordinary household garden variety roll cage sponge! Then after that we dried it. Before painting, my roll cage team and I treated the raw metal with a product from POR-15 called "Metal-Ready". Metal-Ready will neutralize any rust and will etch any clean bare metal to allow better adhesion for paint. Instructions indicate to keep the metal wet for something like 20 minutes then wipe off any excess. This process left the roll cage looking somewhat white in color, kinda weird huh? We then dried the cage one last time and let stand overnight.

     The next day came painting. I've found that The Eastwood Company makes a pretty good chassis black which I use religiously on all my metal projects! It took me at least an hour to spray a couple of coats of chassis black. I usually lay down 3 to 5 coats but after an hour of painting with aerosol cans, it leaves your index finger feeling a little less then perfect! In fact you'll be lucky to feel that digit at all.

     A few notes now that the cage is done. All in all I'm very happy with the way the cage turned out. The roll cage isn't perfect but it's hard to tell unless you really look hard. Also while building a roll cage make sure you have the convertible top frame mounted on the Jeep and use it for measurements and clearance checks unlike me. I just eyeballed everything and even though the cage was well inside the dimensions of the Jeep and factory roll bar the convertible top fits on very tight. The rear cage should have been made inward an inch or so for better clearance. I do plan on building more cages weather it be for me or my friends, I really enjoy the fabrication process.

     I've moved on to the transfer case. I'm currently rebuilding the Dana 300, upgrading to a 32 spline output shaft and 4 to 1 gears. With a NV4500 and 4:56 axle ratio my crawl ratio should be about 105. I'll also be adding Currie twin shifters and one ton drive shafts, I'll have pictures posted soon. Realistically I hope to be wheeling next spring or early summer, but then again I say that every year...

cx

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