87 2wd Toy interior cage.

[ScooteK]

Im finally out in the backyard throwing some sparks again.
This truck is getting an interior cage, front shock mounts, and a front bumper.
Starting inside with the gutting of the cab, and removal of extra factory sheet metal for extra head room.







With the extra room, a few measurements, and I input them into Bend-Tech to start the B pillar.





Gotta love the cutting feature





Using Captainfabs POB and the digital angle finder kicks a$$.
Having the tenths of a degree has made it easy to have 8 bends lay flat on a 12 foot stick of tube!





0.0




This part had to be inserted through the windshield because of its form fitting design.
I had to use a soft hammer to tap it in.










This is a weekend project when I get time, so I will update as it goes.

[kkuenemann]

Looks good, I like how the main hoop is so close to the inner panel.
Keep it up and post more pics...

[Ratfab0120]

like a glove, looks awesome man

[Captainfab]

Great job as always scootek!

And thanks for the plug

[Mopars 4 Life]

Lookin good...I will agree on the POB and Craftsman angle finder...I use them as well. Also gotta love BT...made that B fit like a glove..and not OJ's BTW .
Keep it up...
Later,
Brian

[Rokcrler]

Nothing like i pictured you

Awesome work... i like the height of your bender! been thinking about raising mine up a bit
Cant wait to see the end product..

[ScooteK]

Yeah, I dig the bender up higher where I can see.
Well after a few thoughts where to land the A pillars I decided the factory body mounts, along with the floor, had to go.
I cut a good hole in the floor and cut off the pirtch for the body mount coming off the frame.
























With a nice open space to do my thing, I made some new pirtches for landing the A pillars and I will make something for the body later.
The cage will end up being attached to the cab in several spots later.
This will make it like one piece, keeping it very quiet and sturdy.

[Rix86]

Looks like you're thinking it out well and planning ahead.
Nice job.

[Twisted Minis]

Very very nice work.

[sega702]

how did you get the holes like that on your pirtches looks really nice, can you see your degree wheel from where you are standing , obviously you can cause your work looks so good, but just looks like you would have a difficult time looking at your tolarances from where you are standing, please post pics of the finished product looks goog so far, real good.

[ScooteK]

Originally Posted by sega702

how did you get the holes like that on your pirtches looks really nice, can you see your degree wheel from where you are standing , obviously you can cause your work looks so good, but just looks like you would have a difficult time looking at your tolarances from where you are standing, please post pics of the finished product looks goog so far, real good.

The guy holding the camera (owner of the truck) is my extra eyes for the degree ring. I try and get some help when bending large pieces.

The holes were made using the kit shown in this post, along with some greenlee dies that happened to fit this kit. Check the link below

http://www.offroadfabnet.com/forums/...0&postcount=12

[ScooteK]

Thanks for the kind words guys.
Well I landed the A pillars/door bars today.




Started on the passanger side. Another great reason to have the bender up high.





Using as many features of Bend-Tech as I can.




















It took a little finesing to land this side. Pretty happy with how it turned out.
Because Bend-Tech kicks so much a$$, I hit the mirror button and designed the driver side in about 100th of a second. Thanks cris.


Another good reason to have good clearance above the bender. (driver side)





I must have done some bad math figuring the rotation on this one. The last bend by the floor was off a couple of degrees. Because of the price of steel and the ease of this fix, I just cut and sluged it with the proper rotation to land it good on the pirtch. I put the plug welds on the side and back to keep the cosmetic aspsct of it. You can see in the pic below the seam of the tube and how much was corrected.

[Mike C]

Great work! I need to install my bendtech software and start playing today. Nice fitment to sides of cab and A-pillar. I am watching and learning.

[Corban_White]

Very nice work scootek!

[Twisted Minis]

Fantastic!

[TheBandit]

Damn you're good. Excellent work!

[Mopars 4 Life]

Looks good dude!
Keeper up,
Brian

[ScooteK]

Again thanks for the kind words guys.


I was PM'd a question about my error with the "bad math" on the rotation.
I wanted to share my response incase anyone else wanted to know.


Answer>>>

My problem was the fact that the craftsman level uses 90 degree incriments and when rotating it, the level will reach 90 and if you continue to rotate it will countdown backwards to 0 and then forward to 90. The setting for the rotation that I get my instructions from is incremental and will show for example >>

Bend 1 0
Bend 2 113
Bend 3 -16
Bend 4 -76

I have to factor the math as it rotates and often get cross-eyed and make simple addition and subtraction errors.

In this example on bend 2 I would rotate clockwise 113 degrees, but the level would go to 90 and then count backwards to 67 to reach the full 113 deg of rotation. For bend 3 in this example I would start my math from this 67. Going now counter clockwise 16 deg. The level would now show 83. The final bend is where I screwed up. from the 83 that Im at, I went the right way (counter clockwise) but I took the 83 Im at and subtracted 76 getting 7 when I totally forgot to go to 90 and then count backwards. It should have gone to 21 degrees but I went to 7, this made the last bend off 14 degrees.


If you look carefully at the driverside, between the last 2 bends near the floor, this is where I cut the tube to rotate the 14 degrees of correction.



EDIT>>>>

Here is a link to some great info about rotation in Bend-Tech. I to will be reading up on this and probably make a change in my settings.
http://www.2020softwaresolutions.com...read.php?t=173

[kkuenemann]

That is some awsome work. I like the fits and how well the tubes hug the inside of the body.

One question though, where the a pillar hits the main hoop, how will you weld all the way around? Will you only weld what you can see then add a gusset?

[fabcam]

Andy, You are going to want to change your rotational output to the one circled in the following picture or the "reverse"