Stiffening Cage, some pictures of one I just finished Options

[McMark]

We just finished the last pipes on this STIFFENING cage. Everything is 1.75"DOM, bent on a hand powered JD2 bender. Top of main hoop and windshield bars curved on a Harbor Freight tubing roller with SWAG-Offroad 1.75" dies to match the body curve. Gussets were omitted by request. Tied to front and rear shock mounts, and the owner and I discussed reinforcement plates and opted to not use them on the shock towers.

We spent a lot of time getting the bars as tucked away as possible. When the top is on and the doors are closed, you can only see the main hoop. Tight clearances made the assembly a jigsaw puzzle to refit and weld (after mockup, all bars were removed and epoxy primered). There was a very specific order of how the bars went back in and the order they were TIG welded. All welds to the body were completed last to avoid any twist/warp transmitting to the body. Oh, and all the notches were done by hand, even though I have a JD2 Tubing Notcher.

This car is getting a 3.2 engine, so we had to make the rear shock bars clear the oil tank. The front shock bars went through the dash vent holes and I had to remove the washer tank and move the brake fluid reservoir.