by carlos del carpio » 17 Tue Jan, 2006 2:21 am
Unfortunately, you CANNOT build these things with looks in mind, if you drive it at all, it MUST be for safety...sure, you're a safe and good driver, and of COURSE you will take care of the buggy, you built it, but how about the lady in the SUV putting on make-up while driving? The speeding teen racing in a truck? The guy in a car text messaging with a cell phone and driving? You gotta build it for safety, at some regard..
Now, in your case, get a piece of carboard
Trace the base mounts on the bottom of the roll cage..
Now, using a ruler, place it over the OUTSIDE EDGES of your tracing...
If you did it right, using a standard ruler, your tracing of the bases are about 1-inch wider than the actual bases...
Transfer that to sheet metal, the piece being at least 25% thicker than your base sheetmetal...
Once you get the sheetmetal cut, line it up UNDER your bases, transfer/mark the holes, and drill them out.
When you mount the cage, place these plates under the pan, and that will be a MINIMUM way of supporting the cage...
A better way would be the same procedures as above, but the piece you will transfer/cut will be a template of the entire pan, so it will "ring" around the bottom of the pan, better, and with precious cargo on board, why not???
you must have pride....in your ride....