Here is my 8 year old
painting the roll cage. I promised him, that he could do it and he deserved to
be
mentioned. Here he is using a 10 cm roller for painting, it made painting so
much easier...... He applied
the first coat, then I did the next two coats.
A few days later, a friend
dropped by to help lift the roll cage into it's new home. The runners follow
the lines of the Land Rover's
interior nicely. The front hoop hasn't
taken up as much room as I originally
thought. When I'm sitting in the Landy,
the front hoop is within 3 - 5cm of my head, so, if I was ever
involved in an rollover, the roll cage would be
effective.
Looking through the load
barrier, you can see that they rear hoop is a tight fit against the rear of the
tub.
This is where my 5 -6 mm out of square issue comes into play.
The left rear, of the roll cage appears to
have warped, or maybe I misaligned the the runners on this side ? Anyways, the
left rear base plate doesn't
sit on the upper seat box. there's a gap of 6 mm. So, if I put weight on the
plate and lower that corner, the
left front corner of the front hoop, is then touching the roof panel. ( We
can't have that )
SO, what I decided to do, is place
a 6 mm plate under the roll cage's base plate. Even with this plate
to solve this minor problem, the roll cage's clearance with the Land Rover's
body panels, is still within
the 5 - 10 mm I intentionally planned.
For the time being, the rear of the roll cage is bolted ( M10
bolts ) through the floor, double plated
( top and bottom ). I will be securing the rear of the roll cage to the rear
cross member, but it's more
involved to make the securing bracket........ In time.....
Then a new problem came to
light. The rear lights cover plate's were completely blocked and there
wasn't enough room to remove them. I first thought to use door hinges, but
because of the length of the top
portion, it came in contact with the side of the tub. After looking in a
hardware catalogue, I decided to use
ball bearing locks. You know the kind that had 2 small balls, that catch and
hold a pin.
It was a simple fix for this problem, I simply cut the
rear light covers in half and pop riveted the
locks on. No problems now with access to the lights wiring.....
Here you can see that the
front hoop's base plate is bolted in place. The M10 bolts are bolted through
the floor, into a securing bracket, which is bolted to the frame. The bracket is
7 mm steel plate that has a
few
angled cuts and one 90 degree bend, which allows it to be bolted to the same
frame mounting point for
the seatbelts. Inside the rear, I used bicycle inner tube as a barrier
between the steel and aluminium floor.
Then under the floor, ( thanks for the suggestion, John ) I used a
cut out piece of plastic from an ice
cream container as the insulator between the metals. Then everything was given a
good coating of wax
undercoating.
Once everything was secure, I tried my best to make it
rattle or move, but, no luck, it held fast!
It has been said, that this
roll cage that I designed and built, would NOT pass an inspection , if the Land
Rover was used in "competition". So be it...... that's not why I built it. ( It
has nothing to do with the quality
of the material I used, or how it was assembled, but rather ( 2 points ), the
mounting points, the preferred
method of mounting the roll cage to the frame, is welding. Plus a few more
braces would be necessary. )
I built this roll cage, for me and my families protection, if
we were ever involved in a rollover. It's like
an insurance policy, that we never want to use, BUT, it's there to help us, if
need be.
It has to be agreed by all, that this roll cage does provide
more occupant protection, than Land Rover's
basic side and roof panels and that was and is my goal.
