72 Jeep Commando Integrated Roll Cage Project

This is a driveway build my son and I have been working on for about 4 years now having been interrupted by some serious medical issues I've been dealing with over that time. This roll cage project has taken more time and effort that I thought- primarily because we are limited in the tools we have to do this type of fabrication work and I'm about half gimpy. Having said that, it looks to be shaping into something that my son can be truly proud of, and the skills he's gained in this process will be invaluable.

Many of you here at ECJ5 have probably seem our build thread here...

" New proud member, will need your help with my 72 commando "

Lots of custom fabrication in this thread including homemade roof-rack with fiberglass cowling, door repair and refit info, and I plan a hydraulic folding spare mount rear bumper.


Regardless, I'm splitting the roll cage stuff out into this thread for the benefit of future Google'rs.

Before anyone trolls my welding, remember that 1 in 3 welds you see was made by my teenage kid.




Besides, it's not that we are bad welders, it's just that we are such good grinders.




Stay tuned for a recap of where we are so far.

 

Under Body Frame Ties: So I wasn't taking a lot of pictures at this point so you get what you get- 2" bushing mount frame ties, powder coated florescent orange- our powder coating on these is basically C- work but helped us perfect our cleaning and grounding procedures - It's amazing how good crappy powder coating looks though right?

We kind of liked the bright orange color we painted the nerf bar rocker panels for underneath the truck. I have bought about 10 colors of powder coat including several candy coats and I am looking for excuses to use them all. (I'm also building a new set of modular ovens that can bake much larger items but that's another thread)

 

Body cutting for integrating roll cage:

I didn't take any pictures while we were cutting out these body panels. The rear cut-outs look pretty gruesome but do not fear- all of these lines will snug up nice and prettyish on final install.





This is probably the best photo to start the roll cage build thread with as it shows the reasoning behind the positioning of the 4 primary posts of the cage, and also the significance of the huge footprints of the front posts making use of the (fabricated) front frame tie-in, the existing body mounts/frame tie in, and the primary reinforcement strut across the cab. Not shown is the rear body mounts near the rear tie ins. Subsequently the body/cage will be stiffer but flex in unison when demanded to and should minimize (as much as is possible) the stresses created in the steel of the body over time.



stay tuned for our next episode, and drink more OVALTINE!

 

Rear posts:

I started with some standard plates from Tractor Supply- note, this endeavor is a fool's errand, minimize at every opportunity the number of cuts, grinds, measurements, drill-holes you must create, there will be plenty enough of that horseplay ahead.







So the plan is, rear posts taper from 4" to 3.25" centering on crossbeam which is .5" from and parallel with sidewall of jeep, top set to .25" proud of body.



I don't get lots of time to fiddle with this computer so I have to keep splitting this up a bit as I go, plus I wrote a huge post yesterday and somehow erased it before it posted - about broke my heart- so enough of that. Stay tuned.

 

Rear Posts (continued):

tack welded everything together starting from the bottom and including the primary cross braces of the bolting plate.



I tacked in my taper to the (top) cross member first, then weld in the 3-D members from the bottom up



As you can tell, the cross member is cut into three pieces (so the bottom portion of the cage can fit into my powder coater), so it's important that everything be bolted up and mounted tightly together when you weld in a gusset like this or else you'll get bends and warps that can send all your previous work to the steel pile (ask me how and when I found this out)



easy peasy, 15 individual pieces of steel templated, measured, cut, grinded, constructed, welded, bee-bee'd, grinded, cleaned, filed, grinded, 15,497 bee-bees removed in overlapping shifts, lapped, grinded, lapped, polished = one post down.



Stay Tuned- Auto Companies don't want you to know what's in my next post!

 

So about that cross member...

So this is kind of stupid really in retrospect for those of you looking to do something similar within a reasonable amount of time and invested effort. But I determined that we should create a 3 piece cross member that would allow us to take the lower half of the roll cage apart and powder coat it- understand now that there would be no reason to even differentiate between a lower roll cage and upper roll cage if it were not for this decision as we would just simply have welded all of these pieces together and painted them like regular folk do.

Our paths, once chosen, can only be followed.



First of all this 3x2 thin walled tubing is really only meant to be a meeting point for all of the strengthened pieces to weld and bolt together- the tubing itself (epecially as applies to the cross member) is really only a conduit for internal 3/16" bolt plates and the 3/16" angle-iron bolt mounted on two planes.

Anyway, this is what I did. I built 8" internal braces to span the cuts 4" on each side and built them to a drive-in drive-out fitment once powder coated.









does it work perfectly in that when these 16 bolts are tightened both cross members are aligned straight as an arrow in both planes? Yes. Is it stronger than any 2" tubing roll cage available on the planet, yes. Buuuut the gaps were pretty ugly to be honest, and each of these 4 brackets can only fit in it's respective position (Pass-front, Pass-Rear, Drive-Front, Drive-rear) due to user error in building the template from which we built all of these. I score us a C+, but provided myself an extra credit opportunity to bring our grade up.


I determined that I needed to cut out the outside gaps in the cross member and pretty them up a little because I thought the straight cuts made it look like some kind of modular kit you can buy from Summit Racing. At this point I had already invested too much effort to allow this project to look like it got dumped out of an Ikea box.



The double-A is our unofficial maker's mark. These 1/4" diamonds are bolt mounted and are likely to be replaces with Oh-Zhit handles/arm rests for the backseat at some future date, so the diamond plates are really just placeholders.

Stay Tuned- The NSA, MIB, and the Council of Oligarchs don't want you to know about what I reveal in my next post!

 

Front Posts:

I used poster-paper, scissors, sharpies, and occasionally a ruler to make templates from which to cut all of these steel pieces. I also have a few micrometers that I use to scribe lines with but have ruined all but one by scribing lines in steel with them. There are probably better and more gadgety ways to do this, but I trust the ways of my ancestors.



We have a 14" chop saw, a harbor freight bandsaw, a 48" belt sander, and an angle grinder. I have a torch but we have not used it on this project- 3/16" cuts like butter on our bandsaw with homemade feed table.





So anyways, we begin with the welding, and the ravenous hunting and omnipotent annihilation of welding Bee'Bee's, not just the men, but the women and children Bee'Bee's too.









this picture shows the pieces we cut using the paper whittling method described above, they are actually much more perfect than they look because they are free standing there but trust me, we get an A for this quiz, spoiler, the other side doesn't go as well. you'll also notice this picture jumps ahead to show the bottom more finished out.






Here is a DIY kit I created for the drivers side while I was building the passenger side. I have not yet had the courage to add up all of the total individual pieces we have had to cut so far.



I put this picture together to show a mistake I made. I tried to skip a step by welding in the diamond gusset prematurely and it caused my side plate to drift out of plane.



I was able to fix it. the camera is just fish-eyed.



staging welds in ongoing effort to stamp out Covid welding Bee'Bee infestation. I should mention we only have a flux-core wire fed welder (no gas) so for those unfamiliar it's like welding with an ice cube in bacon grease.


Speaker Mount Plates:

started with this picture because it shows the original body panels we cut out of the jeep with speaker cutouts put in by the previous owner.-



we used both of these 3rd-hand hand-cut templates to create a 4th-hand template approximating the size and shape of a standard 6x9 speaker mount.

















good enough spot to leave it for tonight. But do stay tuned!

 

So, we're almost caught up to present day- we are about halfway through this project.

I wanted to point out that in my last two pictures above you witness me go against my own advice and weld in the gussets for the front posts "on the table" instead of while the the entirety of the cage is bolted together and also bolted in. A recent dry-fit revealed that this has created just enough of an issue that it is going to make it a real pain to install.



Now, fortunately this is a minor problem that can be pretty easily mitigated and repaired, especially because of the modular design and the fact that cage splits into a top and bottom- but it's worth pointing out again for anyone else on the horizon of such an endeavor. I am not a professional at this, I literally made all of this up as I went.

So the bottoms are essentially complete and ready for powder coating. Fitment was perfect until I welded in the gussets above, but again, a minor fitment issue that is more of a pain than a problem.



Top cage mounting plate:


This is another example of how previous decisions trapped me into a more complex build. None of this stuff is particularly hard to do, but in retrospect, not the best idea when building with a deadline in mind











next phase will be body work to seal the seams around the rear posts, install bottom of cage, install hardtop, construct roll cage tack welded, remove top, weld out, clean up, paint and powder coat and set aside until after paint day.

Wish us luck, we'll report back when we get there.

 

nicely done!

 

I have to agree....
You guys are bad welders.

 

Looks good, I hope steel is cheaper out there than it is here.

 

Luckily, I bought the steel a few year back before I had my amnesia seizure, we’ve just had a lot of down months stacked together.

FWIW, I lost my phone this weekend- found it at the Home Depot in the lost and found but it’s broken, (must have dropped it getting into my truck as it has asphalt type damage) so no new pics or posts for a while until I sort out my equipment issues.

 

So guys, I lost my phone, had to get a new one, then I lost my new phone two days later. Our thread will be short on pics for a little while.

in the meantime, I can give you a short recap of the work required to bring the project to it's current state: Measure, Cut grind, Measure, cut, grind, measure, cut grind, measure, cut, measure cut, grind, grind cut grind measure grind cut cut, cut, cut, grind, weld, weld, weld, brush, BB, grind, weld, BB, grind, weld, BB, grind, Measure, Cut grind, Measure, cut, grind, measure, cut grind, measure, cut, measure cut, grind, grind cut grind measure grind cut cut, cut, cut, grind, weld, weld, weld, brush, BB, grind, weld, BB, grind, weld, BB, grind, grind, weld, BB, grind, weld, BB, grind, Measure, Cut grind, Measure, cut, grind, weld, weld, weld, brush, BB, grind, weld, BB, grind, weld, BB, grind, grind, weld, BB, grind, weld, BB, grind, weld, weld, weld, brush, BB, grind, weld, BB, grind, weld, BB, grind, grind, weld, BB, grind, weld, BB, grind, weld, weld, weld, brush, BB, grind, weld, BB, grind, weld, BB, grind, grind, weld, BB, grind, weld, BB, grind, Measure, Cut grind, Measure, cut, grind, measure, cut grind, measure, cut, measure cut, grind, grind cut grind measure grind cut cut, cut, cut, grind, weld, weld, weld, brush, BB, grind, weld, BB, grind, weld, BB, grind, Measure, Cut grind, Measure, cut, grind, measure, cut grind, measure, cut, measure cut, grind, grind cut grind measure grind cut cut, cut, cut, grind, weld, weld, weld, brush, BB, grind, weld, BB, grind, weld, BB, grind, grind, weld, BB, grind, weld, BB, grind, Measure, Cut grind, Measure, cut, grind, weld, weld, weld, brush, BB, grind, weld, BB, grind, weld, BB, grind, grind, weld, BB, grind, weld, BB, grind, weld, weld, weld, brush, BB, grind, weld, BB, grind, weld, BB, grind, grind, weld, BB, grind, weld, BB, grind, weld, weld, weld, brush, BB, grind, weld, BB, grind, weld, BB, grind, grind, weld, BB, grind, weld, BB, grind, Measure, Cut grind, Measure, cut, grind, measure, cut grind, measure, cut, measure cut, grind, grind cut grind measure grind cut cut, cut, cut, grind, weld, weld, weld, brush, BB, grind, weld, BB, grind, weld, BB, grind, Measure, Cut grind, Measure, cut, grind, measure, cut grind, measure, cut, measure cut, grind, grind cut grind measure grind cut cut, cut, cut, grind, weld, weld, weld, brush, BB, grind, weld, BB, grind, weld, BB, grind, grind, weld, BB, grind, weld, BB, grind, Measure, Cut grind, Measure, cut, grind, weld, weld, weld, brush, BB, grind, weld, BB, grind, weld, BB, grind, grind, weld, BB, grind, weld, BB, grind, weld, weld, weld, brush, BB, grind, weld, BB, grind, weld, BB, grind, grind, weld, BB, grind, weld, BB, grind, weld, weld, weld, brush, BB, grind, weld, BB, grind, weld, BB, grind, grind, weld, BB, grind, weld, BB, grind.

Not really the same without the pictures.