Junkyard Jimmy Super Low Buck Build Thread

[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by CJM72

Looking good! Maybe I missed it, but is this the Bronco Bob family cage? I have the non-family version of the cage, but wish I had more protection out back for the kids.

Yep, that's what it is.

[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by MrBeast

I have driven several vehicles with cages over the years, I want to share some thoughts.



I am worried about how far inboard your side bars come in, they are almost directly overhead, if you wind up in the situation you need the roll bar, this could be fatal because it would be like having a baseball bat dropped right on top of your noggin!

It would be better to tie the bars in at the corner of the bend (shown in green) keeping the bars as close to the edge of the shell as possible! (orange)

I know it would probably mean having to buy more material at this point, but a couple of sticks of tubing are a lot cheaper than a serious injury or even loss of life! Especially if it is someone you love and you are left holding the regret bag.

Tying into the corner of the bend is pretty easy, you make a kicker bend that is at a 45° angle to the side tube, then make the notch perpendicular to that, and it will fit right in!



Also I strongly suggest putting an offset bend in the post going to the floor show in orange here, the reason for this is, when getting in and out of the truck it will make it a lot easier with your feet, get your foot wrapped around that bar as you are getting out and go Alpha Sierra Sierra over tea-kettle face first onto the pavement and you will understand why!

Also do install grab handles up at the front corner of the cage, but make sure that handle is inboard enough in its arc that if the truck were laying on its side and the cab crushed in, that who ever's hand is holding that handle will not be crushed! Because if the truck goes over the first thing someone is going to do is grab that handle!

And don't forget if you install 5 point harnesses, make sure the shoulder bar is above the shoulders because if you have an accident and they are below the shoulders it can cause compression injuries to the spine!

I don't want to sound like a downer, I just have some experience with this and know someone who got killed when his jeep flipped and the cage dimpled his noggin.

That being said I have high hopes you never need to use the cage because it would be a shame to mess up a truck you have done such nice work on, but better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it!

P.S. and by the way, PVC pipe is great for mocking up cages as it is a lot cheaper than steel, heat it up and bend it in your bender just as you would the steel tube. if you are unhappy with how a piece came out, get a butt connection, cut off the bad part, stick a fresh piece of pipe on, and keep mocking up!

First off, thanks for the feedback. I really do appreciate it. That's one of the reasons I'm sharing every detail of my builds on this board.

As for the concerns you have, I completely understand and had already given all of those some thought. The side bars coming inward are not as far as the pictures make it look. I can sit in the driver seat and bounce up and down without any contact with the bar. I may be able to shift it outboard as it is cut now by another inch or so. Or I could add a slight bend in that upper part to get it over more into the turn of the middle hoop.

There are a couple advantages though with having it above the bend. First, it's higher than if I put it in that bend by and inch or 2. Second, the tube is stronger on the straight. Adding heat into the thinner outer radius of the tube bend to weld the junction won't help the strength there at all and the bend is already a moment point, which is why the triangulation is so critical. Also, having the front side tubes aligned with the rear side tubes further strengthens that junction compared to an offset junction.

All that being said, having a couple more inches of room by my head would be good. Initial thoughts putting it in were pretty much spot on with your comments.

The other way I planned to get head room was with the seating. The factory seats are getting replaced with something more appropriate. They will sit an inch or more lower. As it is my line of sight straight forward is about 4" from the top of the windshield. I'm not real tall, but tall enough to need some adjustment there.

On the lower end of that tube, I could kick it forward a bit but honestly I don't think it will matter because I'll be adding tubes from the center hoop down towards the lower end of that anyway. So remove one issue and add another. I need a stool to get in the truck now and I believe it is pretty close to the eventual ride height. I plan to add some nerf bars, probably with a built in step or I'll have to lift the wife in manually. Not that I mind doing that.

Grab handles will be required. No doubt. I'll be adding a bar across the dash, and probably between the 2 cross bars there. Adding a couple from the middle hoop to the front cross bar. Triangulating the middle hoop and some in the rear also. That rear part won't get figured out until the rear suspension is sorted out.

I need to build a seat mount platform and add the tubing needed for harnesses. There is definitely room for improvement and time to make those adjustments. If I had designed it the side tubes would have been bent to mount more outboard for sure. I need to get the 2" dies back so I can make some bends.

Again, thanks for the input. Sometimes I just need that second or third opinion to bump me along the right path.

[Dieselwrencher]

Mike, nice work on the cage. Good info on the saw. I have a HF one but quit using it a while ago. The pos always cuts crooked and has since it has been new. I really should look at it and see what it's malfunction is.

The big thing I see with the top bars going from the hoop to the front of the floor are with them angled in like that, in an event you do roll with those bars in that far, that puts you closer to the rock, cliff or what ever. Most of those I've seen it seems they try to line up the front bars with the rear ones in line. I know how you were feeling with the anxiety doing this. I had the same thoughts and issues when I fitted the cage in my vette. Keep up the great work on it!

[hgs_notes]

In order to change any tube angles I needed to get a 2" die set. I shopped around because they are pretty spendy. I got the woodward Fab one from summit racing to see if it would work. I didn't really know because the bender was designed to use the dies from pro-tools or JD Squared. The woodward fab set is about $100 cheaper so worth a shot since it's not something I would be using a lot.


The first problem was the main pivot hole is supposed to be 1". It was NOT well machined. The pin just jammed in the end. I don't have a 1" drill bit. I checked with the town mechanic and he steered me to a guy south of town that would. Incredible shop on this farm about a mile or so from me. He specializes in restoring indian motorcycles and cushmans, among other things. He has everything I hope to have for my own future shop and then some. Anyway, he helped me out by boring out the hole. Didn't take much but still a PITA.

So then the next problem was that the other holes in the die have a slightly different spacing. By about 1/16". I don't know if that's by design or just poor quality control. They are a 7/8" hole and the rods would go through ok but there was just enough misalignment in the bender that the pin wouldn't go through. The easiest fix was to pick up a couple 3/4" grade 8 bolts. The holes in the bender itself need some redrilling too so it wasn't just the die. I was able to get the die installed and it worked ok, but has a little free play that wouldn't be there with the 7/8" pins holding it.


I pulled out the passenger side bar and set it up to put just a small bend in just behind the windshield post bend. It turned out ok. I had to recut the notch and I shortened it about an inch on that back end and about 3/8" on the bottom front end. Other than my notch being off a few degrees I'm good with how it turned out.


It's about 3-1/2" outboard of where I had it. Now I just need to try and copy that for the driver side.


After I get this section done I need to decide if I want to raise the body a bit before I make up the tubes that will tie in from underneath and attach to the frame rails. I think an inch or so would be good but don't think it's necessary. And I need to finish getting the rear springs and gas tank out of the way.

[Dieselwrencher]

That is looking better and that does stink about the new die but at least you found a new source close to you for weird issues. That is worth it right there!

[hgs_notes]

I finally got some shop time to get the driver side door tube bent. It turned out better than the passenger side for fit.


Pretty happy with this. I need to redo the cross bar behind the windshield though because it's too short now. I'll be able to reuse that tube for frame tie ins, etc.

[Dieselwrencher]

That is looking really nice!

[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

That is looking really nice!

Thanks, I haven't done much on it lately, until today anyway. I started out by tack welding those side bars between the rear and middle hoops, no real drama there. Then I started working on the front stuff by drilling holes in the front floor for the foot pads to bolt down to. Once those were set I tack welded the front side bars into place. I might end up notching the passenger side tube where the glove box door hits it. I could also just trim the corner of the glove box door. Either way, it'll need a little work.

Then I made the bar to run behind the windshield frame between the 2 sides. It fit ok and leaves plenty of room to use the visors. The next piece will be the dash bar and door bars.

[TennesseeZ]

Mike, you're becoming quite the tubing fabricator, does my heart good now that l can't do it anymore. I really enjoy following your threads, all of them. Now get out there and get busy lol!

[Low Elco]

Looks good! I lost track of this one!

[hgs_notes]

Wish I had more progress to post but I haven't worked on it a lot. Several reasons for that, like blizzards and the clean up afterwards, this whole job thing, spending time with the wife, etc. Anyway, got the dash tube tacked in. I was going to do the door opening tubes next but figured I should wait until I have seats. That way I can get the seats mounted and have a better idea of where to put those tubes, plus the ones behind the seats for mounting the harnesses. I ordered some seats and harnesses and they should be delivered before I get back home from this trip.


I figured out it would be faster and cheaper to use a cunk of wood in the tube notcher to try out fitting some stuff before cutting the tubes. Worked well. PVC would work great too, but I had a piece of scrap wood that worked for this go around.

Maybe next weekend I'll get more done.

[hgs_notes]

While I was out of town my order came in.


I got the original seats pulled out and the sliders put onto the new seats (they came with sliders, good deal) and sat them in place. They should work great.




Before I pulled out the old seats I took some measurements. I want the new ones a bit lower. Should work out great. I think I have a plan now for where the next tubes will go. I'll have the seat mounts attach to the cage.

[MrBeast]

Cage looks a lot better with the alterations you made!

I would consider moving the windshield bar forward as far as possible, it looks as though there is room for the visors to flip up under it.

[hgs_notes]

Progress has been slow. Since late April when I last posted it finally started to warm up around here and there was a lot of things around the compound that I was waiting for the thaw so I could get going. I was mainly working on the frame for the seats. A couple weeks ago I got the rear bar fitted in.


Nothing fancy, just a 1-1/4" tube with a 90 on each end to weld to the cage. The front part was more challenging. The seat brackets are 16" front to back. My die has a 5" radius and I measured an earlier bend for reference marks so I knew about where to put the first bend. Turned out fine. I've also been measuring the angle after the bend and where the ram is at in relation to a mark I made on the bender frame so I have an idea of how far to go.


I'm shooting for a 16-1/2" space between the front and rear tubes. Room for 1/8" plates to be welded to the tubes and bolted to the seat brackets. This 90 was the easy part. Next is bending a section that connects to the door tube and drops down to the correct height, which is tricky because the door tube is at a 20* angle so any movement front and back changes the height and the angle that the bend hits that tube is different depending on where it's cut. They meet in the middle of the bend. I only tossed one piece into the scrap pile so not bad. I wasn't going to try and make this in one piece, my math skills are ok, but not that good. I used 1-1/2' tube with 1/8" wall to fit over the 2 pieces.


I did try notching the tube in the bend area but it really didn't work well. I ended up just using a flapper disc on an angle grinder to form the notch. It's not that hard but I'm glad I have the notcher rig anyway. Like my wire brush shims?


So far so good. The passenger side is tacked in place. I am fabbing a little support that will bolt into one of the original seat holes and hold the front inside corner. And I need to cut and drill the plates that will hold the seat brackets. Almost done with the driver side also. Maybe next weekend the seat frame will be done minus the finish welds.

[hgs_notes]

Weather turned to crap so I'm back to working on indoor projects. The Jimmy has been sitting as it was in June. This weekend I bought a new air hammer with more power to chisel off rivets to remove suspension brackets. Even with that it's a lot of work.

Got the fuel tank and hitch out of the way. Wasn't exactly easy because I had the truck resting on the side brackets for the hitch so I had to jack up each side to get the weight off that to remove it. I still need to lift it now that the suspension stuff is out of the way to get the rear stand in a better position to work around.




Took the driver side leaf spring off with the brackets attached. Should have done that on the other side too. Learning as I go.






Time to start figuring out how to tie the cage into the frame.

[hgs_notes]

Sunday I finally got a seat mounted up. Pretty happy about that.




I brought one of the tires in to see how it looks. The truck is sitting at what I believe will be it's normal ride height. This is a used 35" tire and measured about 34".

[Dieselwrencher]

Nice work on the cage. It's looking great! How many snows have you had so far this fall?

[swamp rat]

Things are taking shape!

[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

Nice work on the cage. It's looking great! How many snows have you had so far this fall?

4 that I can think of. It melted last week but is snowing now.

Originally Posted by swamp rat

Things are taking shape!

Thanks, I'll probably be back out there in the next few days making more progress.

[LT7A]

This has been an epic saga. Took days to read it. Epic, not just in the build, but in your overall life, home, etc. Hoping that it continues to go well.

[FRENCHBLUE72]

Looks great ....keep up the good work

[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by LT7A

This has been an epic saga. Took days to read it. Epic, not just in the build, but in your overall life, home, etc. Hoping that it continues to go well.

Thanks, it was a hell of a story. And things have continued to go great. Haven't been working on this project much, mainly because of distractions with other projects. Lately I've been working on my new (to me) plow truck. My 76 K10 was falling apart and I found a 78 GMC K35 dually to replace it. It needed work, like every other beater I drag home but it's a pretty solid truck, newly rebuilt motor, runs great. Interior was crap so I refurbed it. And the original Dana 60 had been swapped for a 44 single wheel so it looks wrong. I'm fixing up a 60 now to swap in next summer.

Also this summer I finally got my 79 crewcab running and driving again. The slowest LS swap in history. 5 years! Got the rust repaired on the passenger side of the cab, driver side is next. Should be on the road next summer with a big old camper in the bed!

I'm going to try and get back on this one over the winter. I bought a more powerful welder to handle the suspension work. But I'm finishing up some other things like a little 69 honda CT90, my sons 83 Kawasaki KZ750 LTD and some rust repair on a friends cab.

On a personal note, do you know how you know that you're with the right woman? Spend 8 months working from home and being together every... single... day... and it was the best.

[Ol Blue K20]

Originally Posted by hgs_notes

Thanks, it was a hell of a story. And things have continued to go great. Haven't been working on this project much, mainly because of distractions with other projects. Lately I've been working on my new (to me) plow truck. My 76 K10 was falling apart and I found a 78 GMC K35 dually to replace it. It needed work, like every other beater I drag home but it's a pretty solid truck, newly rebuilt motor, runs great. Interior was crap so I refurbed it. And the original Dana 60 had been swapped for a 44 single wheel so it looks wrong. I'm fixing up a 60 now to swap in next summer.

Also this summer I finally got my 79 crewcab running and driving again. The slowest LS swap in history. 5 years! Got the rust repaired on the passenger side of the cab, driver side is next. Should be on the road next summer with a big old camper in the bed!

I'm going to try and get back on this one over the winter. I bought a more powerful welder to handle the suspension work. But I'm finishing up some other things like a little 69 honda CT90, my sons 83 Kawasaki KZ750 LTD and some rust repair on a friends cab.

On a personal note, do you know how you know that you're with the right woman? Spend 8 months working from home and being together every... single... day... and it was the best.

Wow!! I thought you disappeared HG.....Nice to see ya post

[jaros44sr]

me too, how is the panel bond holding up on the pick up, always wanted to try that method

Welcome back, you are an inspiration to all of us on the boards

[Dieselwrencher]

I'm glad to see everything is going well up there for ya! Hopefully you get all the snow up there this year! LoL