Donate to Save Dannyboy's life...cage time

[R.J.]

moab is gonna be an awesome trip. and by that i mean ill be trippin out when i see your car in person.

 

[Dannyboy]

Spare tire mount is getting built post Moab. It will be a Poison Spyder looking knockoff, but not really a knockoff because it will have as many curves as the rest of my cage.

Steve, good call on the F1Fiddy vents, I'll have to look for something that can just click into a hole.

As for battery cable, I already own that, it was from a rear mounted winch setup I had on my old truck, paid in the neighborhood of $80 for the cable about 8 years ago, can only imagine what it's worth now.

I've already thought about weight distribution, the ultimate goal would be
1) relocate battery to rear
2) install 23 gallon fuel cell between frame rails under floor behind rear shocks,
3) intall tire carrier with full size spare (designed to hold up to a 37
4) mount CO2 air cannister in back passenger corner
5) permanatly mount hi-lift, front and rear driveshafts in cargo area (done)
6) permanatly mount 5 ammo cans with trail supplies tools that will stay in truck full time (on the way)
7) I have a winch laying around that would be really slick mounted up under the rear somehow, but I think the fuel cell would ruin those plans.

I plan on carrying all the gear I have in the past, but I want to get away from big storage bins that are strapped down, they never agree with my driving.

And Thanks RJ, but I think I'm going to be a work still in progress by Moab, I'm crossing my fingers.

 

[R.J.]

you want to move weight to the back for prerunning? but when your crawling up a steep hill, won't the front end unload like made?

 

[Stic-o]

there is probally enough room...maybe that you could mount up a trick winch over the rear axle in front of the fuel cell...just maybe...

Or under the rear seat...

 

[Dannyboy]

there is probally enough room...maybe that you could mount up a trick winch over the rear axle in front of the fuel cell...just maybe...

Or under the rear seat...

Several days and dollars from now, I would like to have the knowlege and skills of a guy like Izwack (not Izwack but a guy like him, but republican) and I'd like to do something like what you speak of. It would involve several frame mounted pulleys, in cab controls and a high speed grappling hook, well maybe not all of that, but it would be a start. Now with my cage being fully frame mounted, it would probably make more sense to mount the dang thing to the roof on a 360 degree swivel.

 

[Stic-o]

baahhh he's just tryin to get your vote! :

 

[Dannyboy]

Well this thing is almost streetable, I spent all weekend tearing down the front end and restoring the suspension components. Making it look like this

from this

 

[Dannyboy]

and real camera pictures of the project finally

4 pin removable hood

rear cargo, hi-lift and spare driveshafts secured

Door skins, no handles, going to ponder this in Moab

the dash with the horrible glare

probably going to run my 35" MTRs in Moab as I already have them mounted on rims, the 33s and that big spring pack seem awfully close to the ground. I have 37s, I just don't' know if there is enough body to sacrifice to get them on. It appears I have scrub marks in my front fenderwells from when I ran 35s for a short period of time last year. The rear went up about 4" with the new spring pack so I don't think that should be an issue.

I wouldn't mind a F150 coil spacer, but I don't know if I want to lose 1.5" of downtravel.

 

[410Fortune]

HOLY COW nice work!

Hey I have a tip for ya, LOL get a small rag and some soap and water, fish the rag through the coil at the top, get it wet, drag it around th ecoil and wind it down... then your red coils will look red again and match all that other pretty detailing/paint you did

the cage looks awesome man, funky bends and such, but looks sturdy and cool
Im jealous!!

This is probably what the original owner had in mind when they went to Autofab, and then some! (the personal Dannyboy touch)
I was hours behind you in getting that truck......wish I had! LOL
just what I need right? another truck!

 

[Dannyboy]

good call, I sat the coils in a tub with hot sudsy water for 2 days. I was almost going to chemical strip them down.

They are the exact same height as a set of skyjacker 6" coils I have and they seemed very similar in size and rate.

 

[Burns]

Wow just the pictures i was just about to ask for before you posted them.


Very nice. Everything on the front end looks new again.

I really need a cage.

 

[410Fortune]

they do look like Skyjacker 19" (6") lift coils but my guess from Autofab would be Eibach 5" lift coils, more like 450 or 500# spring rate then the softer Skyjacker coils...??

weird!

Cage looks great, interior looks like it should! Cover that dash in vinyl? would be easy to do.....

 

[Dannyboy]

gotta figure out something for the surface that is going to be textured and dark to avoid glare (remember, I was in the boat biz, I saw this by every mfg.)

Dash has drawings of where the autometer gauges are going (any suggestions?, it's kinda mini cooper style with the speedo and tach in the center but it's where it fits without doing a pod) plus I've got the satellite radio antenna wired up and will be putting these two things on top of the dash for the Etrex legend GPS and sirius stilleto, all the stuff that used to go flying off the dash before.

The pass side beam got trimmed out in the hole the axle shaft passes through and I also tried the blue locktite on the spindle nuts for the first time ever. I was pretty excited about that, hope they stay tighter.

 

[RangerX]

Dan, the bracket that ties the cage to the A pillar, is there a reason you didn't do it to the B, C, and D pillars? Just wondering.

 

[FROADER]

Nice odometer. Going Ludicrous Speed sitting in the backyard.

 

[410Fortune]

for the spindle nuts have you considered the lock ring washer trick? Weld a bit of material onto the locking tab, then file it down so it fits TIGHT into the spindle groove...
the tabs usually barely reach past the threads and then they are also loose side to side, this IMO allows the nuts to work themselves loose.

Ever since I did this trick they are as tight as they were when I put them there... even to Moab and back, I believe Rookie did this mod in his BII build thread

 

[Dannyboy]

Dan, the bracket that ties the cage to the A pillar, is there a reason you didn't do it to the B, C, and D pillars? Just wondering.

Well, I hate to sound like a poser, but I pretty much pointed out every detail that I saw looking cool and beefy on every race truck or sick prerunner. I spent countless hours online looking at other peoples cages and then took those attributes to my project. I then worked those into my design (even though this truck was professionally caged by a guy who has done this for 10 years, he aked my input and said it was one of the most overbuilt cages, but right on par for the pictures he saw of my truck flying through the air).

One detail you will see on the b and c pillar is that it captures the factory seat belt upper bolt with a tab. This will help keep the cage and body together. I begged John to build me plates on the D-pillar that were similar to the a-pillar plates, but time was running out. I still think it would be easy to do. If you recall my rear bars bent around in the way they do so I can cut through the rear hatch for a stinger style rear bumper.

All B.S. aside, I don't plan on having any type of a rollover, but I'm guessing that if I do rollover it won't be slow rockcrawler, it will be high speed nose digging into a whoop or coming off a hill at the wrong angle. I spent a little extra time and money thinking that I will be able to salvage this truck forever. Looking back at the McNeil endo, that truck had no D-pillar protection, the rest of the truck however stayed in tact fairly well.

If I have a slow rollover, it means that I may even save the windshield with the a-pillar supports from nothing more than a crack. I chose to sacrifice all interior in order to put my cage out as far as possible. I figure it's a 18 year old truck and the old school blue needed to go. I love the new look, very rugged, very easy to clean and disassemble. Taking note to the side bracing on the doors, I honestly believe that truck will stay in pretty decent shape, whether I get t-boned, lay it on the side or roll it end over end. Looking at the accidents you see in NASCAR it's incredible that these guys walk away from that but those cages are designed to cradle them tight. Now I will be wearing no safety gear or helmet (unless I do whiplash offroad), and will be traveling at 1/3 the speed of a nascar crash I should be in good shape. I have very little areas of the truck that can collapse more than 1" without it gettting into the cage. I built this with the plan of going to the junkyard with a sawzall and a socket set to return home with whatever body panels would need to be welded into place to repair it. I think the totals were somewhere around 130' of tubing in the truck. The only places where I would have added more tube but did not see necessary were diagonal supports through the rear passengers harness bar(but the rear suspension 2' behind go to the roof) and a full "X" through the front seats harness bar(but that would have killed all leg room for the rear seats).

Dare I say that a future build for this truck has already been considered after I enjoy it like this for a while. I needed suspension to keep up with my engine, now I need an engine to keep up with my suspension and then go back to suspension. Lets just say 3 link, 23 gal fuel cell, v8, doubler, continue the cage through the firewall to the front bumper and 1/2 ton running gear have already been discussed.

 

[R.J.]

dang, now i need to go work on my truck again, i haven't even painted any tube on it

looking good...real good....maybe a little too good?






p.s. autofab has they're springs built by National spring. john has recomended the skyjacker springs and says they're one of the best explorer/ranger springs made, so i wouldn't put it past you to have SJ springs in there (he also said superlift are the worst springs : )

 

[R.J.]

oh and thanks for posting the MCNEIL cage that was destroyed! your just trying to act superior to us McNeil guys :

 

[R.J.]

another question from me, do you have different u-bolt and mounts for each side? just looking at the pics

edit, i just realized the first pic has like a website name on it. not your car huh?