after tearing up my carpet ,which opened up a huge can of worms for me, i discovered several gaping holes in my unibody, the largest holes (12x8 after grinding out completely rotted metal) were located on the passenger side right were your feet would go and in the backseat on both sides, also about were your feet would go. the drivers side was also rusted out were it starts to slope up for the tranny tunnel. I always knew i had this to some extent but i never expected it to be in this bad of shape. i suddenly realized my jeep (that i've put thousands of dollars into) main form of structural rigidity was lacking. so after removing all rust and applying rust inhibiter and primer i put new sheet metal over the holes and 100s of 3/16 rivets and about a dozen drill bits later it looks pretty good. tomorrow i am going to put a couple strong coats of fiberglass over IT ALL and then add some kind of bedliner...anyway getting to the point here, i realized i need something else to strengthen my unibody. i figured one of those single hoop roll bars would work well right? rusty's has one that seems to be exactly what i want for $220 which isn't steep at all but they always get me with the shipping and i'm thinking that something like this that looks relatively simple might be more efficiently obtained by giving my local metal fabricator the specs to make it...so my question to anybody out there. has anybody built one themselves? if so i would greatly appreciate your specs and the diameter tubing used....i will have pics up of the new floor soon its coming out great!

 

i gave up...i'm ordering the one from rusty's

 

Rollbar specs--------------------round and thick.

 

haha thanks bro i like it

 

If your going to take it local, im sure he will be able to measure. I can pull a tape on mine if your still interested. or i found a couple links for cages.

http://www.dandcextreme.com/product_...e.asp?pkID=126

http://tandjperformance.com/store/in...&products_id=8

not as cheap, but nice looking

 

A roll bar will not stiffen your chasis. You need frame stiffners to do that. I know TNT makes some, and I am sure if you search the vendors forums you wil see there are some available.

As for your question on the roll bar, I would find a local person who has a tubing bender, and have one bent out of either 1.5 or 1.75 DOM tubing. That is if you are dead set on having one.

 

i appreciate your responses guys...your right i understand that a roll bar would n't really be functional for the strengthening of my frame (can we even call it a frame? lol). but after having my interior striped out i really got a good picture of what is keeping my xj rigid. it was actually kind of scary lol. i guess i really want the bar for side impact saftey. and this is why i might have went a little overboard with the sheet metal and fiberglass (i work in the marine industry and i'm pretty good with the stuff). my local fabricator right down the road from me (triple t fabrications) would probably measure it himself weather i gave him the exact specs or not lol so you guys are right was kinda a dumb question..umm as far as unibody stiffeners go i should really invest in something or the sort..would rocker guards that bolt from the subframe (thats what i'm gonna call it) then tied into the rockers themselves should help correct? or would frame braces that connect both subframe rails be more efficient?

 

go with an exo-cage on the outside.. wont hit your head in a roll over and protects the body/glass in a roll over







+ it looks cool too

 

lol i've been playing with the idea for years i just decide weather i think its bad *** or silly looking...but there is no arguing the functionality of an exo cage. i like the one that i've seen on hear that has the roof rack that ties into the pillars going down. if i am ever going to do a cage (which i will) it is going to be and interior system since i have plans of chopping it into a kind of 4 door pickup truck kind of deal. the interior is completely rinolined now and i have the resources so i figure why not!....does anybody have any input on the cage rockhard4x4.com has? here is the link http://www.rockhard4x4parts.com/xj-96.html it says that it is completely bolt in. know anybody that has ever bolted in a roll cage? lol. luckly they say they can send it to you for welding purposes aswell.

 

Rock rails will stiffen the frame some, but not like weld on frame stiffners. Weld on frame stiffners are either made out of 1/8 or 3/16 and that almost doubles the thickness of the frame.

 

Last few xj's I have had, I just used a yj or later cj roll bar. Modified the hight, then changed the rearward facing tubes to tie into the rear wheel wells, and quarter pannels. The fronts land on the unibody and front leafspring purches. width is perfect.

 

we have these 2 options for chassis stiffeners

Stage 1 Stage 2

 

wow very interesting, i would have never found these if u didn't tell me about them..do you have any pics of them the stage 1 installed?

 

here is a link to some pictures with them on. the picture also show our sliders and cage tied into it. (this is our long arm stiffener but it basically the same)

http://www.tandjperformance.com/show...ls/pohls.shtml

 

thats for your help man your company has some awesome products. you'll defiantly be hearing from me soon...i see your all the way in cali how are your shipping rates over to jersey?