Building a Roll Cage: A Step-by-Step Guide

I recently embarked on a project to build a roll cage for my vehicle, and I'm excited to share my experience with you. The process was not without its challenges, but with patience and determination, we were able to get the cage up and running.

To begin, I needed to create the two side bars that would form the foundation of the cage. I used an angle grinder to notch out the ends of the bars, which allowed them to fit snugly into the pre-existing frame of my vehicle. It was a bit tricky to get the notches just right, but after some trial and error, we finally got the bars to fit like they should.

Next, I needed to measure and cut out two additional pieces that would serve as mounts for the cage. These pieces were cut using a bandsaw, which provided a smooth and even finish. I also used Shawn's expertise to help me get these pieces to fit up perfectly, even though we had initially encountered some issues with the angle of the notches.

With the side bars and mounts in place, it was time to start building the cage from the inside out. To do this, I needed to create a series of bars that would connect the side rails to the door bars. This involved measuring and cutting six bars in total, including one at the bottom and two that were higher up. Once these bars were cut and prepared, we began welding them into place.

However, I soon realized that welding the cage in its current configuration was not feasible due to the limited space available in the vehicle's frame. Instead of attempting to weld everything together, I decided to temporarily tack the back bar in place and then push the entire assembly forward through a series of holes in the frame. This allowed me to create some space between the bars and get a better look at how the cage would fit.

With the temporary tacking solution in place, it was time to start welding everything together. I began by attaching the side bars to the mounts, followed by the door bars, and finally, the two bars that connected everything together. This process took some trial and error, but ultimately, we were able to get everything welded up and looking good.

Of course, there's always room for improvement, and after careful consideration, I decided to seek out Sean's expertise on the fabrication of the cage. He offered some valuable advice on how to approach the welding process, which helped me avoid any potential pitfalls down the line.

As we continue to work on the cage, it's clear that this project has been a labor of love. There are many twists and turns along the way, but with patience and dedication, we're finally starting to see the results of our hard work.

The process of building a roll cage is not for the faint of heart. It requires a lot of time, effort, and expertise. However, with the right mindset and a willingness to learn, it's definitely possible to create a safe and effective roll cage that meets your needs.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwhat's up guys back at PFI doing some more work on the roll cage and the hatch I'm Elio chilling in here too so right now what I'm getting ready to do is plug up this hole before I actually start doing more work on the roll cage itself so there was this factory hole right here it was underneath all the sound deadening and there's like this metal plug that went on there like that but it's all like crumpled up and not really reusable so what I'm gonna do is just weld this metal circle that I just hole saw it out just gonna weld that guy right over it like that weld it around grind it flat make that look all nice that's how they did the same one that is on this sitting over here so they just did it just like that so I'm gonna get that welded on there real quick and then we can start to put the plates underneath the roll cage right here to get it welded to the car I did go to the metal supply store earlier and I got some plates we already got them cut into 6 by 6 squares so there's just a thin CH mild steel and these will be used to go right underneath so we can get that cage welded to the car but yeah just can get this welded up real quick fire still won't fire underneath it's not like the undercoating under the car just like goes up in flames I smell so bad does I just hit with a grinder real quick and smooth it out so I'm good good really they're blowing oh yeah yeah well it was you just uses its mouth yeah I just said it blow on it young power yeah I just know fire smoke too looks alright so before we can do those four plates over here we need to take these little brackets off here in the back just gonna drill out these spot-welds and then Bend this bracket off on both sides and then we're gonna take one of those six by six plates and well that right here and then kind of use a hammer to form it to this shop towel right here and then you're gonna run a bar here to here to straight across and we're still gonna have to let the Canes drop down a little bit because then we're going to be making two bars that come from the top of the hoop down to this bar so there's two bars then will be right here and then we're gonna have to weld on top for those two bars so we still need to make sure we can drop the cage down so we can get those welded on top and then we can push the cage back up and get the floor plates welded in perfect almost perfect just like that finally she first came up way easier hahaha dude she's too slow can't catch my fairy dogs they just like to chill by the horse when she comes were just like all right so I got all this grinded down right here and then I also had to trim the corner of this plate off because there's a little bump right here so that it will fit nice up against that and that took like a good hour just to get everything prepped so that's all ready to go now what I'm gonna do is to put this guy right here and then put a pretty good stitch weld right here where it meets the shop tower and then probably a couple more down here as well and then I'm gonna take a hammer and hammer the edges of this to kind of form it around the shop Tower and then I'll get it all the way welded around and then we just have to do the same to the other side then those will be done then we can start cutting the bars and then get that into place where it needs to be so are you yep the welder barely reaches a little ball right there that's pretty good that's that's not good sup good good last sides all done not too bad I just got fogged out you breathe milla milla yeah and as you can hear the car garage yeah he's not listening to that thing she's like man here at 8:30 believing again to go to the desert trucks yep more truck racin mint 400 yeah y'all crazy even us I know it sucks honking but not just a few days come back fly back monday early morning land at 4:40 4:00 in the morning so I don't know maybe just won't sleep the whole time yeah finish that jeez is that your note I gotta figure it out though oh yeah you saw it helping me he's back there somewhere you're ready the finish line leaving yeah I'm almost there yeah it's gonna look great I and this guy runs pretty good seems you yes objective yeah pick the EBA injectors out put some really evening for teens in it alright guys well I got this play all the way welded on I still have to do the other side unfortunately I don't have enough time to do that right now I'm gonna go help my friend out with their car so I got to get out of here I am slowly getting better still a little sick but I'm gonna come back tomorrow try to get some more done on the hatch all that I got done today other than that was like the little hole in the floor up there so I really didn't get too much done and I don't want to keep dragging this on like every video I just want to come here get it knocked out get it done but I have been pretty busy throughout each day so yeah we'll see how far we get tomorrow that's all I can do for tonight though so I'm gonna head out and yeah she's getting there though she will get done by Mina alright so I'm back and I got the plate on this side all the way welded up got it hammered down and kind of formed to the shock tower right here and I already went ahead and got this piece of chromoly cut right here and I took an angle grinder to the ends of it and kind of notched it out it's kind of hard to see but I just knocked the end of it a little bit so it will fit this curve right here a little better and this will fit just like that in between the two shock towers just like so now what I'm gonna do is measure from right here up to it on each side to make sure that it's level and then also just make sure that it is aligned like with this shock tower right here make sure it's straight on both sides and I'm gonna get it tacked into place and then once that is where it needs to be I can start making the bars that go from this up to the top of the hoop so yeah that's where am i right now gonna get this guy tacked into place and then I can start on those alright guys check it out starting to look like a roll cage what you guys just saw me do was cut out these two pieces right here I got the ends notched out so they fit nicely on this bar right here and up against that one and then I had to clean up all the burrs that the notch er left on the ends of those but they fit really good so to get them in there you have to kind of push them in sideways because you have it see you have it straight it won't go on because of the knots right there which is what you want so you just get inside of this like that this slides right in nice and tight so those are gonna weld up really good yeah I'm really happy with that so I still have to figure out how I'm gonna go about welding these I don't think I can really drop the main hoop all that much to weld them and the only thing I'd be worried about is burning the crap out of my headliner right there so we'll see Sean is the guy that does a lot of fabrication stuff over here he should be showing up here pretty soon so I might ask him what he would do before I weld these up so for now I'm just gonna keep working on everything else and then just wait before I get all this stuff welded in but they came out really good so now I can start making the bar that will go from this side of the hoop to the other side I'm gonna have one bar along the bottom then one bar that's higher and then I have to brace those together and then I'm gonna have two door bars so it's just a total of six bars to measure and cut out left and then it's just getting everything welded up from there so I think I'm gonna start on getting one of these bars measured and cut then just start you know going from there all right guys I'm getting out of here for tonight it is getting pretty late but I made quite a bit of progress on the cage so I did get these two bars right here made as well so just the same process just cut it with the bandsaw and then use the notch in the notch amount Shawn did come and he actually helped me get these to fit up a little better because they had a pretty good gap on the top because I didn't knock them at the right angle but they fit up really nice now after he helped me with those I did figure out how I'm gonna do these two bars right here so I'm gonna take these two out because they're not welded in and then it's not welded at all on this back bar so they're tacked here and I'm gonna see if the cage will come forward at all and then try to push it back down through the holes and then that will let the back drop a little bit and then I'll be able to weld the tops of these back bars right here then I can push everything back up and then get these welded in get the two bars made and then it's just two door bars on each side and get everything welded up and the cage will be done so I'm gonna try to have it done hopefully by tomorrow we'll see if I can get here early enough and if I have enough time after class we'll see how far we get but I don't want to keep dragging this thing on but there's a lot of work that goes into making a cage when I realize so that's we're out for the night how far do you get on this say you got it finally like after the longest time was I take forever to start I was like why the heck wanted to start everything is right and I know it was right and then I realized that like this likes going to take my folder wherever they had a four-bar map on it so I was trying to start it with the four part for the longest time and I was like should yes I put the stock one on let's put it fired right up yeah I was like that GS are swapped oh yeahwhat's up guys back at PFI doing some more work on the roll cage and the hatch I'm Elio chilling in here too so right now what I'm getting ready to do is plug up this hole before I actually start doing more work on the roll cage itself so there was this factory hole right here it was underneath all the sound deadening and there's like this metal plug that went on there like that but it's all like crumpled up and not really reusable so what I'm gonna do is just weld this metal circle that I just hole saw it out just gonna weld that guy right over it like that weld it around grind it flat make that look all nice that's how they did the same one that is on this sitting over here so they just did it just like that so I'm gonna get that welded on there real quick and then we can start to put the plates underneath the roll cage right here to get it welded to the car I did go to the metal supply store earlier and I got some plates we already got them cut into 6 by 6 squares so there's just a thin CH mild steel and these will be used to go right underneath so we can get that cage welded to the car but yeah just can get this welded up real quick fire still won't fire underneath it's not like the undercoating under the car just like goes up in flames I smell so bad does I just hit with a grinder real quick and smooth it out so I'm good good really they're blowing oh yeah yeah well it was you just uses its mouth yeah I just said it blow on it young power yeah I just know fire smoke too looks alright so before we can do those four plates over here we need to take these little brackets off here in the back just gonna drill out these spot-welds and then Bend this bracket off on both sides and then we're gonna take one of those six by six plates and well that right here and then kind of use a hammer to form it to this shop towel right here and then you're gonna run a bar here to here to straight across and we're still gonna have to let the Canes drop down a little bit because then we're going to be making two bars that come from the top of the hoop down to this bar so there's two bars then will be right here and then we're gonna have to weld on top for those two bars so we still need to make sure we can drop the cage down so we can get those welded on top and then we can push the cage back up and get the floor plates welded in perfect almost perfect just like that finally she first came up way easier hahaha dude she's too slow can't catch my fairy dogs they just like to chill by the horse when she comes were just like all right so I got all this grinded down right here and then I also had to trim the corner of this plate off because there's a little bump right here so that it will fit nice up against that and that took like a good hour just to get everything prepped so that's all ready to go now what I'm gonna do is to put this guy right here and then put a pretty good stitch weld right here where it meets the shop tower and then probably a couple more down here as well and then I'm gonna take a hammer and hammer the edges of this to kind of form it around the shop Tower and then I'll get it all the way welded around and then we just have to do the same to the other side then those will be done then we can start cutting the bars and then get that into place where it needs to be so are you yep the welder barely reaches a little ball right there that's pretty good that's that's not good sup good good last sides all done not too bad I just got fogged out you breathe milla milla yeah and as you can hear the car garage yeah he's not listening to that thing she's like man here at 8:30 believing again to go to the desert trucks yep more truck racin mint 400 yeah y'all crazy even us I know it sucks honking but not just a few days come back fly back monday early morning land at 4:40 4:00 in the morning so I don't know maybe just won't sleep the whole time yeah finish that jeez is that your note I gotta figure it out though oh yeah you saw it helping me he's back there somewhere you're ready the finish line leaving yeah I'm almost there yeah it's gonna look great I and this guy runs pretty good seems you yes objective yeah pick the EBA injectors out put some really evening for teens in it alright guys well I got this play all the way welded on I still have to do the other side unfortunately I don't have enough time to do that right now I'm gonna go help my friend out with their car so I got to get out of here I am slowly getting better still a little sick but I'm gonna come back tomorrow try to get some more done on the hatch all that I got done today other than that was like the little hole in the floor up there so I really didn't get too much done and I don't want to keep dragging this on like every video I just want to come here get it knocked out get it done but I have been pretty busy throughout each day so yeah we'll see how far we get tomorrow that's all I can do for tonight though so I'm gonna head out and yeah she's getting there though she will get done by Mina alright so I'm back and I got the plate on this side all the way welded up got it hammered down and kind of formed to the shock tower right here and I already went ahead and got this piece of chromoly cut right here and I took an angle grinder to the ends of it and kind of notched it out it's kind of hard to see but I just knocked the end of it a little bit so it will fit this curve right here a little better and this will fit just like that in between the two shock towers just like so now what I'm gonna do is measure from right here up to it on each side to make sure that it's level and then also just make sure that it is aligned like with this shock tower right here make sure it's straight on both sides and I'm gonna get it tacked into place and then once that is where it needs to be I can start making the bars that go from this up to the top of the hoop so yeah that's where am i right now gonna get this guy tacked into place and then I can start on those alright guys check it out starting to look like a roll cage what you guys just saw me do was cut out these two pieces right here I got the ends notched out so they fit nicely on this bar right here and up against that one and then I had to clean up all the burrs that the notch er left on the ends of those but they fit really good so to get them in there you have to kind of push them in sideways because you have it see you have it straight it won't go on because of the knots right there which is what you want so you just get inside of this like that this slides right in nice and tight so those are gonna weld up really good yeah I'm really happy with that so I still have to figure out how I'm gonna go about welding these I don't think I can really drop the main hoop all that much to weld them and the only thing I'd be worried about is burning the crap out of my headliner right there so we'll see Sean is the guy that does a lot of fabrication stuff over here he should be showing up here pretty soon so I might ask him what he would do before I weld these up so for now I'm just gonna keep working on everything else and then just wait before I get all this stuff welded in but they came out really good so now I can start making the bar that will go from this side of the hoop to the other side I'm gonna have one bar along the bottom then one bar that's higher and then I have to brace those together and then I'm gonna have two door bars so it's just a total of six bars to measure and cut out left and then it's just getting everything welded up from there so I think I'm gonna start on getting one of these bars measured and cut then just start you know going from there all right guys I'm getting out of here for tonight it is getting pretty late but I made quite a bit of progress on the cage so I did get these two bars right here made as well so just the same process just cut it with the bandsaw and then use the notch in the notch amount Shawn did come and he actually helped me get these to fit up a little better because they had a pretty good gap on the top because I didn't knock them at the right angle but they fit up really nice now after he helped me with those I did figure out how I'm gonna do these two bars right here so I'm gonna take these two out because they're not welded in and then it's not welded at all on this back bar so they're tacked here and I'm gonna see if the cage will come forward at all and then try to push it back down through the holes and then that will let the back drop a little bit and then I'll be able to weld the tops of these back bars right here then I can push everything back up and then get these welded in get the two bars made and then it's just two door bars on each side and get everything welded up and the cage will be done so I'm gonna try to have it done hopefully by tomorrow we'll see if I can get here early enough and if I have enough time after class we'll see how far we get but I don't want to keep dragging this thing on but there's a lot of work that goes into making a cage when I realize so that's we're out for the night how far do you get on this say you got it finally like after the longest time was I take forever to start I was like why the heck wanted to start everything is right and I know it was right and then I realized that like this likes going to take my folder wherever they had a four-bar map on it so I was trying to start it with the four part for the longest time and I was like should yes I put the stock one on let's put it fired right up yeah I was like that GS are swapped oh yeah\n"