Stock Roll Bar metal?

[73CJ]

Could you post some pics?

This has been on my list for several years now - sportbar

 

[Hedgehog]

I will be posting pictures. It's at about 80%, well the back portion is about 80%. It's been getting dark so quickly at night I can't get to it much during the week and the weekends have been slipping by too quickly.

 

[Peanut Butter]

12 Ton Harbor Freight Bender -- 1 1/4 Galvanized pipe -- 3/16 thick -- 20 foot sticks. Bends easy enough in the HF Bender. I mounted the bender on a grinder stand, which works for most stuff. To bend something over 6 foot in length, I will most likely mount it horizontally. Since everything but the bender was free, I will be using this for my sport cage in the future. Good Luck with yours. Looking forward to pictures. Rod

 

[Hedgehog]

Do you have any problems with the galvanizing cracking? Be VERY careful welding galvanized, it's messy and the smoke is dangerous to breath. I don't know if it's worth the savings free pipe brings. From a little distance your bends look pretty decent. Folks sure seem to love complaining about the H-F bender.

Mine is mostly done. I spent the day cutting down an old basket made for the top of a pick-up. In the end it was a waste of time. The old basket was bent and warped from hard use. Cutting it down made the warped nature of the beast obvious. If I had a torch I could use heat to straighten it out, but I don't. Making a new one is about the only workable option. I don't know what kind of steel the basket is made of, but I do know this, welding it is a pain. get a bead going and the darn thing blows through. Try to spot weld and the flux/slag combined with low power stops the weld from starting. So it's spot, clean, spot clean ....... not fun at all.

 

[the chief]

I should have actually measured before I spoke (wrote), you were right to call me on it and I did learn a thing or two. No matter how many people say that pipe is measured on the inside, and I'm sure that it supposed to be the standard, 1.5" sch 40 pipe is not 1.5" on the inside. Not by a long shot either.

I have included reinforced corners in the final design. It might not be an actual roll cage, but the thing is VERY stiff.

I tend to over build things but I remember rolling a jeep over with a full cage about 40 years ago and the cage never touched the ground. The soft top frame held the full weight and the frame didn't even get damaged. Now, it was a slow roll over and not like bouncing down a hill but still, just sayin'.

 

[Peanut Butter]

Do you have any problems with the galvanizing cracking? Be VERY careful welding galvanized, it's messy and the smoke is dangerous to breath. I don't know if it's worth the savings free pipe brings. From a little distance your bends look pretty decent.

If you use a strong solution of phosphoric acid (found at Home Depot, etc), most of the galvanize coating comes off. Still, I weld it outdoors. The only downside to the bender I have found is it will dimple the metal if you try too tight of a bend, as you mentioned before. Rod

 

[Hedgehog]

From time to time I believe most all of us have welded Galvanized steel. Even on this project the coupling nuts were zinc coated. Unless a fan is used I tend to get welding smoke inside my helmet, not fun. Occasionally the lungs aren't happy about it. I never even thought about using acid. I might just get some and treat the rest of the coupling nuts I have. What do you use to neutralize the acid?

My 90* pipe bends barely had any wrinkling in them at all, you'd have to be extremely picky to even notice them. H-F suggests that the pipe be filled with sand, some even like to use the sand then fill with water to keep the pipe from wrinkling. Maybe someday I'll give that a try.

 

[jammer1]

In bodywork phosphoric acid (metal prep) is washed off with water.

 

[Hedgehog]

No pesky residue after that? It's the threads and inside the pipe after welding that had me wondering. What strength should be used to remove zink?

 

[Hedgehog]

I got some 1 1/4" sch 40 pipe a couple days ago. Now that's a different breed of cat from the other pipe I used. This stuff is not as clean and heavy. Over the holidays work should begin on the forward portion of the sport bar. This should be interesting. I've certainly been thinking about it long enough.

By-the-way, Industrial Metal and Steel has all the Chrome Molly Tube, DOM and pipe anyone could ask for. CM Tube is EXPENSIVE. ~$100 a stick, length ?. The pipe I got was ~$30 for a 21' stick.

 

[Petescj]

Where are the pics already?? :shooter:

 

[Hedgehog]

I don't really like to do the 1/2 done picture thing. At this point I'm fairly happy with the rear portion of the sport bar modification. My threaded holes aren't as perfectly aligned as I'd hoped they would be, but in real life good enough.

I have a roof basket from a pick-up that I cut down, but the basket turned out to be VERY bent. This weekend about 1/2 the original basket was cut away and replaced with new metal. That is about 2/3s done. This home fabrication stuff takes a surprising amount of time. I freely admit that this project is taking far longer than anticipated, but it is still moving a head.

 

[Hedgehog]

Now I'm confused about pipe sizes. Yes, I know pipe is measured on the outside. So, I ordered 1 1/4" sch 40 pipe. An uninformed new bee (like me) would expect a 1 1/4" pipe to be 1.25" so why is my pipe 1.66"? I'm sure there is a logical reason, maybe the finished pipe will be 1.25 at the bottom of the threads. Without question 1.25" sch 40 pipe is a serious piece of metal.

 

[Torxhead]

Hey Hedge, by any chance do you have a .205" wall on that pipe? Looking forward to seeing pics of your finished project. I have seen quite a few sport bars tested, good luck with yours

 

[73CJ]

Pipe is ID - needed to use for flow calculations

Tube is OD - wall thickness which can be many sizes reduces the ID

 

[Lumpy Grits]

We need pictures





LG

 

[Hedgehog]

Yes you do! Same camera problem I have with the air cleaner top. The project did take longer than expected, getting pipe, buying a bender, figuring out the configuration I was after, welding in potential attachment points, then rebuilding a roof rack to go where it will work for the jeep, now I would like to have it powder coated. Powder coating the highly modified "Sport Bar", the rebuilt roof rack, and a center console will be ~$375 and the guy wants cash. If he would take a card it would be done by now. I really like the way it turned out.