Hey guys. As you may know, I'm in the very long, drawn out process of building an off-road rig to go play in the mud with. It's a 1994 GMC Jimmy SLE and it's seen better days. I've been bouncing around the idea of doing a 2nd gen body to 1st gen frame swap but I also had an idea about building a full roll cage for the truck itself. I don't expect to ever be upside down, but I think it would help the look of the truck overall since the body is shot anyways. Has anyone ever done something of this nature?

Here's a very rough draft that I threw together in MSpaint since I'm not a photoshop master and just wanted a general idea of cage, tube doors and solid roof. Tail lights are out of the vehicle at the moment but I'm thinking of putting off-road lights in place of them instead. The front end is also missing from the truck so I definitely wouldn't be opposed to a tube front as well.

 

Here's another quick rough draft, this time of the tube front end. Ultimately the engine (whatever it might be) will be carb'd so I'm thinking I might fab up a hood with those rubber hood latches to strap on when rain is in the forecast. The rest of the interior will be stripped and treated for inclement weather, I'm just mainly worried about heavy rain on the carb/intake/etc.

 

Make sure you have plenty of triangulation. That's where the strength comes from. Bending and fitting tubing takes a little bit of practice, but isn't that hard. Make sure your welding skills are up to par, too. You shouldn't be learning to weld on something that may someday need to save your life. As far as material, I would probably use 1-3/4" HREW or CREW tubing. DOM is pretty expensive and is only a little stronger.

If you don't already have a bender, buy a decent one (Like a JD2). If you're worried about the cost, you can sell it after you're done for almost what you paid. Consider it a cheap rental.