Help w/ home made roll cage

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

gat0zz

Active Member
Messages
43
Reaction score
35
Location
portugal
Hi everyone, I want to do a roll cage for my baja 5b. The roll cage I intended not to sell and the others are expensive. So I want to make one. (I will try to upload to a photo, or upload to my profile photo) I wanted something light and sturdy. Can anyone tell me what materials should I use to make?

thz ppl

733B6A00-B695-4649-A2FB-B2971137B4C6.webp
 
I found on Aliexpress carbon and aluminum tubes. To add carbon or aluminum how do I do it? Does it take welding? melted? A894F725-D83D-4668-B62E-8D40D88677A1.webp
2F661BF8-C752-468D-8EC3-B6292CADBB6D.webp
 
You can weld the metal tubes but the carbon is another story they would either need to be screwed together somehow or the cage will have to be a combination of carbon straight tubes and metal bent tubes and even that way you will need to figure out how to attach the carbon to the aluminum or metal pieces.I would forget about carbon and use aluminum it is easier to work with and you can bend it fairly easily.
I would buy a tubing bender also that way you have everything needed to bend the tubes and a dremel would work to notch the tubes and maybe you can use small machine screws on the ends to bolt it together but if you get it to fit together well and it is already notched I am sure you can find someone local to weld it up for a few bucks.
 
Last edited:
Brazing aluminum or soldering it is a pain in the rump. Have to get the heat just right or it all goes to crap, quick. I have a box full of the aluminum solder and braze rods. never was able to get it to work well on thin stuff. Guy with the soda cans at the all Ford nationals got me good.
 
Brazing aluminum or soldering it is a pain in the rump

Same here. I brazed/soldered aluminum with a natural gas/compressed air rig. You need a bushy flame, and need to be spot on with your timing. Gotta evenly heat the part you're working, get it hot, and flame off it as soon as the solder flows or the metal will short (technical term for crumble to poop). I was successful a couple times, but never got any good at it.

It won't be as strong as a weld either. Maybe it can withstand being used as a rollcage, but I wouldn't trust my life on it.
 
You will be safer with Chromoly tubing to build it. Aluminum will have to be really thick wall to survive and even that might bend easily. If you just want a cage for the look it would probably be fine. If you want to run it where you might crash or flip it or cart wheel it. The chromoly will be safer. Plus since it sound like you might have an issue with the welding of it? At least with the chromoly you can either oxy acetylene weld it or braze weld it. This may be easier for you to learn versus the aluminum. Plus it would be easy to reapir the cage with if something does go wrong.
 
Back
Top