Add an "X" to the main tube behind the cab. That will add a bunch of strength to it in the event of a roll.
Build 1987 Toyota Xtra Cab - From Scrap To Truggy - Build
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- #42
Chapter 11: Exo Cage in Full Swing
Now that the bumper was built out, I could dive back into the rest of the tubing work. I figured the best place to pick back up was to build the front wheel arches, so off I went.
Once I had the wheel arch the way I wanted it, I moved on to running an A-pillar tube down and across the side of the roof line. Again, keeping an emphasis on trying to keep everything tight to the cab just for my own taste.
Now that the bumper was built out, I could dive back into the rest of the tubing work. I figured the best place to pick back up was to build the front wheel arches, so off I went.
Once I had the wheel arch the way I wanted it, I moved on to running an A-pillar tube down and across the side of the roof line. Again, keeping an emphasis on trying to keep everything tight to the cab just for my own taste.
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- #43
Once I finished mirroring the wheel arch and A-pillar to the other side, it was time to build up a cowl tube and an upper windshield tube. I took a lot of time here to make sure that the cowl tube would not interfere with my vision as well as not prohibiting the hood opening or removal of the wiper arms. I was pretty happy with the result.
For the upper windshield, I wanted to add in some character here, so I opted to put a couple extra bends in just to kind of show off. I am absolutely sure I gave up strength for this, but I think I did a pretty good job of adding it back later with the roof tubing.
Next, I wanted to protect the brow of the front grille, so I built out a piece to do just that. Again, being careful to be tight to the body, but allow the hood to open just fine.
The next thing to do was to add a tube to protect the upper part of the fender. You can also see the upper roof tubing that I had started bending up on top.
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- #44
The last thing I wanted to protect was the xtra cab back side windows. For that I built some B-pillar tubes and tied those in. Now I had the basic shape of what I wanted to guard with tubing. From here, it was time to start adding pieces of tubing for strength. A couple examples of that are the corner connectors on the rear wheel arch and the cross bracing in the main tube behind the cab.
Finally, I had all the tubing sitting in place.
Finally, I had all the tubing sitting in place.
Looks like you have the tube bending figured out. I don't use mine enough to get good at it. Hopefully I don't waste too much tube when I get to bending up my cage. 
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- #46
Chapter 12: Inner Wheel Wells
It was time to start on building out the rear section of the Truggy with fender wells and a floor, so I could tin it all in. I offered a little foreshadowing in some of the last posted pictures as my vision for the back portion. I wanted to entirely enclose the floor and sides of this area and use it as capacity for additional rider and/or tool and equipment storage as needed. So, I started this with buying the seat I wanted to fit back there and flexing the Toyota out to see if I even had enough room to accommodate the seat without sacrificing articulation.
It was time to start on building out the rear section of the Truggy with fender wells and a floor, so I could tin it all in. I offered a little foreshadowing in some of the last posted pictures as my vision for the back portion. I wanted to entirely enclose the floor and sides of this area and use it as capacity for additional rider and/or tool and equipment storage as needed. So, I started this with buying the seat I wanted to fit back there and flexing the Toyota out to see if I even had enough room to accommodate the seat without sacrificing articulation.
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- #47
Now, the one thing you may notice in the pics above is a section of 3” channel under the seat. Well I’ll be honest, this was a solution to a design issue I encountered, or rather a lack of design. I didn’t like how close my head was when I sat in the ramble seat and wanted to get the seat lower. This meant cutting into the 2”x2” tube that had unofficially become the back section of the “frame”. In order to do that, I wanted to sturdy the entire rear section up with this sub frame, if you will. I am not overly proud of how this ended up, but the reality is, it works just fine and offers the strength that I need. It also allowed me to protect the bottom of the fuel cell I was planning to use and integrate a hitch point. The holes in the tubing there are for a future sway bar to run through.
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- #48
Once the new subsection of frame was in place, I moved on to beginning the floor section of the back. My intent was to always cut the cage back off to paint it and the cab, so I had to keep that in mind as I started tying the two together.
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- #49
Ok, here is a true design flaw that I ran up against while flexing the Toyota. This was the most weight the rear end had, had to date while flexing. I had not yet put limiting straps on this yet, and had becoming a little cocky with how well this thing could flex on my makeshift ramp. I threw my wife in the passenger seat for the first time (for context she isn’t a very large gal this will make more sense in a second) and drove up the ramp. As I came to the top, something let loose, and we almost figured out how well a tacked roll cage could work. The bottom pivot pillow block snapped free on the passenger side and left that corner without any support. In hindsight I was very happy to have had that happen on the “test stand” rather than in real life out in the middle of nowhere.
Take this as advice, if you are doing crazy mods like this, set up a way to flex you rig, and check it often, it will save you a bunch of headache in the long run. I realize, I never really took a good picture of the revision two update on the pillow block but what I did, was left the uppers alone and changed the bottoms to a 4 bolt flanged pillow block that if it somehow broke again, the plate holding the pillow block would act as a backup because now the shaft would be sitting inside of it. I’ll see if I can remember to take this picture in the future to show.
Take this as advice, if you are doing crazy mods like this, set up a way to flex you rig, and check it often, it will save you a bunch of headache in the long run. I realize, I never really took a good picture of the revision two update on the pillow block but what I did, was left the uppers alone and changed the bottoms to a 4 bolt flanged pillow block that if it somehow broke again, the plate holding the pillow block would act as a backup because now the shaft would be sitting inside of it. I’ll see if I can remember to take this picture in the future to show.
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- #50
Chapter 13: Exo Cage Weld-up & Paint
It came time to take it all apart so that I could get good access for welding the cage and easily paint. From time to time, I could really use a garage with higher ceilings. I am usually able to figure a way around that constraint. In these moments I make my better half melt in embarrassment as I choose to hoist the cage off the truck with the use of this beautiful old oak tree in our yard.
With a more embarrassing moment now in our rearview, I set off to build a sort of jig to hold my contact points in fixed locations so the cage wouldn’t change too much on me while I put heat into it.
It came time to take it all apart so that I could get good access for welding the cage and easily paint. From time to time, I could really use a garage with higher ceilings. I am usually able to figure a way around that constraint. In these moments I make my better half melt in embarrassment as I choose to hoist the cage off the truck with the use of this beautiful old oak tree in our yard.
With a more embarrassing moment now in our rearview, I set off to build a sort of jig to hold my contact points in fixed locations so the cage wouldn’t change too much on me while I put heat into it.
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- #51
After I had braced it as appropriately as I felt necessary, I set off the weld this thing up. I really wanted to TIG weld it, and my brother was kind enough to loan me his Esab Rebel with scratch start. It’s a good rig for quick welding but if you are doing this much, I would suggest a machine a little more purpose built than this one. However, it did get the job done and I was still very grateful to be able to use it.
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- #52
With the cage welded up, I was finally able to put some primer and paint on this thing! I had a hell of a time working through what colors I wanted to paint this. I knew I wanted to use common tractor paints so I could rattle can it back to perfection whenever I wanted to. I ended up choosing this charcoal gray from rustoleum as the color for the cage.
All in all, I was pretty happy with how everything turned out. The welds aren’t perfect, they look more like I welded it with an arc welder then a tig, but I think they’ll hold very well. The paint really ended up great! I wanted to set up a paint booth so I could “test” how that would work for painting the cab. I was really happy with it. I have a hanging garage heater and I put a frame about 4’ ahead of it to mount a HVAC filter and force a little positive air pressure into the booth. It all worked pretty darn well.
All in all, I was pretty happy with how everything turned out. The welds aren’t perfect, they look more like I welded it with an arc welder then a tig, but I think they’ll hold very well. The paint really ended up great! I wanted to set up a paint booth so I could “test” how that would work for painting the cab. I was really happy with it. I have a hanging garage heater and I put a frame about 4’ ahead of it to mount a HVAC filter and force a little positive air pressure into the booth. It all worked pretty darn well.
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- #53
Chapter 14: Teardown for Paint
This always feels like a step backwards to me, but once it is done, it is totally worth it. This is especially worth it when considering that the the exo cage is going to be welded on for good and this will be the last, easy time, I will ever have to stick fresh paint to this. So, the work began. I pulled the engine/trans/t-case. From there, I had some rust repair on the fenders and doors to fix along with patching some holes I made for the front shock hoops.
The shock hoops didn’t take too long. I just created a cardboard mockup on each side, cut them out, and welded them in.
This always feels like a step backwards to me, but once it is done, it is totally worth it. This is especially worth it when considering that the the exo cage is going to be welded on for good and this will be the last, easy time, I will ever have to stick fresh paint to this. So, the work began. I pulled the engine/trans/t-case. From there, I had some rust repair on the fenders and doors to fix along with patching some holes I made for the front shock hoops.
The shock hoops didn’t take too long. I just created a cardboard mockup on each side, cut them out, and welded them in.
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- #54
Now I probably could have bought new fenders and cut them out for the wheels but with how much material I’d have to waist on a re-pop I just thought it best to cut the rest of the rust out and patch them in, so that’s what I did.
With the sheet metal work complete, I moved to the more daunting task of sanding. It felt like I sanded forever. As I turned paint into powder, I started seeing these maple leaves that someone had put on this truck a couple paint jobs ago. It was cool to stumble upon.
With the sheet metal work complete, I moved to the more daunting task of sanding. It felt like I sanded forever. As I turned paint into powder, I started seeing these maple leaves that someone had put on this truck a couple paint jobs ago. It was cool to stumble upon.
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- #55
With the engine pulled. It was on to full paint prep mode.
The next picture is the filter box I referenced in the last chapter.
The next picture is the filter box I referenced in the last chapter.
Did you weld the inner fenders to the shock hoops? I can see that breaking free over time as the frame flexes and the body flexes differently.
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- #57
I did. This body isn't independent from the frame anymore, its welded right to it. Its essentially a unibody. The shock hoops did flex a lot on they're own though. I did that intentionally to stiffen up the hoops. I figured if this backfires on me, I can add a hoop over the engine later.
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- #58
Chapter 15: Paint
It was now down to that magic moment where you change a builds identity forever, paint! I laid down some red oxide primer then shook up some Ingersoll white.
It was now down to that magic moment where you change a builds identity forever, paint! I laid down some red oxide primer then shook up some Ingersoll white.
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- #59
With the paint laid, it was time to add a little classic Toyota character to this old truck with some strips.
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- #60