James Bentley
SILVER Star
This was a fun project.
Having read the horror stories and wanting to take preventative measures, I made my own Cat Shields.
I work in IT and have a 10-year-old Mac Pro in need of recycling.
I admire the beefy aluminum side panels of the case and thought I could put them to use.
It was a chore to dismantle and take the Sawzall to salvage the big flat pieces.
One side of the case comes right off, the other side is part of the entire case and took a considerable amount of time.
I also had some 1.25" aluminum tubing that I wanted to put to use.
I can't stress how beneficial posterboard or something similar to use as a template makes mockup and final product so much easier.
I really like using existing body and bolt holes (when possible) to make installation easier.
The tubing has 2 sections that reach from each side of the frame rail to the CDL skid plate.
The aluminum tubing has 3/8" rebar cut to length with 3/8" rubber hose at each end (keeps it from rattling) INSIDE the tubing before being crimped in the vise to form a flat flange.
The thinking here is that a loose piece of rebar is going to move around a bit inside the tubing if someone tries to use a Sawzall and certainly slow down their progress and the tubing doesn't restrict airflow like the flat aluminum sheet does.
Hoping that the visual would be convincing enough that they might move on to the next vehicle and not even mess with mine.
I did use metric rivnuts (stainless) as well as stainless bolts at the skid plate.
I have Toyota Bolts for the Transmission Crossmember on order to use at the frame rails and borrowed those temporarily to secure the tubing for now.
Having read the horror stories and wanting to take preventative measures, I made my own Cat Shields.
I work in IT and have a 10-year-old Mac Pro in need of recycling.
I admire the beefy aluminum side panels of the case and thought I could put them to use.
It was a chore to dismantle and take the Sawzall to salvage the big flat pieces.
One side of the case comes right off, the other side is part of the entire case and took a considerable amount of time.
I also had some 1.25" aluminum tubing that I wanted to put to use.
I can't stress how beneficial posterboard or something similar to use as a template makes mockup and final product so much easier.
I really like using existing body and bolt holes (when possible) to make installation easier.
The tubing has 2 sections that reach from each side of the frame rail to the CDL skid plate.
The aluminum tubing has 3/8" rebar cut to length with 3/8" rubber hose at each end (keeps it from rattling) INSIDE the tubing before being crimped in the vise to form a flat flange.
The thinking here is that a loose piece of rebar is going to move around a bit inside the tubing if someone tries to use a Sawzall and certainly slow down their progress and the tubing doesn't restrict airflow like the flat aluminum sheet does.
Hoping that the visual would be convincing enough that they might move on to the next vehicle and not even mess with mine.
I did use metric rivnuts (stainless) as well as stainless bolts at the skid plate.
I have Toyota Bolts for the Transmission Crossmember on order to use at the frame rails and borrowed those temporarily to secure the tubing for now.
