Hi everyone,
A newbie here. I have been a Suburban owner for the past 25 years and just bought my thirds suburban, a 97 4x4 LT with 186k miles. I plan to cut the entire roof off and put in a professional roll cage and have a body shop cap and finish the sharp edges.

Yes, I know, it is a bit of crazy idea but it is supposed to be a father/son project, where the car will be mainly driven up in N. Kalifornia in summers etc.. Maybe some easy off roading for camping, NO rock crawling etc.

So my questions are:

1. Has anybody done that?
2. Do I need to worry about body warp etc.
3. I am keeping full doors and window frames. Will the doors still close?
4. Do I need to strengthen the front windshield?
5. What else do I need to worry about?

Any insight or advise is greatly appreciated. Will post pics during the process.

 

The answers will depend on where you are cutting the roof.

If you keep about a 2" border around the perimeter of the roof, the A,B,C and D pillars will still be tied together and there should be minimal reinforcing needed.

If you remove the part of the roof for example between the A-pillar and B-pillar above the front doors, then the top of the windshield will be "loose" and need reinforcement so it doesn't flex and break the windshield.

Personally, I would keep a 2" border at the roof and weld a tube around the whole perimeter to keep everything aligned.

Remember, if you tie the roll cage to the frame, the body is mounted to the frame with rubber isolators. So tying any parts of the body to the roll cage might induce warp in the body.

I have never done this, these are just observation I am making from years of doing mods to cars (I never cut a whole roof off).

Steve

 

Thank you for the advice. Although your suggestions make a lot of sense, I want to experience that open feeling / complete open top. I am still gathering info on how to do this and how much it will cost and then decide on course of action.

 

IMHO, you're opening a complete can of worms.

Sell the Suburban, buy a Jeep, and mod the snot out of it.

 

I've seen a Buick electra 225 made into a open rear "pickup", this was mid 1970's I believe the car was 68-70 model, also had a manual transmission, why, I don't know other than the guy need a short pickup?

 

Mother's Day update ;
I have been calling around here in Northern California to find a off-road place to modify and build me a decent non-restrictive roll cage.
The only estimate so far was for $5,300 which included cutting the roof off completely finishing all the exposed edges either rolling them or using trim to cover the roll cage consists of 1) front bar by the windshield 2) behind the front seats and 3) behind the second row seats tapering off to the end of the cargo area all of this will be cross brace and bolted to the body using 3/16 plate underneath the sheet metal and on the surface that also includes moving the second row and the third row seats backed by 6 in to create more room for the passengers especially tall people.

what are you guys think?

 

Shouldn't the roll cage be attached to the frame?

 

This post makes no sense!

 

It just seems it just seems like if you attach the roll cage to the body and you roll it, all the stress is going to tend to try to pull the body off the frame. After all the body is just some sheet metal and roll cage could easily rip off of it.