M1009 roll bar fabrication

I'm just wondering if anyone on here has gone as far as to build a roll bar for the back portion of thier M1009. I've been toying with the idea but with searching online and finding no results, it leads me to believe there may be an issue with it. I'm wanting it to be able to put on a bikini top in the summer/spring when I have the hard top off. I thought about just a soft top but I didn't like the way any of them looked and I'm not going to spend almost $1,000 on something I think is ugly. I understand the need for frame tie in's being as the frame comes too far inside for convinence of a roll bar to be bolted directly to it but is there any other issues I'm not seeing here before I start designing and wasting steel tube?

S&W Racecars makes them. Roll bar, cage, and "family cage" kits available. When I first bought mine, they did not offer the family option, just the bars that went straight down to the floor. Couldn't be used to support a bikini top, and the rear seat had to be left out. I was looking to modify, and right at that time they offered the upgrade. Give S&W a look. They make quality stuff at reasonable prices.

Well I'm not looking for a full cage setup, mainly just the rear section, like a roll bar for a normal pick up. I saw the full cages but I feel that would limit ease of entry and hinder more than it does good for me, I won't be taking her in anything I'll be worried about actually flipping the truck. I planned on going from the inernal roll bar back with it.

Just remember when you mount your roll bar or cage, the mounting pads coming off the frame need to be larger (length and width) than the pads coming from the bar or cage. If the pads are the same size, and the need to have a roll bar ever does come up, you will shear your mounting bolts... If this happens, the rolls bar actually becomes dangerous instead of a safety feature when it twists around in an unpredictable way.

Usually, the lower pad only needs to have about a half inch extra on all four sides. I learned this by growing up at the mud drags and seeing multiple 'style' bars and cages in action when a truck rolls to rubber side up. Other than what I mentioned above, the only other thing to keep in mind is ensuring good welds.

We actually had our hoops for our cages bent at the local privately owned exhaust shop. First we went out and picked up some thin, crap tubing to come up with the shapes and style so we could form it by hand for the most part, and the exhaust shop bent it up out of DOM tubing from our 'jigs', then we trimmed it and welded the DOM in and scraped the stuff we used for the forms. If you want to research what is considered 'safe' get the rule book for a local/national Mud Racer's Association and also the NHRA. There are specifics for the mounting points and cross supports.

Thank you for the help, depending on how it goes I may start making them out of my shop on the side. I've made a few roll bars before but nothing for inside a truck with a removable top, only bed bars that were pretty much just looks and mounting off road lights. One of my main concerns at this point aside from the structural integrity of the bar it's self is getting to the bolts securing the top to the back of the cab. Any suggestions? I've been thinking of just making the bar low enough for the bolts to come out above it but that in turn would make it quite awkward looking wih the top off and wont make for a very effective bikini top frame being that low off the roof of the truck.