Losi XXL Roll Cage? / How to make one?

[jpoprock]

I think it's strange that no one makes a roll cage for the XXl. A friend of mine emailed RC Solutions and asked if they were going make one, and they said they had no plans to. Then of course, if they did it would be nitro, and usually those won't fit an E-modded XXL without modding the roll cage itself. Plus there is no standard way of doing the E-conversion, so there really can't be a standard fit all cage.

I'm not sure what all is involved in making a roll bar/cage. What kind metal do you use for the bar? Do you just bend it how you want it, tap holes in the ends where you want it to attach, and yer done? Aside from welding, sanding, and painting it. BRO told me once kinda how he does it... as he mods a New Era roll bar by chopping off one of the legs, and welding on a new piece of metal that he bends up to fit. But he's already told me once how he did ... and that was 10,000 emails ago and I can't recall. He also said that you have to have a certain kind of welder... MIG? My neighbor has a welder as he restores old cars. It works well for Steel, but not alum. I'm not even sure that these New Era bars are alum, or steel?

I have an RC Solutions LST2 cage... but it doesn't fit my conversion... without hacking it up. But I'm not sure what kind of welder would work, plus, I'm assuming that the RCS cage is made of alum? Can you even weld alum?

It's so frustrating that I don't know very much about welding, routing, cutting, etc... because my RC tastes have now evolved to the point that I want something a certain way, I've gotta make it myself, and I don't know how! I have to rely on others, who have their own things going on. And some people don't like cutting up frames and parts for you, because of the time involved... and they aren't comfortable with charging you, so they just don't do it.

So, I'm at the point to where I want to get stuff done, i'm going to need to learn how to do it myself. I have welded before and I do pretty well with it. But I don't own a welder and I really don't know anything about them either.

J