I have been wanting to do gussets on the a and b pillars of my cage for a while now, and have been searching for someone locally who has a dimple dye set, I had no luck and did not want to spend hundreds of dollars on something I would only use once or twice so I came up with this.

I wish I would have taken pics during assembaly but I wasn't expecting this to work out very well, or expecting to post a thread on h-t about it lol.

It IS a redneck way of doing things and it looks like ****, but it WORKS, and that is what is important to me.

I found a old axle bolt out of a honda xr50cc lol, rounded off the wheel spacer on the bench grinder so it was kind of a cone shape.



this part is an old jack handle, I used a smaller diameter rod on the inside to keep the axle bolt (above) straight while pounding out the dimples.


heres what remains of the old jack handle, and a few pieces of steel I had laying around, ghetto *** welds, haha, they don't need to look pretty.


GFI Dimple die tool complete lol


heres it in use, I drilled .75" holes with a uni-bit, and placed the axle bolt inside the hole, gave it 2 whacks with a mallet and voila!


heres the a pillar and b pillar gussets completed:





and a pic of the cage they will be going on:


Ill post more pics when they are welded in and painted.

These gussets are 16guage cold rolled steel, per scca guidelines, incase I ever DO get into road racing. I dont know how this would work on thicker material, but for thin stuff it works great.

let me know what you think of my ghetto tool making skills lol.

 

nice work.

 

I'm impressed by how well that turned out. I don't have a pneumatic/hydraulic press, so dimple dies take forever. This looks fast!

 

GFI for life son! I didnt believe till I saw it, good job!

 

great job man

 

thanks for the feedback guys, i'm real proud of my ghetto *** tool

 

yeah I thought about getting the dimple die set off ebay for use with a press, then I'd be into it about $400 after I bought the press and the die set, this literally cost me nothing, and is really quick, after drilling the holes I was done in less than 5 min.

 

Siiick

 

Awesome GFI! Save it I wanna use it haha.

 

Great result, from a not-so-elegant tool. Great way to save money! Dimple dies are damn expensive!

 

For real....you gotta rent that sh*t out...lol! Mail rental for Honda-Tech fab forum members only!

 

save it? im about to start selling them! lol

im gonna work on different sizes too, i think rod ends for heim joints would work great too! you can use her any time josh lol.

 

LOL GFI at its finest go Andy! You should sell me your EM bar

 

pretty sweet andy but hopefully ill have a die set soon so you can retire that bad boy haha. doing a cage for a buddy soon hopefully and hes gonna buy me some different sizes.

 

yes thats a pretty bitchin tool ya rigged up there bean! thumbs up for gfi

 

niice idea

 

Ive been lazy, but I finally took some pics of the finished product.

 

wow....that turned out way better than I expected after reading your disclaimer.

 

nice job,came out great. now it makes my dimple die set in the for sale section seem ridiculous, lol. thanks!

 

nice! i feel like a sucker for machining my own now....

 

Nice DIY. Your cage came out looking nice!

 

Great DIY ...my buddy just bought a set and spent out the butt for it..