got my tubing bender last week and picked up a bunch of 1.5" .120 wall (11 ga) tubing last Friday and started figuring out how to bend tubes
I got the bender all leveled out as a starting point and then figured out there was about a 3 degree spring-back/relaxation, but managed to nonetheless hammer the main hoop out in less than a day and get it pretty square so I thought "this is a breeze".
Then I started in on the down tubes and I opted to go the hard route by making the tube extend from the main hoop all the way to the footwell to get me a maximized tight fit to the roof line and A pillar so I could keep my stock sun visors. Well, that basically took all of yesterday and most of today; I wasted about 28 ft of tubing and ended up bending 6 tubes to get 2, but I managed to get a really nice fit and I think it looks pretty darn professional if I do say so myself. The pisser was the compound angles going from the narrower roof line to the rocker width - when I figured it out I have to admit it was really obvious considering hindsight is 20/20 but an interesting learning experience nonetheless. The real beotch was getting the notching correct where the tube bent in to meet the main hoop at its bend. That took me 4 hours of nonstop marking with a pen, cut, fit, mark, cut, fit, and so on knowing that it should only be 2, maybe 3 rather squarish cuts. When it was done, I took the cutoff wheel and had the left tube in place in about 1/2 hour. All while making sure the rear window handles didn't hit the main hoop, the lower kick panels/vents fit and the vents fully open. PITA trying to keep a mostly stock interior.
The cross beam at the visors was about 20 minutes
Straight pipes are about as easy as they come.
So after 3 days I have a 4pt cage tacked into place. The tubes from the hoop to the rear transaxle area are next on the list and should go pretty quickly I think, then tying into the forward bulkhead. Then I need to figure out the forward tubes and how I am going to pick up the rocker for the inboard shock mounting.