The way mine was done would work with out a cage as well. Be much easier to see in pictures than for me to explain, if you are interested let me know and I will get some pictures of it......I know what you mean about stiffening things up. I picked the front of my car up with a hoist attached to the bumper mounts and you could see the front frame sections moving at the firewall junction. A good portion of the seam sealer fell off when I did this.....
