Evilash

I've searched here, looked at the vendors and googled.

My question is.
Is there just no way to get a frame mounted 4 point roll bar that doesn't completely butcher the interior and have to be done by a custom shop?

Most seem to mount either on top of the back firewall or they run down to the floor but mount to nothing.

I see that some cut a square out of the rear deck to reach the frame. No problem.
But none of them appear to mount to the frame rail in the front.

Wolfe seems like it might but does that mean cutting up the rockers and trim?

I just can not find good detailed pics or installation instructions except for the ones I think are not quite up to par.

Just looking to mount some harnesses with the extra roll over protection for DE events. No wheel to wheel or time trail stuff.

Thanks.

AU N EGL

Wolf is one of those roll bars that are not quite up to par, as you say.

Mounting the frame behind the seats is somewhat questionable

Bill Dearborn

I have posted on this a couple of times before. I know somebody who worked closely with the Corvette Engineers a number of years ago and I had him ask them where the front of a 4 point bar should be mounted in a C5. The answer was to mount it to the B pillar which is designed to take a vertical load. The floor isn't designed to hold the weight of the car (would you put the car on a lift where the lift pads were on the floor instead of the frame) and the cross beam behind the seats is only designed for hoizontal loads. There are a couple of installers that weld to the B pillars. Most do not including the maker of the roll bar I had installed in my C5s.

When I was at Carlisle a couple of years ago I went by the ECS display and they had a couple of cars including Verts that had the front down rods welded to the B pillars.

Due to the similarity between the C5 and C6 I would assume the same thing goes for the C6.

Bill

GettReal

Not sure why you dont want to go custom as you will get exactly what you want in the end, a welded in bar that doesnt butcher the interior. I had a 6pt welded in and its CLEAN. What generation Vette, C5?

Evilash

Yes C5.

I have nothing against a custom bar.
Just looking to see if I can find something good for half the money.
Plus I like to do as many of my mods as I can myself. I like the experience and the pride of doing it myself, recently put in my own Z06 vents.

Thanks for the post Bill. I didn't come across that information in my multiple searches. Have to filter through a lot of anti roll bar posts and may have missed it. I'll look into getting something tied to the B pillar. I assume it can be anywhere under where the stock hoop bolts on?

Bill Dearborn

The ECS bars I saw had the bar welded to the bottom part of the B pillar just above the point where it joins the frame. Can't remember exactly how they welded it to the B pillar but I imagine it was by welding a reinforced shelf to the pillar and then welding the end of the bar to the shelf. They did an excellent job of getting the bar mounted and making it look good with the plastic B pillar cover installed over it. I had some pictures I took with my cell phone but they really are to dark to show things.

Here is a picture of how Pfadt is fastening the down bar:


The next picture shows how my bar was welded in and what you want to avoid.




Bill

Evilash

Awesome Bill. Thanks much for the pics.
Yes, I don't want to do a bar like the second pic. Even though it would be the easiest route to go I want to do it as best I can within my constraints.

The Pfadt bar looks like it would be the way to go. But, I forgot to mention I still want to store the top panel of my coupe in the back. There's looks like it goes too far back to allow that.

DansBlkonBlkZ06

Check out the AutoPower 4 pt roll bar. It isn't much more cost than a harness bar, but to get the look you want, the install will need to be by a professional. I had a local car restoration shop do mine. They had to weld plates in the rear and on the beam and then bolt to the plate. The carpet was cut for a perfect fit. The complete install was $500. Call around. I asked around and found two shops within 40 miles that have done several C5 roll bar installs.

davidfarmer

The autopower is like Bills 2nd photo. It welds to the fuel bulkhead. It should get you through tech, but really doesn't add a lot of additional rollover protection, HOWEVER I don't think you need it in a steel framed c5-c6.

Ideally you would go like Bill's first photo, BUT go all the way down to the inside of the framerail.