Roll bar install help needed
Thread Starter
Le Mans Master
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 5,210
Likes: 104
From: Fort Worth TX
St. Jude Donor '06
Father & Son St. Jude Donor '09
Roll bar install help needed
I picked up a Wolfe Racing Chromoly 5 point bolt-in (used) without the bottom (underneath car) plates. I went to Wolfe (since I live in DFW) and had them make me up a set of plates for under the car. The plates are just flat steel stock. So the ones that go under the seats to secure the main hoop have to bridge the shallow "U" channel under the car and do not sit flush against the underside of the floorboard and just looks like a 1/2 a s s insatllation method.
Thanks!
Thanks!
Last edited by 74-Roadster; Apr 5, 2005 at 10:45 AM.
Thread Starter
Le Mans Master
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 5,210
Likes: 104
From: Fort Worth TX
St. Jude Donor '06
Father & Son St. Jude Donor '09
Okay, for now, I picked up some 3/8" dia high strength washers and I'll use them by themselves until I have some better plates made up.
ttt
other ideas?
ttt
other ideas?
Former Vendor
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,703
Likes: 1
From: Defending the US Constitution in Northern CA
Yes, I wasn't too impressed with that setup either. The thing is that with as low as these cars are, spacing the plate further down only seemed to make the ground clearance issue worse. What I did was took an air hammer and flatttened the "U" shapped channel, and this allowed the flat plat to flush up with the floor. The thing I hate most about those bars is that their rear wedge bars are bent, making one more place for the bar supports to fail in a forward traveling roll over. Now that probably won't make any difference as the rear wedge bars bolt to the fiberglass floor so in the event of a forward traveling roll over, the wedge bars will probably just punch through the floor so you don't need to worry about them bending. 
Pro
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 572
Likes: 1
From: plainview ny
Maybe it is just me but...
Many people talk about how it is so dangerous to drive a car with a 5/6 point harness without a rollbar. Then most of the roll bars I have seen bolt (at least partially) to the fiberglass. I really do not think that I would feel safe with a roll bar that is held in this way.
Many people talk about how it is so dangerous to drive a car with a 5/6 point harness without a rollbar. Then most of the roll bars I have seen bolt (at least partially) to the fiberglass. I really do not think that I would feel safe with a roll bar that is held in this way.
Thread Starter
Le Mans Master
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 5,210
Likes: 104
From: Fort Worth TX
St. Jude Donor '06
Father & Son St. Jude Donor '09
Originally Posted by C5stein
Yes, I wasn't too impressed with that setup either. The thing is that with as low as these cars are, spacing the plate further down only seemed to make the ground clearance issue worse. What I did was took an air hammer and flatttened the "U" shapped channel, and this allowed the flat plat to flush up with the floor. The thing I hate most about those bars is that their rear wedge bars are bent, making one more place for the bar supports to fail in a forward traveling roll over. Now that probably won't make any difference as the rear wedge bars bolt to the fiberglass floor so in the event of a forward traveling roll over, the wedge bars will probably just punch through the floor so you don't need to worry about them bending.
I thought about flattening the "U" channel too, but decided to bolt through the "U" channel instead ignoring the forward located holes in the roll bar bracket. For now, I used high strength washers underneath on all four, but eventually I'll split the under car plate and use the back section of the plate for the two rearward holes.
I also had to modify both plates so the seat track would sit down far enough to bolt in properly.
Did ya'll primer and paint the under car plates? Or did your came powder coated?
This has been a "l o n g" weekend!!!!
Former Vendor
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,703
Likes: 1
From: Defending the US Constitution in Northern CA
The plates came in plain steel and didn't fit so we had a bunch of time triming and fitting them.. Rattle can primer and paint is probably fine for under the car. Hopefully you never test the bar and no one will ever find out that the plates were not powdercoated 
On one car that we did, the foot of the roll bar held the seat too high and we couldn't secure the seat, so we had to remove the factory stud and replace it with a longer grade 8 bolt.
Fitting the waterfall to hug the horizontal bar was a real PITA too. My customer thought that I was nuts when I charged him 10 hours to install the whole deal. It actually took longer. See if it is your own car and you scratch it, you just get mad at yourself. We have to be so careful when doing stuff like this to customer's cars because a bad job can ruin our reputation. I'm sure I could have done it faster on my own car, but I have a coupe and it is already fitted up with one of our "MSI harness bars". Glad to hear you "got'er done"
On one car that we did, the foot of the roll bar held the seat too high and we couldn't secure the seat, so we had to remove the factory stud and replace it with a longer grade 8 bolt.Fitting the waterfall to hug the horizontal bar was a real PITA too. My customer thought that I was nuts when I charged him 10 hours to install the whole deal. It actually took longer. See if it is your own car and you scratch it, you just get mad at yourself. We have to be so careful when doing stuff like this to customer's cars because a bad job can ruin our reputation. I'm sure I could have done it faster on my own car, but I have a coupe and it is already fitted up with one of our "MSI harness bars". Glad to hear you "got'er done"
Thread Starter
Le Mans Master
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 5,210
Likes: 104
From: Fort Worth TX
St. Jude Donor '06
Father & Son St. Jude Donor '09
Originally Posted by C5stein
The plates came in plain steel and didn't fit so we had a bunch of time triming and fitting them.. Rattle can primer and paint is probably fine for under the car. Hopefully you never test the bar and no one will ever find out that the plates were not powdercoated On one car that we did, the foot of the roll bar held the seat too high and we couldn't secure the seat, so we had to remove the factory stud and replace it with a longer grade 8 bolt.
Fitting the waterfall to hug the horizontal bar was a real PITA too. My customer thought that I was nuts when I charged him 10 hours to install the whole deal. It actually took longer. See if it is your own car and you scratch it, you just get mad at yourself. We have to be so careful when doing stuff like this to customer's cars because a bad job can ruin our reputation. I'm sure I could have done it faster on my own car, but I have a coupe and it is already fitted up with one of our "MSI harness bars". Glad to hear you "got'er done"
On one car that we did, the foot of the roll bar held the seat too high and we couldn't secure the seat, so we had to remove the factory stud and replace it with a longer grade 8 bolt.Fitting the waterfall to hug the horizontal bar was a real PITA too. My customer thought that I was nuts when I charged him 10 hours to install the whole deal. It actually took longer. See if it is your own car and you scratch it, you just get mad at yourself. We have to be so careful when doing stuff like this to customer's cars because a bad job can ruin our reputation. I'm sure I could have done it faster on my own car, but I have a coupe and it is already fitted up with one of our "MSI harness bars". Glad to hear you "got'er done"
I haven't cut the rear carpet yet. I'm going to drive around and see if I can live with it during daily driving. I wanted a roll bar so I could go to the track once in a while and add a little cool factor to the car when it's in a show. I wanted/hoped to be able to leave the main hoop and rear kick bars installed full time and add the door bar when it was track time. We'll see . . . I'm not too optimistic right now.
