Pronto
No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot.
- Joined
- Dec 9, 2002
- Messages
- 16,774
Last October, several local TB guys did a track rental at NED. 2 were 9 second cars with all the safety equipment. 3 of us had just the minimum to run to 11.5. All 3 of us got the boot for going too fast. Mike Haywood aka Haywire has mad fab and welding skills. He had helped me with some rust work on my truck frame and I was blown away by his welding skills. He decided he would do a roll bar in his car after he got the boot. I asked him to do mine too. He said yes. So we learned on his install. He used an S&W mild steel kit. There was a lot of cutting, fitting and re-bending on his kit. I decided to try the Wild Rides kit. It is the mild steel kit and comes with the bars fish mouthed and cut to the correct size. All and all it was a simpler install than the S&W, but it had it's flaws too. Most notably, the side bars as they are made go right over the door handle blocking access to the lever and landed short of where I wanted them to. Mike and his buddy Pete thought carefully about this and came up with a solution. I wanted swing outs anyway, so they determined where they needed to cut for the clevis joints and simply spun the bar up. It cleared the handle fine and the extra length added by the clevis's put the bar in a better spot at the front. So that worked out well. Another feature worth noting is the back bars have a double bend. When they were all mocked up and tacked, the hoop and back bars could be tilted forward enough to aid in welding to the bars to the hoop saving my head liner. Mike learned from his install that the mounting points for the bar is on some pretty flimsy spots on the frame. He decided to reinforce each area. He made plates for back bars in the trunk, extensions for the frame at the hoop and supports for the front mounting spots on the frame. Mike has also milled the clevis's himself which is amazing but I don't think he'd do that again. He also added stops so they don't swing into the interior or way out into the door. We added a cross bar in the trunk for some extra stability. I had pulled most of the interior and Mike and Pete were able to finish the install in about 2 and half days. I did the sealing and reinstall, etc. I'm thrilled with the results. I was hesitant to "chop up" my car but knew I wanted to go down the track with it which wasn't going to happen unless I had a roll bar. I've been searching TB and other websites for roll bar install pics to weed out what I wanted and didn't. Mike knew I was picky and thankfully so is he, maybe even more picky than me. So here is my endorsement, if any of you are interested in a roll bar install look up Haywire. He's in MA (don't hold that against him). I'm confident you'll be impressed.
So here's the link to a bunch of pictures. Not all of them are the greatest but you can get the gist of what's going on. Not sure why the pictures don't load immediately but if you click on the first one then go back they all come up.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/g5oil9zv4xdxbow/AAD63_I4VEZSxi_FsGAKo-GVa?dl=0
I used Rustoleum silver hammertone brush on paint. The harness is from Cipher.
A word of caution, cutting the floors are in areas that the fuel lines and brake lines run. We both have gone to Teflon lines and they were not a problem but if you still have stock lines be very careful not to ruin them.
So here's the link to a bunch of pictures. Not all of them are the greatest but you can get the gist of what's going on. Not sure why the pictures don't load immediately but if you click on the first one then go back they all come up.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/g5oil9zv4xdxbow/AAD63_I4VEZSxi_FsGAKo-GVa?dl=0
I used Rustoleum silver hammertone brush on paint. The harness is from Cipher.
A word of caution, cutting the floors are in areas that the fuel lines and brake lines run. We both have gone to Teflon lines and they were not a problem but if you still have stock lines be very careful not to ruin them.
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