Autopower Rollbar - Install phase III - *done*
Installation and finish trimming is finally done. I'm happy with the results on many levels. One of the first things I noticed is how much stiffer the car felt. A number of little rattles I would get on the local roads are gone. There is a side effect that is less than desirable though and that's the 65 MPH shimmy seems to be amplified due to the added stiffness of the car. I HAVE to get the resolved. I dn't know if it's the tires, wheels or just a bad balancing job by the local shop but I never had the shimmy with my stock alloy wheels and used-up Azenis Sports.
Here is the final result. Everything bolted down, padding, backing and carpet trimmed, seats re-installed, roof down, window unzipped. Ah I'm sure you get the point! When I ordered the bar I wanted the crossbrace and the person at Autopower said that I might have some issues with the rear window due to the crossbar. I told them the window was a soft window and that it should be OK, I'll take my chances. Glad I did. I think the cross bar adds some needed stiffness, it's legal for harnesses and it's just fine with the window unzipped.
One of my concerns was trimming of the plastic around the seat belt. Basically I'm not all that handy at cutting straight lines in anything much less plastic that will be readily visible. I was apprehensive. But with some care and the use of a jigsaw/sabersaw I was able to get a very nice and tight fitting trim piece on the first try! Yeah.. so I guess I'm sort of proud of how that part of it turned out. Good thing that does not look like the sheetmetal trimming and bending I had to do under the carpet or I'd be ordering some new (or slightly used) parts. Looks pretty good, I think!
Finally a side view to illustrage how the height of the bar ccompars to the hight of the windshield. One
Miata.net member noted that his was about equal to the front windshield. Not sure what year/model his car was but there with the bar I have installed that does not appear to be the case for mine. In fact I'm quite concerned that it's too short to pass the 2" inspection requirement when I am in the seat with my helmet on. Might have to pass on the racing seats and harnesses for now and decided if the bar stays. It wouls stink to have to replace it but I'll do what I need to do so it's meets saftey requirements. This is the STREET bar version so.. perhaps that was my error in ordering. Live and learn?
Monday will be the first test of the car with the near bar, springs, coil-overs, brakes, competion pads, header, new catalytic converter and.. sheesh.. who knows what else I did since the last race! Looking forward to it for sure!
Autopower Rollbar - Install phase II
After jacking up the car and removing the inner fender well access to the body where the rear supports bolt down was very good. The cover is easy to remove with only 4 10mm bolts and no wrestling required to remove it.
This is the drive side after drilling from the bottom and bolting together with the backing plate. Access with the drill was a little frustrating with the brake lines below the area where I was drilling but it was not a really big deal. Just be careful not to nick a brake line with the drill motor!
Arg. This side sucked. It turned out the one of the three holes drilled in the mounting plate aligned perfectly with the edge of a wirin harness hole! As you can see I had to cut the corner out of the backing plate and then drill a new hole (from the bottom, not enough access inside the car) into the backing plate on the rollbar. I didn't want to install it with only two of the three bolts. It has three holes, must be a reason for that, best not take a shortcut on saftey equipment! It bolted down nice and tight once I was done wrecking two drill bits to make the hole (what is that bar made of!??!).
Inside the trunk with the spare tire removed. That's the wiring harness that comes out right at the mounting point of the rollbar's passenger rear pad. That aside, once I trimmed the edges of the metal above that area it dropped right in. Alignment in the seat belt towers was dead-on! Perfect. No drilling is required in the seat-belt tower. All the hols match up with factory holes in the body.
Bar installed. Trimming the package deck was pretty easy but it did take me 4 times to trim it to final clearances. It's not yet bolted in because I plan to add a backing plate under the front-center of the cover to give me a more solid mounting point for my in-car camera mount.
Clearance with the top is close but there is no binding or issues with putting up the soft top. Seems to be a pretty close fit.
Next step is to trim the plastic body panels and get those installed and finally to trim the carpet on the rear deck. Some time down the road I'll likely take the carpet out and have it professionaly edged for a more 'factory' look. Of course I might butcher up the plastic to the point the edging on the carpet would be putting lipstick on a pig. I'll see how it goes.
Autopower Rollbar - Install phase I
Bar unwrapped from shipping and ready for test fitting in the car. There is also a package of hardware (not shown) that includes backing plates for bolting the bar down to the rear deck of the car.
This is a little strange! I removed the seat belt upper mounts and found this stack of what looks like spacers (three of them in two different sizes). They look like a factory type of spacer but NOT what you would expect on a seatbelt. I don't know if this was done to conform to a Canadian requirement or not. The seat belt also bolts to the seat tunnel. I'm not sure if all American NA's are like this or not. I recall that some years this is bolted to the frame of the seat. This stack will of course need to be removed when the belt is re-installed with the bar.
Seats and interior trim moved out of the way, rear deck cover removed but rear carpet left in place. It does not need to be removed to install the bar but I'm not sure if I'll need to pull it out to make final trimming of the carpet and backing material.
First test-fit of the bar. There is some sheetmetal that needed to be drimmed and hammered down on the edges to allow it to slide into possition. It's a pretty snug fit.
In this picture you can see a pad that is double-side taped to the bottom of the lower deckplate. It's easy to remove and I have to have it out to install the bar to the car's metal body. There is also a wiring harnes (cannot see it in this pic, I'll take another when I start drilling in Phase II) right near the rear mount plate. I'm concerned that I could drill into a wiring harness. Great care will need to be taken.
First dry fit. No holes drilled but the bar is in it's final possition. A test of raising and lowering the top was successful. Zipping and unzipping the rear window will now be and even bigger pain in the butt however I'd rather have to fuddile with the rear window than have my head/heck smashed should I flip the car during a competition. I will also need to get padding for the bar. It's unsafe to have a steel pole that close to your head unless you are wearing a helmet or it's padded!
Here is the final result. Everything bolted down, padding, backing and carpet trimmed, seats re-installed, roof down, window unzipped. Ah I'm sure you get the point! When I ordered the bar I wanted the crossbrace and the person at Autopower said that I might have some issues with the rear window due to the crossbar. I told them the window was a soft window and that it should be OK, I'll take my chances. Glad I did. I think the cross bar adds some needed stiffness, it's legal for harnesses and it's just fine with the window unzipped.
One of my concerns was trimming of the plastic around the seat belt. Basically I'm not all that handy at cutting straight lines in anything much less plastic that will be readily visible. I was apprehensive. But with some care and the use of a jigsaw/sabersaw I was able to get a very nice and tight fitting trim piece on the first try! Yeah.. so I guess I'm sort of proud of how that part of it turned out. Good thing that does not look like the sheetmetal trimming and bending I had to do under the carpet or I'd be ordering some new (or slightly used) parts. Looks pretty good, I think!
Finally a side view to illustrage how the height of the bar ccompars to the hight of the windshield. One Miata.net member noted that his was about equal to the front windshield. Not sure what year/model his car was but there with the bar I have installed that does not appear to be the case for mine. In fact I'm quite concerned that it's too short to pass the 2" inspection requirement when I am in the seat with my helmet on. Might have to pass on the racing seats and harnesses for now and decided if the bar stays. It wouls stink to have to replace it but I'll do what I need to do so it's meets saftey requirements. This is the STREET bar version so.. perhaps that was my error in ordering. Live and learn?
