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NC Rollbar Installation

Posted: Sun Feb 25, 2007 10:09 pm
by Brian
Big thanks to JM Baggie and Tony (Owner of Anthony Woodward Racing) we finally have a proper rollbar for the new NC. SUPER EASY install. Much easier than any rollbar install in the earlier generation. Thanks to Mark Vaden for the great photo work. With two people on the job the stock bar is out and the new bar is installed in less than an hour. Everything bolts up. We spent another hour on the cleanup which involves trim of the factory plastic bits. In fact, the bar install is so easy that those who don't want to trim the factory plastic bits could install the bar before weekend events and then take the car back to stock when they get home. Having two sets of hands to get the old bar out and lift the new bar in without scratching it is very helpful and recommended.

NC ROLLBAR Install.

1. Move seats forward out of the way.
2. Slide seatbelt from guide on the top of each seat so it will drop out of your way.
3. Remove the plastic cap at the seatbelt tower (to do this pull the plastic rivet with your finger nails and then pull cap off). Pull off the plastic cover.

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4. Pull the plastic sill (it pulls straight up and simply unsnaps).

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5. Pull plastic that extends from seat belt tower down to sills (again, it is just clipped on and snaps out)

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6. The front half of the plastic cover over the factory roll hoops simply snaps off by pulling forward but the back half is screwed on with two screws that must be pulled as shown.

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7. Once the covers are removed as shown below, you need to pull the windblocker. It is attached in the same manner as the sills and pulls straight up to remove.
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8. Pull the small panel at the back of the center console below the compartment with the gas lid pull. Pull cover for release that releases top from stowed position. Now you are ready to pull the main panel behind the seat if you have pulled all the pop rivets that hold it in place. Separate it from the tabs that hold it to the small plastic panel behind the factory hoops and remove. Note that it has a notch that fits under the rear corner of the center console just below the smaller panel you pulled in the first picture below and you want to remember that when you reinstall it later. You also want to pull the plastic panel that fits across the back behind the factory hoops and which is connected by white plastic tabs to the factory cross hoop cross brace (look close at the sides and you can see that you can simply unhook the white tabs at the ends of this panel before poping the panel off the remaining tabs that hold it to the cross brace). Finally, remove the latch assembly by removing the two 10mm bolts that hold it to the cross member of the factory hoop assembly.

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9. In the picture above you can see ALL the bolts that are involved in this install. As you can see in this shot, the factory bar has 6 connection points, 3 per side, with four bolts at the top on each side, three at the pan, and two more on a side brace just above the pan connection. That's actually 8 bolts per side for the factory bar and one nut. First, remove two 10mm bolts for seat belt guides and then remove the eight bolts and one nut that holds factory hoops in and remove factory hoops.

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9b. Once you have removed factory hoops you need to pull the white tabs on the back of the cross member which held the rear plastic panel in place, you will reinstall these on the rear plastic panel so that it will plug onto the new rollbar cross member once that new bar is installed. Before you reinstall that panel you will need to trim the alignment finger that juts out from the center of it and into a hole on the factory hoops (this will make sense when you line it up alternatively with the old hoops and then the new Rollbar.


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10. Lower NEW Rollbar into the car and hand thread all the bolts as shown. Hand thread the two nuts at the pan connection. Notice here the two holes above my pinky finger. You use all factory hardware for this install EXCEPT at this point where you will need a shorter bolt because the factory item will hit the thicker bar after it threads through (this will make sense as soon as you try the install of the factory hardware at this point).

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11. Reinstall the seatbelt guides as shown here:

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12. Reinstall factory mechanism for holding the top in place when down. Note that your new bar has indents to line this up for you and holes are all predrilled and threaded nuts are welded in from below so that all you need to do is line it up and thread the bolts (you may find some adjustment necessary front or back depending on the alignment of the top in your particular NC...adjust or shim as necessary for top to click solidly down as it did stock). Torque bolts to 25 foot pounds, but just 15 foot pounds for the two nuts that hold to the pan.

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13. Lay main rear panel back in car against the bar and mark portions that must be trimmed to clear the new beefier bar and trim. Do the same with panel that fits across behind the bar.

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14. Now reinstall factory rear main panel. As shown in second picture below you want to guide the latch release through the panel after first tucking bottom section under the rear of the center console.

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15. I am pointing here at one of the tabs connecting the main rear panel and the panel that fits across behind the rear cross member. Preserve as many of these as you can during your trim work and be careful to line them up to snap the front and rear sections back together again.

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16. Tape up bar! Tape it up to ready it for install of the provided fiberglass cap so you can avoid scratching the bar! To get it around the bar first you twist it open to get it around the diagonal bar first. Then angle it so you can tuck the connection at the passenger side end second. Then bend down slightly the driver's side end to pop that end into place. Note you may need to make some trim of the soft fiberglass parts depending on how tight your front and rear OEM plastic sections come back together. And expect a little trim of the fiberglass for clearance where it passes over the top release latch assembly.

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17. Cap has pre-drilled holes and comes with factory style plastic rivets. Align cap where you want it (tuck it UNDER the pull up handle that releases the stowed top as you can see that I did in the picture below). Use a dremel or similar to replicate holes in cap for rivets into the plastic factory panels under the cap.


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18. Insert factory style plastic rivets and you are finished!
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Posted: Mon Feb 26, 2007 10:24 pm
by Gripper
Kick Ass. 8)

Posted: Mon Feb 26, 2007 10:29 pm
by pdxa4
Nice install guide...

Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2007 5:25 pm
by StKnoWhere
Any suggestions for using a harness with the bar?

Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2007 5:32 pm
by Brian
Yes...been done using some eye bolt connections into the bottom or top of the I beam going across the middle depending on height of the driver, whether race seat is used, etc. Need to cut an oval shaped hole behind the seats to run the belts but the results look pretty clean. Here is a crummy picture of the factory part but I used it to draw where we have been putting the eye bolts for snap in harness setups.


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Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2007 7:38 pm
by StKnoWhere
Thanks Brian!

Posted: Sat Oct 06, 2007 7:12 am
by senda
Hey Brian

Is the new bar located much higer then the original bar?

I am 191 cm height, and i do not fill save with the original bar...

Posted: Sat Oct 06, 2007 12:11 pm
by Brian
The new bar is 2.5 inches higher than the stock bar.... Could not go higher than that without creating an issue with raising and lowering the top.

Posted: Tue Oct 09, 2007 5:34 pm
by willyspu
Anyone have any pics of the harness bolt install?

Did you go through both sides of the bar?

Did you use backing plates?

I assume these would be at least grade 8 eyebolts?

Thanks!

Jim
Brian wrote:Yes...been done using some eye bolt connections into the bottom of the I beam going across the middle. Need to cut an oval shaped hole behind the seats to run the belts but the results look pretty clean. Here is a crummy picture of the factory part but I used it to draw where we have been putting the eye bolts for snap in harness setups.


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Posted: Wed Oct 10, 2007 2:10 pm
by Brian
Here is that picture with the cutout for the harness connections and you can just see the harness connections in this pic. This is the most neat and clean way to do it.

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Even easier would be to just use our Beatrush harness bar....easily added and removed for track days which is our store as item 61-0028 and here is the link:

http://www.good-win-racing.com/Mazda-Pe ... -0028.html

Oh...and it's in stock too... :D

And here is the picture...
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