NC Rollbar Installation

Installations instructions for MonsterFlow intakes, Big Brake Kits, shocks and more.
Brian
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Post by Brian »

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Finally found the body in white factory pictures which nicely show how the factory tie in points are reinforced to the front into the body at the top.
Brian Goodwin
Good-Win Racing
www.good-win-racing.com
StKnoWhere
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Post by StKnoWhere »

Nice Brian ;-)
Greg Tilkens
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Location: Green Bay Wisconsin

Post by Greg Tilkens »

To those of you who have installed the double hoop bar - is it necessary to remove enough material from the interior trim to make it not possible to return to the stock bar and plastic covers?

This image makes me think that returning to stock would not be an option:


[/img]http://www.flickr.com/photos/greg84/4032833645/[img][/img]
Last edited by Greg Tilkens on Wed Oct 21, 2009 5:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Brian
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Post by Brian »

Greg Tilkens wrote:To those of you who have installed the double hoop bar - is it necessary to remove enough material from the interior trim to make it not possible to return to the stock bar and plastic covers?

This image makes me think that returning to stock would not be an option:

Image
Assuming you want the MUCH beefier bar in there with the factory plastic bits then that means you cut factory plastics....then you won't be able to use those same plastic trim bits to go back to stock.
Brian Goodwin
Good-Win Racing
www.good-win-racing.com
Greg Tilkens
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Joined: Sun Nov 12, 2006 8:28 am
Location: Green Bay Wisconsin

Post by Greg Tilkens »

Wow Brian, you responded before I could even edit my post to get the image correctly formatted !

And, you gave me the response that I expected. I really want the double hoop bar, and will probably buy it, but I'm thinking about that inevitable day that I'll sell the car...
phm14
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Post by phm14 »

Any common rattle can colors that work well for touchup?
Brian
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Post by Brian »

The black is a standard gloss black. The silver was an attempt to match the factory "sunlight silver" for 06+
Brian Goodwin
Good-Win Racing
www.good-win-racing.com
tomkk
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Joined: Tue Dec 16, 2008 8:37 pm
Location: Port Orange, Fl

Post by tomkk »

Installed my Double Hoop roll bar with removable rear supports. I love the double hoop roll bar. I was afraid it's extra height was going to look strange with the top down but it looks great, the top easily clears it going up and down and seems very sturdy and well made. It adds enough height so I can get under the broomstick. I used the instructions here in the forum and just have a few things to pass on.

The trim & old style bars came out easily but the soft top hinge bracket prevented the roll bar from sliding in place. Loosening the two bolts holding the bracket in place allowed it to slightly, enough to let the slide into place. The picture shows the the two bolts on the passenger side just aft of the rear door post. Do the same on the driver's side. Be sure to re-tighten the bolts after the install is complete.
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Despite the "never a need to grind or drill out the holes" in the instructions, there was no way mine was going in without a bit of grinding the base holes. The bar was simply too rigid for me to move it even slightly. Only a very small amount of grinding but I still felt guilty ...

The kit with the rear supports includes two beefed up supports that install in the trunk. The 2nd picture in the May 17, 2009 post shows the prototype brace with the the optional cross brace - thought I'd toss in a couple of pics of the real braces.
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The two braces went in easily but the bottom factory bolt on each side was too short and they had to be replaced with longer bolts. It would have been a nice touch to include those longer bolts (and the 4 shorter bolts id'd in step 10) in the install hardware package. I forgot to record the bolt sizes and lengths to put here so you can get them in advance. Sorry ...

My 2008 GT has rear speakers. It sounds from the forum like the single hoop bar has been upgraded to include the speaker mount studs but the double hoop bar hasn't. I drilled and tapped the square horizontal bar to mount the speakers but I actually ended up leaving the speakers out anyway.

The 1" holes that are the receivers for the removable rear support bars really need plugs of some sort to make them look better. I found some 1" and 7/16" (for the front holes) black nylon plugs at Lowe's that seem like they'll do the trick. Not sure whether vibration will gradually work them out or not but we'll see. Lowe's also had some chrome metal plugs that might work for the silver roll bar. Look in the small boxes where they have the specialty fasteners.

Trimming and reinstalling the plastic trim was a real PITA. Maybe I'm just slow with things like that but it easily took me twice as long to trim and reinstall the trim as the roll bar itself. Not really hard, just a lot of trial cutting and fitting. I wanted to save as much storage space as I could so I trimmed the small cubbys behind the driver and passenger seats to fit around the inner roll bar legs. Here's a picture of the passenger side.
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The only real problem I had was with the rear supports. The hole in the hoop and the part of the support bar that inserts into the hole are clearly made to fairly close tolerances. That might have been OK except the insides of the holes were then powder coated - couldn't get the supports into the holes without cleaning out the holes and then some. The more serious problem was the holes in the support base didn't align with the holes in the car body - the holes in the support base were about 1/8" aft of the holes in the body. No way the screws were going to fit. I tried loosening the rollbar to try to shift it forward a bit but no go - this bar fits very well into the car and there's just no play. I ended up grinding down the collar on the roll bar where marked in the picture to shift the support bar forward.
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I didn't have to get into the weld, just the collar that protrudes. The support bar that goes into those holes has to be shortened a corresponding amount. That shifted the support bar forward but not quite enough and I had to enlarge the holes in the support base to get the screws in. In addition, the rear of the support base had to be ground down to clear the trunk when it opened. Finally, the passenger side support base was not aligned correctly. You can see from the picture that it's cocked slightly counter clockwise.
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That twist misaligned the holes with the body holes . Not sure why this happened. Considering the geometry of the roll bar and support bars, I don't see how the installation could cause it. Anyway, there's nothing to do here except grind or drill out the hole enough to achieve sufficient alignment.

As I said before, I think the bar is great and I'm very happy with it. Here are some additional pics of the install.

Center support plates welded and primed:
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and driver's side attachment:
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The passenger side attachment:
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and the completed install:
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Some pictures of the completed install:
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Tom
2008 Red GT soft top
whptgud
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Post by whptgud »

Tom, thanks for the nice write up. Did you happen to weigh the new vs old bar?
TIA...
06 GT GG, PSS10, Hotchkis, GWR exhaust, RPF1, AD08, IL braces, MS, dptune
91 A CR 5sp, Millen, FM, GAB, MOMO, Panasport, Naca, braced
tomkk
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Joined: Tue Dec 16, 2008 8:37 pm
Location: Port Orange, Fl

Post by tomkk »

whptgud wrote:Tom, thanks for the nice write up. Did you happen to weigh the new vs old bar?
TIA...
Darn, I knew I was forgetting something. I meant to do that and I totally forgot. It'll be more than a little bit, though. 2" pipe vs 1", a beefy cross bar and the extra center legs that extend below the cross bar not to mention the extra rear supports. Sorry ...
Tom
2008 Red GT soft top
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