How-to: Autopower bolt-in rollbar install
Apr 17, 2005, 05:10 PM
#1
How-to: Autopower bolt-in rollbar install
(Also posted at NorCalEvo: http://www.norcalevo.net/forums/viewtopic.php?p=52041 )
Notes
Not having done this before, I learned a lot of this as I went along; some of the steps/photos may not be shown in the order they were taken because I did some things in hindsight. Learn from my mistakes!
Install is shown for a car without a sunroof. A sunroof will make it much harder (but not impossible) to maneuver the rollbar into place; removing the head liner and front seats may be needed.
Total time to install, 3-8 hours depending on how much attention you pay to details and how much extra/optional work you do. Remember, this rollbar is for your safety, so take your time and don't do a half -assed job! A second set of hands makes things go much more smoothly and quickly.
Tools
Sockets and wrenches (metric for the car, 9/16" for the rollbar hardware; 14mm works too but can be a bit tight sometime)
Flat-head and phillips screwdrivers
Drill, 3/8" drill bit (titanium or cobalt recommended)
Floor jack, jack stands (for raising the rear of the car)
Handheld rotary tool with cutting disc, or bolt cutters (for modifying the rear seat back)
Utility knife
Rubber mallet (to "motivate" the rollbar into place, if you have a sunroof)
Magnet (to pick up filings left from drilling)
Optional Parts and Materials
Automotive primer and paint
3/8" washers (24)
3/8" nylon-lock nuts (12) or Loc-tite thread locker (red or blue)
Body seam sealer
Masking tape, duct tape, cardboard (to protect the car paint)
Preliminaries
The Autopower rollbar will arrive packaged like so:
Carefully cut and remove the protective plastic and tape and separate out the included hardware and rear arms; you may wish to leave the protective plastic on until later, to protect the rollbar from scratches during installation, though I didn't bother.
The rollbar should come with 12 short 3/8" bolts, 2 long 3/8" bolts, 26 3/8" nuts, 2 nylon-lock 3/8" nuts, 2 large flat and 2 smaller curved backing plates with opposite bolt patterns; it's worth taking a minute to make sure you got everything you need; extra nuts and bolts can easily be obtained from your local hardware store if needed.
To make things a bit stronger I replaced all the hardware with grade 8 (hardened steel) hardware, total cost about $10 from Orchard Supply Hardware. The bolt size is 3/8", thread pitch 16 (also called "coarse"). Grade 8 bolts are about 25% stronger than the grade 5 bolts included with the kit, well worth the $10 I think.
You should figure out which rear arm goes on the left and which goes on the right. One easy way to do this is to fit each arm on to the main bar. Since the bolt hole on each side is drilled with the arm in place, if you have an arm fitted on the wrong side the bolt holes won't line up exactly (and the long bolts may not go through):
Having figured out which rear arm is which, use a bit of masking tape to label them so you won't be confused about it later on:
Here's the rollbar with both rear arms attached (don't bolt them on, since they'll need to be off to get the rollbar into the car):
To prevent the backing plates from rusting (they'll be on the outside of the car, remember), clean, prime and paint them.
Installation
First off, tape some cardboard or a couple layers of boxboard to the sideskirt and other areas that the rollbar feet might scratch on the way in. Masking tape alone offers only a tiny amount of protection.
Take the back seats out: pull the two tabs underneath the front of the seat bench to release the seat bench and remove it, then undo the three bolts holding the seat back, and pull the seat back up to release it from the three upper "hooks" holding it.
Remove the center console: undo the two screws at the bottom of the CD holder to release the console, pull it out a few inches and undo the wire harness to the IC spray switch (if you have one).
Optionally, remove the two rear hand grips above the rear doors; this makes it easier to move the rollbar around once it's inside the car. Use a flat-head screwdriver (or your nails) to pop off the covers, then undo the screws.
There are some wires running near the back of the rear doors, that could potentially be damaged by the rear bar feet as the rollbar gets moved around. Undo the harnesses, then the clips fastening them to the car. Undo each clip by prying it up a bit, then using a flat-head screwdriver to push in on the side of the clip claw to release it. Tuck the wires away to prevent them from being damaged.
With the rear bars off, maneuver the main hoop into the car; if you're doing this by yourself you'll want to move from one side of the car to the other, moving the bar a bit at a time. Slide the front seats forward and lean the seat backs forward to give yourself a bit more room.
One foot in:
Over the drivetrain tunnel:
Tilt, lean and rotate (etc.) to get the rear bar stub in:
More of the same, and the main hoop is in the car. Phew!
Notice I had a bit of masking tape over the main hoop foot, to prevent it (a bit) from scratching things up. If you do the same, remove the masking tape as soon as it's inside the car; otherwise it'll be a real pain to remove later.
Put the rear bars on. This will require turning and leaning and otherwise moving the main hoop around a fair bit to give you enough space to slide each rear bar on. It's a tight squeeze; don't be afraid to really slide and lean the main hoop forward, pushing up against the roof. Once the rear bars are on, loosely bolt them on to the main hoop so the feet will be in the right orientation when positioning the rollbar.
Move the rollbar into position. If doing this solo, "walk" the bar back--move one side a little bit, then the other, and so on. The bar should be positioned with the feet of the main hoop almost all the way back in the rear footwells, and the rear bar feet almost all the way up the wheel well:
Slide the front seats all the way back and lean them back at a reasonable level. There should be still a couple of inches of clearance. The passenger side seat may just touch the diagonal bar a bit.
Carefully close the rear doors and make sure there's bit of room--about 1/4"--(and the same amount on each side) between the main hoop and the door trim:
You can install the rollbar over the carpet, but I highly recommend you bolt it directly on the body metal. To do this you'll need to cut the carpet:
You can also mark the feet, move the rollbar and cut in an "X" pattern so you can fold the carpet back and then put it back over rollbar feet when everything is done, if you want to go for a slightly cleaner look. The carpet cuts fairly easily; the sound deadening material underneath it does not. Once you've made the cuts, move the rollbar forward, remove the piece of carpet and then pull out all the sound deadening material in the hole.
Move the rollbar back into place; double (better yet, triple) check its position.
Before you start drilling the bolt holes:
- Jack up the rear of the car to lower the rear wheels; you don't want to drill into the rear tires by accident! You don't need to take off the wheels (there's enough space to work in the wheel well) but doing so may make things a bit easier.
- Check the area on the other side of the surfaces you're about to drill; they should be clear of wires, hydraulic lines, etc. but it doesn't hurt to check!
There are few approaches to drilling the holes, each with different merits. Here's sort of what I did, "improved" with insight: for each foot, drill one hole using the foot as a template. Drill the hole that's most accessible and make sure you drill as straight in to the surface as possible. Then use a spare nut and bolt and some fender washers to secure the foot somewhat tightly to the car. This prevents the foot from hopping around a bit as you now drill the other holes. It may not be possible to drill all 3 holes, or drill them straight, with the foot in place. In that case, drill two of the holes, move the rollbar, and use the backing plate as a template for the third hole.
Bolt the feet down. I did this as a two-step process: first, tighten using spare bolts and nuts to get the body metal flattened, then again using the grade 8 hardware.
Before tightening bolts, at each foot make sure you can run all three bolts through the foot, car body and backing plate. You may need to adjust (widen) some holes a bit to do this, if you didn't manage to drill perfectly straight.
Use car body sealer on the backing plates to prevent moisture from leaking in. Also, you may wish to use a wire brush and/or scouring pad to remove most of the dirt and grime from the underside of the car, to improve the quality of the seal.
Tighten the bolts; I didn't use any torque spec but I'd guesstimate around 30 lb-ft (as tight as I could manage with a short 10" ratchet). While test-fitting can be done with the bolts going down through the rollbar feet, the correct direction for final bolting is the other way: bolt goes up through the backing plate, car body and rollbar foot--nuts go on the inside of the car. This keeps things clean and protects the nuts a bit from the elements (so they don't get damaged or come loose.
If you got washers, use them on both sides (between the nut and the foot, and between the bolt head and the backing plate. Washers should help better distribute the load on the bolts across the backing plate. The bolts should be long enough so that when the nuts are fully tightened, there is room for another nut to go on them. Vibration can (over time) loosen nuts (and the rollbar!) over time, so double-up on nuts (2 nuts on each bolt) to prevent this; use Loc-Tite or nylon locking nuts if you have them.
Tighten the bolt on the rear bars using the nylon locking nuts provided. I used washers on each side to keep the rollbar from getting too badly scratched or marred.
Reconnect the wiring harnesses you disconnected and re-install the items you may have removed.
Rear seats: the rear seats are no longer safe for passengers (and you can't get into them without being a child or a contortionist anyway) so you may elect to leave them out. If you do you may wish to remove the rear seatbelt hardware as well. Note that the rear seat back does insulate the cabin from a lot of noise from the rear suspension and wheels. Autocross classing rules required I put the back seats back in; otherwise I wouldn't have bothered.
The rear seat back is made of foam with a frame made out of wire. I found I had to cut the frame on each side to allow the side of the seat to "give" a little bit to accommodate the rear bars. Here are the two pieces of seat frame I removed from the rear seat back:
The wire frame runs fairly close to the foam surface on the back side of seat; you'll need to push aside part of the seat covering to get at it. Feel along the foam at the side of the seat and you'll find two wires running roughly parallel up the side of the seat. I cut the wires using a Dremel tool; bolt cutters or beefy wire cutters would work as well, I imagine. I made the lower cut roughly 13" above the tip of the "loop" where the seat back bolts to the car. The wires go up and meet a thicker horizontal wire; I cut this about 4" in. Then I cut the two vertical wires about 2" above the horizontal wire, used a utility knife to cut away at the foam above the wires and extracted the pieces of seat frame. Even so modified, the seat still maintains its shape fairly well.
All done!
Notes
Not having done this before, I learned a lot of this as I went along; some of the steps/photos may not be shown in the order they were taken because I did some things in hindsight. Learn from my mistakes!
Install is shown for a car without a sunroof. A sunroof will make it much harder (but not impossible) to maneuver the rollbar into place; removing the head liner and front seats may be needed.
Total time to install, 3-8 hours depending on how much attention you pay to details and how much extra/optional work you do. Remember, this rollbar is for your safety, so take your time and don't do a half -assed job! A second set of hands makes things go much more smoothly and quickly.
Tools
Sockets and wrenches (metric for the car, 9/16" for the rollbar hardware; 14mm works too but can be a bit tight sometime)
Flat-head and phillips screwdrivers
Drill, 3/8" drill bit (titanium or cobalt recommended)
Floor jack, jack stands (for raising the rear of the car)
Handheld rotary tool with cutting disc, or bolt cutters (for modifying the rear seat back)
Utility knife
Rubber mallet (to "motivate" the rollbar into place, if you have a sunroof)
Magnet (to pick up filings left from drilling)
Optional Parts and Materials
Automotive primer and paint
3/8" washers (24)
3/8" nylon-lock nuts (12) or Loc-tite thread locker (red or blue)
Body seam sealer
Masking tape, duct tape, cardboard (to protect the car paint)
Preliminaries
The Autopower rollbar will arrive packaged like so:
Carefully cut and remove the protective plastic and tape and separate out the included hardware and rear arms; you may wish to leave the protective plastic on until later, to protect the rollbar from scratches during installation, though I didn't bother.
The rollbar should come with 12 short 3/8" bolts, 2 long 3/8" bolts, 26 3/8" nuts, 2 nylon-lock 3/8" nuts, 2 large flat and 2 smaller curved backing plates with opposite bolt patterns; it's worth taking a minute to make sure you got everything you need; extra nuts and bolts can easily be obtained from your local hardware store if needed.
To make things a bit stronger I replaced all the hardware with grade 8 (hardened steel) hardware, total cost about $10 from Orchard Supply Hardware. The bolt size is 3/8", thread pitch 16 (also called "coarse"). Grade 8 bolts are about 25% stronger than the grade 5 bolts included with the kit, well worth the $10 I think.
You should figure out which rear arm goes on the left and which goes on the right. One easy way to do this is to fit each arm on to the main bar. Since the bolt hole on each side is drilled with the arm in place, if you have an arm fitted on the wrong side the bolt holes won't line up exactly (and the long bolts may not go through):
Having figured out which rear arm is which, use a bit of masking tape to label them so you won't be confused about it later on:
Here's the rollbar with both rear arms attached (don't bolt them on, since they'll need to be off to get the rollbar into the car):
To prevent the backing plates from rusting (they'll be on the outside of the car, remember), clean, prime and paint them.
Installation
First off, tape some cardboard or a couple layers of boxboard to the sideskirt and other areas that the rollbar feet might scratch on the way in. Masking tape alone offers only a tiny amount of protection.
Take the back seats out: pull the two tabs underneath the front of the seat bench to release the seat bench and remove it, then undo the three bolts holding the seat back, and pull the seat back up to release it from the three upper "hooks" holding it.
Remove the center console: undo the two screws at the bottom of the CD holder to release the console, pull it out a few inches and undo the wire harness to the IC spray switch (if you have one).
Optionally, remove the two rear hand grips above the rear doors; this makes it easier to move the rollbar around once it's inside the car. Use a flat-head screwdriver (or your nails) to pop off the covers, then undo the screws.
There are some wires running near the back of the rear doors, that could potentially be damaged by the rear bar feet as the rollbar gets moved around. Undo the harnesses, then the clips fastening them to the car. Undo each clip by prying it up a bit, then using a flat-head screwdriver to push in on the side of the clip claw to release it. Tuck the wires away to prevent them from being damaged.
With the rear bars off, maneuver the main hoop into the car; if you're doing this by yourself you'll want to move from one side of the car to the other, moving the bar a bit at a time. Slide the front seats forward and lean the seat backs forward to give yourself a bit more room.
One foot in:
Over the drivetrain tunnel:
Tilt, lean and rotate (etc.) to get the rear bar stub in:
More of the same, and the main hoop is in the car. Phew!
Notice I had a bit of masking tape over the main hoop foot, to prevent it (a bit) from scratching things up. If you do the same, remove the masking tape as soon as it's inside the car; otherwise it'll be a real pain to remove later.
Put the rear bars on. This will require turning and leaning and otherwise moving the main hoop around a fair bit to give you enough space to slide each rear bar on. It's a tight squeeze; don't be afraid to really slide and lean the main hoop forward, pushing up against the roof. Once the rear bars are on, loosely bolt them on to the main hoop so the feet will be in the right orientation when positioning the rollbar.
Move the rollbar into position. If doing this solo, "walk" the bar back--move one side a little bit, then the other, and so on. The bar should be positioned with the feet of the main hoop almost all the way back in the rear footwells, and the rear bar feet almost all the way up the wheel well:
Slide the front seats all the way back and lean them back at a reasonable level. There should be still a couple of inches of clearance. The passenger side seat may just touch the diagonal bar a bit.
Carefully close the rear doors and make sure there's bit of room--about 1/4"--(and the same amount on each side) between the main hoop and the door trim:
You can install the rollbar over the carpet, but I highly recommend you bolt it directly on the body metal. To do this you'll need to cut the carpet:
You can also mark the feet, move the rollbar and cut in an "X" pattern so you can fold the carpet back and then put it back over rollbar feet when everything is done, if you want to go for a slightly cleaner look. The carpet cuts fairly easily; the sound deadening material underneath it does not. Once you've made the cuts, move the rollbar forward, remove the piece of carpet and then pull out all the sound deadening material in the hole.
Move the rollbar back into place; double (better yet, triple) check its position.
Before you start drilling the bolt holes:
- Jack up the rear of the car to lower the rear wheels; you don't want to drill into the rear tires by accident! You don't need to take off the wheels (there's enough space to work in the wheel well) but doing so may make things a bit easier.
- Check the area on the other side of the surfaces you're about to drill; they should be clear of wires, hydraulic lines, etc. but it doesn't hurt to check!
There are few approaches to drilling the holes, each with different merits. Here's sort of what I did, "improved" with insight: for each foot, drill one hole using the foot as a template. Drill the hole that's most accessible and make sure you drill as straight in to the surface as possible. Then use a spare nut and bolt and some fender washers to secure the foot somewhat tightly to the car. This prevents the foot from hopping around a bit as you now drill the other holes. It may not be possible to drill all 3 holes, or drill them straight, with the foot in place. In that case, drill two of the holes, move the rollbar, and use the backing plate as a template for the third hole.
Bolt the feet down. I did this as a two-step process: first, tighten using spare bolts and nuts to get the body metal flattened, then again using the grade 8 hardware.
Before tightening bolts, at each foot make sure you can run all three bolts through the foot, car body and backing plate. You may need to adjust (widen) some holes a bit to do this, if you didn't manage to drill perfectly straight.
Use car body sealer on the backing plates to prevent moisture from leaking in. Also, you may wish to use a wire brush and/or scouring pad to remove most of the dirt and grime from the underside of the car, to improve the quality of the seal.
Tighten the bolts; I didn't use any torque spec but I'd guesstimate around 30 lb-ft (as tight as I could manage with a short 10" ratchet). While test-fitting can be done with the bolts going down through the rollbar feet, the correct direction for final bolting is the other way: bolt goes up through the backing plate, car body and rollbar foot--nuts go on the inside of the car. This keeps things clean and protects the nuts a bit from the elements (so they don't get damaged or come loose.
If you got washers, use them on both sides (between the nut and the foot, and between the bolt head and the backing plate. Washers should help better distribute the load on the bolts across the backing plate. The bolts should be long enough so that when the nuts are fully tightened, there is room for another nut to go on them. Vibration can (over time) loosen nuts (and the rollbar!) over time, so double-up on nuts (2 nuts on each bolt) to prevent this; use Loc-Tite or nylon locking nuts if you have them.
Tighten the bolt on the rear bars using the nylon locking nuts provided. I used washers on each side to keep the rollbar from getting too badly scratched or marred.
Reconnect the wiring harnesses you disconnected and re-install the items you may have removed.
Rear seats: the rear seats are no longer safe for passengers (and you can't get into them without being a child or a contortionist anyway) so you may elect to leave them out. If you do you may wish to remove the rear seatbelt hardware as well. Note that the rear seat back does insulate the cabin from a lot of noise from the rear suspension and wheels. Autocross classing rules required I put the back seats back in; otherwise I wouldn't have bothered.
The rear seat back is made of foam with a frame made out of wire. I found I had to cut the frame on each side to allow the side of the seat to "give" a little bit to accommodate the rear bars. Here are the two pieces of seat frame I removed from the rear seat back:
The wire frame runs fairly close to the foam surface on the back side of seat; you'll need to push aside part of the seat covering to get at it. Feel along the foam at the side of the seat and you'll find two wires running roughly parallel up the side of the seat. I cut the wires using a Dremel tool; bolt cutters or beefy wire cutters would work as well, I imagine. I made the lower cut roughly 13" above the tip of the "loop" where the seat back bolts to the car. The wires go up and meet a thicker horizontal wire; I cut this about 4" in. Then I cut the two vertical wires about 2" above the horizontal wire, used a utility knife to cut away at the foam above the wires and extracted the pieces of seat frame. Even so modified, the seat still maintains its shape fairly well.
All done!
Apr 25, 2005, 12:49 AM
#4
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My cage is being built as I write this now. It is all around the passengers. Will post pictures on the forum in 3 days. Email me if you want to see pictures now.
Apr 25, 2005, 04:27 PM
#6
You'd kinda have to duck under the rear bars but if you can get in, you could theoretically have passengers in the rear seats. It's not advisable for a couple reasons: in an accident the car could cause pretty bad injuries to back-seat passengers, and also in an accident the rollbar would make it difficult for rear passengers to exit or be extracted from the car.
I ordered mine from I/O Port Racing: http://www.ioportracing.com/Merchant...ory_Code=AP952
I ordered mine from I/O Port Racing: http://www.ioportracing.com/Merchant...ory_Code=AP952
Apr 25, 2005, 04:27 PM
#7
Originally Posted by dryad001
Who did you order this from? This is one of the more nicer looking ones out there. Alot better looking than the cusco.
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Apr 26, 2005, 08:55 AM
#10
Originally Posted by timmiii
have any plans towards getting the U Weld roll cage kit that attaches to the roll cage which u have now?
The rollbar was $333 + $63 for the harness bar option. Shipping to San Jose was about $80, pricey but about what you would expect for a big, awkward, 50-lb metal structure.
I have full race harnesses on the way; with how fast I was driving at Reno-Fernley last weekend even the Schroth Autocontrols didn't feel nearly tight enough. I kept having to push myself back into my seat on the front straight each lap.
May 1, 2005, 11:47 PM
#13
No; I don't think there's such a thing as a cage approved by everyone... Different motorsports, sanctioning bodies and organizations will have different rollcage requirements: materials, components, tubing size and thickness, etc. Certainly the U-weld kid (which basically results in a bolt-in rollcage) will not be sufficient for any organization requiring weld-in cages.
