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Do It Yourself Garage Roll Bar

24K views 21 replies 11 participants last post by  dennis111 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
I just finished up the install of my eight point roll bar into my 67 Mustang (actually six as you don’t count the cross truss bars). I/we did this in my shop out back with very basic tools that most car folks should have. In all, this job should only take about a two days work. Keep in mind, this is not a sub 10 second certified roll bar, it is certainly good enough to legally take you into the high 10s low 11s. Be sure to read the NHRA/IHRA or your sanctioning road race rule book on this for roll bar height, and your down bar locations and floor mounting specifications.


The basic tools you will need; a welder, four inch angle grinder, reciprocating saw, big dead weight hammer, bench vice, tape measure, level, and an angle finder, some decent spring clamps, and of course sharpies (love the sharpies and china markers). I do have a compressor, and it helped but I could have done it without the compressor. I used a MIG 140 with gas to finish this job, we but started the project with a friends Lincoln Handy pack with gas, it worked just fine.

A couple of specialty tools I fabbed up or bought, some tubes out of paper towel rolls, a eight foot stick of 1 ¾ PVC pipe, paint, and a welders blanket from the local welding supplier. What I did not buy was a joint jigger or pipe notch gauge (you know, the wire things you slide over the pipe to measure the fit and mark the pipe).
The roll bar kit was purchased from Jegs; I also purchased the additional rear seat saver bars too. Although the seat savers are a bit of an oxymoron with the angles and the cross bar to floor truss bars.

Before you do anything, either take the car to a chassis shop or get the diagrams and check to be sure the car is square, it won’t be moving a lot after you put the roll bars in. Also, ensure you have really solid foundations, floors pans and transmission tunnel, trunk floors, and rockers. Otherwise you are wasting time and money and making things dangerous for yourself while creating more work down the road. My installation took a little longer, as I had to put the front long pans in mine before I could finish the front down bars.

Now if your ready to go and all is square and solid, let’s go! First strip the interior down to bare metal, remove all carpet and insulation, seats, door panels etc. Be sure to take the gas tank out. This project started out with a friend of mine coming over with his Handy Pack welder and helping me. He had done a few before, so I deferred to his expertise for this first time event in hopes of learning a few things. After charging me to do the main hoop, followed by subsequent monetary requests for the rest of the job, and me learning, WOW, this is not so hard; I bought my own welder and took off on the floor pans and the remainder of the roll bar install.

I apologize now for the lack of good photos on the main hoop install project, my friend was under a time crunch and we didn’t stop to analyze this or document the main hoop install as well as I could have. However, in the later stage of down bars, I will show you the same tricks and principles used to install the main hoop and seat savers.
With the car stripped and the roll bar kit in the manshack, the first thing I did was sand and wipe the bars down with thinner, tapped off the ends of the pipes, primed them with self etching primer, and painted them with several coats of Rustoleum Hammer Finish. I like this stuff a lot; it comes in black, silver and other colors.

The textured finish is really cool, and it hides blemishes very nicely, it’s almost as good as powder coating. The best part, you will ding and nick the bars during the install. This Hammer Finish covers those, and will touch up very well. I painted the bars and attachment points before installing them in the car, way less hassle than huffing fumes and masking off your entire interior after the roll bar is in. I used CKellys roll bar pictures to estimate about where my weld points would be, and taped over those to keep them free of paint.






We started with the main hoop install. We put the main hoop in the car, just a bit forward of the door jam post and checked it to see if it would of course fit, and to make sure you can shut the doors, roll up the windows, and most of all if you have to notch or angle the base to get them to set flat on the floor pan base plates and rockers. Take measurements off your door jams and make sure its centered and square in the car, then mark the area where the main hoop contacts the floor pan.

Depending on your sub frame connectors you may be able to extend the roll bar down onto those or fab some metal to rise up off the sub frame connectors to form a chassis mounting point. That would be the strongest, but my subs are already in and that was not going to work for me. Marking the two main hoop landing points it will show you where your 6X6 base needs to go. We didn’t have to alter or massage the main hoop too much; just shaving the outside edges to match the rise up on the rocker.

We also had to bend and modify the 6X6 base, bending the outside edge up to transition up from the floor to the rocker side lip an inch or so. This allowed us to achieve maximum contact between the base plate and the floor. Note; you will have to cover your rear drains. I had bought new ones, so we just welded the drain cap to the floor and welded the 6X6 base to the drain cap.

Once you have measured and marked where your bases and hoop will land, grind all paint from the landing points on the floor and tack the bases to the floor, then tack the hoop to the base, ensuring it’s vertical and equal side to side, ensure the doors will shut and windows will roll up.








The next phase was the rear seat saver down bars. Here is where it got a bit tricky and you will need an extra set of hands. The roof line from the main hoop to the back window is relatively short; this would have dropped the seat savers down right on top of the differential tunnel. That is not the strongest area back there, not a lot of surrounding structural support.

Dropping straight down through the package shelf does not push the landing points back very far towards the rear of the car, this doesn't get the best over all chassis stiffening (a much desired function). Also, the trunk floor is a little off center back there due to drive shaft and spring mount alignment. We chose to set the down bars in at a bit of a horizontal downward sloping angle to the roof line, while angling the trunk ends out towards the wheel wells.

This put the down bars through the outside of the holes on the package tray, and put more distance between the main hoop and down bar attachment points, while putting the load of the attachment point more towards the rear of the tires increasing chassis stiffness. The seat saver down bars have plenty of extra material, so measure roughly from the main hoop to the roof line over the package tray, then from the roof line through the package tray to the trunk floor pan.

Measure and cut the bars a couple of times with the reciprocating saw, cutting them to fit. This will give you the rough out of the down bars. You will have to feed the seat savers up through the trunk and package tray, then butt them to the main hoop and cock the trunk ends out a bit to get them to land on the trunk floor next to the wheel wells. Note measure the landing points, both should be parallel to each other, and cut your down bars to land on the two points, keeping all things square.






With the down bars cut to length, its time to notch them to fit. We worked from the main hoop, holding the bar in place, marking the centerline of the pipe on top and bottom, and drawing where we thought the notch should go onto the pipe. Do the same on the trunk landing, look at where its hitting and establish the angle, the easiest way is to project the angle from the trunk floor onto the pipe with a straight edge or ruler, measure how much needs to come off to make it flush on the landing and mark that off.

Start back in the trunk, set your seat savers or down bars up to the main hoop, set the angle you want to kick them over towards the wheel well, and transfer the angles from the trunk floor pan onto the seat saver bars. Cut/grind them to fit (whatever distance or gap you have between the bar end and trunk floor, trim that from the contact side and you will be laying flat). I always cut and grind it two or three times to get it to lay flush; you want 100% contact and welds on these. When massaging it to fit, I would lay the bar in place, mark on the bar with a sharpie where its contacting the plate, eyeball or measure the gap on the other side and grind/cut it down until it fell into place.

Once you have contact on the rear pads, its time to work the main hoop notches. The down bars are pre-not notched for the roll bar ends. However, changing the angle of the down bar changes the notching; the seat savers are too long anyway and had to be trimmed, so we had to re-notch them. My friend showed me this trick, take the paper towel roll, mark the centerline of the tube, hold the tube up against the end of a piece of 1 ¾ pipe, and transfer the radius of the pipe onto each side of the cardboard tube, then cut out the radius marks with scissors leaving a template of your notches.

Slide the tube over the seat saver or down bar pipe (may have to split the tube), put the down bar up to the roll bar while someone holds it on the trunk landing point and you have it set at the angle you want, slide the cardboard tube template up until it contacts the main hoop and mark your radius cuts on the seat saver where they line up with the main hoop. Now you know where to make your notch. We notched these out using the four inch angle grinder, and took it slow; it made really nice notches, nice and flush.


Do this for both down bar sides, check and re-check. The angles on the 67 were not the same side to side due to trunk offset at the wheel well, so you can’t just copy the one you did before, one bar kicks out to the driver side, the other kids to the passenger side. They don’t just drop straight down. Also, leave room between the down bar and package tray, you don’t want the down bar contacting your package track frames, this would cause some buzzing.

The 1/8 6X6 landing pads are too wide to fit on the trunk floor will. You will have to bend a couple of inches of the pad over 90 degrees, to get it to fit. We just put the plates in a vice and whacked it with the dead blow hammer to get 90 degrees. Then laid it up on the trunk pan and tacked it down.

With all the parts fitting flush, its time to tack it all in. Use a couple of tacks on each plate and bar, then go around and make sure it all looks good from the rear of the car, looking inside the car and of course your doors still shut. If all is good, then weld it all in starting with the floor pad mounts (careful here, you welding 1/8th inch to 18 gauge). We found that stitch welding the pads to the floor worked the best vice a constant bead. When welding the rear down bars to the hoop, we used the welders blanket to keep from burning the headliner.

Also cover your windows with cardboard, the welding spark will pit your glass. I used a couple of those solar reflective windshield sun screens on the front and back glass, they worked great. Now weld your hoop to your mounts and down bars to hoop and trunk plates, we alternated back and forth on the welding, to keep from pulling the bar from its tacked position.






With the main hoop and seat savers in, you will now put in the cross piece and trusses for the main hoop. The main cross piece is pre notched, so just cut to length, leaving a little extra to re-notch the end (here again, take the end you cut off, transpose that notch onto your cardboard tube and then re mark your butt end to get the notch back right). Check your rule book for correct location, notch the end and ensure its level with a magnetic level, then weld it in.

The cross truss braces fit in the notch of the main hoop and cross brace. You can easily make a reverse notch guide with a cardboard roll to achieve the right angle as they are not pre notched. The truss braces will run to the floor pan or transmission tunnel from the main hoop. I ran mine to the Trans tunnel as it seemed stronger and would allow a little more foot room for the back seat.




Now its time to Move to the side down bars. Here again, check your rules for the front down bar location. NHRA wants the bar to pass through a point between your shoulders and your elbow. I set the seats in the car, sat in it, and used blue painters tape to mark my shoulder point and elbow point on the seat. This gave me a good visual of where the front down bars should go on the main hoop to meet the floor pan and toe board kick up.


The front down bars are pre notched but not angled on the floor ends. You should have to only cut one end on these, but you only get one crack at it as well. So I used the 1 3/4 PVC to mock up the down bars. Just like I did with the rear down bars, I cut them to rough length ensuring they passed through my tape marks on the seats. Using my spring clamps to hold the PVC pipes about where I wanted them on the main hoop, I then transposed my floor pan angle onto the PVC pipe using a straight edge.

With the floor base plates sitting where I wanted them, and adjusting the PVC to where it cleared the seat and landed in the middle of the plate, I marked the top of the pipe where it was centered on the base plate. Using a carpenters angle gauge, I projected the angle line I had previously made from the top mark of the PVC, then scribed it back at the desired angel, then cut the pipe with a hand saw.




With the floor angle lying flat on the floor pan base plate, I used my paper towel roll to make a template of the main hoop notch, and then transferred that onto my PVC. I cut the PVC notch with a Dremel tool and drum sander attachment. A little grinding with the Dremel, and the fit and finish are perfect, the down bar mock up was done. I used my spring clamps to hold it in place while I made sure I had it where I wanted, and it cleared the seats and doors (note armrests will no longer fit, and you will have to remove them).






With the mock up PVC fitting and where I wanted it, I slipped a paper towel roll over the PVC and marked the inside of the PVC against the cardboard roll to make a template of the angles and notches. Then I cut the cardboard roll to make the template, placed that over the actual down bar and marked it with a sharpie. Just to be sure, I took measurements again with my angle gauge on the pipe, marked the top of the pipe at the landing point to double check my template, as well as laying the PVC along side of the down bar. All three cross checks came out great. The down bar pipes are pre notched, so you really only need to trim these bit to fit them, mostly on the inside where the cross brace is.








Using my reciprocating saw, I cut the angle end first, and intentionally left if a tad long (I like grinding to fit). Then it was a matter of using my 4” angle grinder to hit the high spots and getting it to lay flat. With it laying flat on the landing pad, I then touched up my notches a bit with the angle grinder to reduce the gaps there. I did find that a die grinder and cutting bit made quicker and easier work of the notches than the four inch grinder, so if you have that capability, try it.








With the down bars cut, and fabbed out, I used spring clamps and duct tape to hold them still in the car in order to check the doors and seat fit again, be sure your seats will slide back and forth if retaining your adjustable seats. Of note, it doesn’t take much at all on the down bars to interfere with the little ridge along the door panel insert on a 67/68. I finished up with about a 1/8’ gap with the door closed, but one of my first tack ins, the down bar contacted the door when I shut it, so be sure to check it really well before and after you tack them in. It all fits, you like it? Now take a china marker or sharpie, outline your 6X6 1/8 inch plates on the floor pan, and then outline where your down bars land on the pads. Your down bars should angle in just a tad.



Now tack in your pads, only a couple of small tacks, then do the same with your down bars. Again, check your seats, doors and windows to be sure it all fits and works. If its all clear and you like it, then start welding it in. Remember, you can not have grinding on your welds, so even if its ugly, don’t grind it, unless you grind it all of the way out and start over again. It’s going to be really hard welding some of the areas between the rockers and the plates/bars, so stitch it best as you can. Now you have it all in, get your wife or girlfriend to POR 15 the floors and paint it, touch up your bars and start putting it back together.








Enjoy, be safe.
 

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#3 ·
Thanks, makeing do with whats in the shop. I thought about buying a bender, notcher etc, but for a one time project it was not cost effective, and just easier to buy the kit and make use of the "home tools".

I need to step up my welding program though, the beads you laid on your bar are a work of art, mig or tig?
 
#4 ·
Thanks, makeing do with whats in the shop. I thought about buying a bender, notcher etc, but for a one time project it was not cost effective, and just easier to buy the kit and make use of the "home tools".

I need to step up my welding program though, the beads you laid on your bar are a work of art, mig or tig?
They are MIG done with a 25 year old L-Tec 225 amp welder. It is an industrial machine with a fine tune adjustment between the heat setting that lets you really control the settings.
 
#7 ·
Keep in mind, this is not a sub 10 second certified roll bar, it is certainly good enough to legally take you into the high 10s low 11s. Be sure to read the NHRA/IHRA or your sanctioning road race rule book on this for roll bar height, and your down bar locations and floor mounting specifications.
Nice write up and pictoral. I wish I had taken pictures of the process when I built my cage. :(

Couldn't agree more. I built my cage to go SCCA road racing, which is a little more strict on tubing type, size, and wall thickness.

For my cage I used DOM (drawn over mandrel) 1-3/4" x 0.125" wall tubing. This tubing is a little heavier, but I felt my safety was "worth the weight". :)

I see you used ERW (electrical resistance welded) tubing. What wall thickness did you use?
 
#8 ·
Great article--it looks great. I really like the low buck approach in using the paper towel roll and the PVC tubing for mock-ups.

Keep up the great work!
 
#10 ·
Thanks Dennis, I try to save the bucks where I can. You looking to put one in your car now, I think your illegal under the newer rules running mid low 11's?

Great article--it looks great. I really like the low buck approach in using the paper towel roll and the PVC tubing for mock-ups.

Keep up the great work!
 
#9 ·
Thanks, the Jegs kit for 4 and 8 pt is
1 3/4 - .134 tube.

Glad you enjoyed it.
 
#12 ·
Nice job! Okay, I'm going to throw-in one of my little secrets - a program to print fishmouthing templates. Play with it a little to see how it works. Once you get the idea, it can save a buttload of work. Multiple templates can be done to do 3-ways and such. Practice on some scrap first. Hope it helps everyone as much as it has helped me.

David
 

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#14 ·
Very nice write up.
I at the crossroads of making the decision to install a bar or not.You pictures are great visual aid to how the bar affects the interior space.Thanks for taking the time to post!
 
#15 ·
Thank, one of the reasons I am shifting from my late model mustang seats to Mazda Miata seats is the cockpit room.

The 5.0 seats fit, but they are heavy as lead and look a little big in the car with the roll cage. Stock seats would be fine though.
 
#17 ·
Whats that, a gov/limiter?
Dennis, looking at some of the work you can do, this roll bar is a piece of cake, if I can do it, you can! Its just a pain taking the car apart to bare interior, but I was there anyway.
I may go for installing the swing out bars later on, I have the 14 inch wood steering wheel, its a little tight, but the 13 inch would do fine, and a lot easier than putting in the swing outs.
Glad you enjoyed it, C.
 
#22 ·
I know of no way of figuring it out other than at the track. I do know that it takes several rotations to slow a car down significantly. I can practically stop the secondaries from opening at all when at maximum adjustment. I am sure it will be possible after a few runs to know that so many rotations of the stop will get me close to my desired run--of course there are other variables such as the weather, track, and how the car is setup. To play in the ProStick club I need to run at least a 11.99 average, which is now a cake walk.
 
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