roll bar install

[dougs68ss]

just recieved my 4 point roll bar from autopower ind. its for my 68 coupe, has any body used one of these yet? it looks like it mounts in rear on wheel housings. is my back seat going to fit still? or am i going to have to modify it. or should i pull out enough interior parts to mount it and go from there?....any info please....doug

[SHANE 73Z]

Doug,

I am not very familiar with first gen cars, but the bar in my second gen was well designed. The rear strut bars go down into rear wheel wells. I had to hole saw holes in the rear interior panels for them. I cut them slightly oversize in case I missed by a little bit. My rollbar padding covers them.

I loosely bolted the main hoop in, so I could swing it fore & aft in the car. I then loosely bolted in the rear struts, slid the interior panels down over and then joined the main hoop/struts. I then tightened all the bolts down. If your strut bars have curved mounting plates, test fit the back up plate to make sure the holes line up, I had to do a little slotting.

I used to have some pics of the install, but the host site is gone.

Hope this helps,
Shane

[SHANE 73Z]

Oh yeah,

Dont be surprised if you get flamed for your choice of the Autopower, it seems some folks here think if you arent driving an armored car you will never be safe. That is in spite of making the point that your car, that you will be driving, and using for your own purposes (which only you know) is sufficient.

It seems some here are of the opinion that every car should be built to meet the sanctioning requirements to run 9s in the NHRA and also be durable enough to survive a 200mph crash in the Silver State even if you dont intend to run them.

Good luck,
Shane

[dougs68ss]

shane, i know, i know, i know...your exactly right! i didnt build a nhra legal car, its never going to see a track. its a street fighter with function. is was just looking for a stronger point (other than the floor) to mount my shoulder harnesses. with the least amount of hassle.. thanks man!

[Damn True]

A couple of points.

First of all. Few if any people here build to NHRA rules. Two reasons for that. Few of us drag race. Second, a drag race cage is designed to capture chassis movment in a different axis from a cage designed for road-racing or auto-x. Essentially, an NHRA cage would provide rollover and crash protection, but would not do a very good job of stiffening the chassis torsionally, which is one of the primary reasons for putting one in a car intended for handling.

Nothing wrong with the autopower bolt-in setup. Is it as good as a welded in cage? Heck no. But it is a HUMONGUS improvement over nothing at all.

Do you plan to remove it when you don't need the harness? If so, just yank your back seat when it's in the car. You should NEVER EVER have a back seat passenger with it installed anyway.

If you don't intend to remove it, you will need to modify your rear seat. Which begs the question; "What would be the point of doing so if you should NEVER EVER have a back seat passenger with a cage installed." The only reason would be asthetics.

As for the collective emphasis on safety that myself and a few others have adopted. Let's be serious here. First of all, if you are putting anything over about 450 hp in your unit body car you will twist your chassis into a pretzel without the additional strength provided by a cage. Beyond that we are building cars that are capable of ludicrious speed, and most of us intend to employ that capability. As people with jobs to go to on Monday, house payments to make and wives/kids that we love it only makes sense to make that activity as safe as possible.

If you don't intend to track your car, and you don't have a lot of horsepower then you probably don't need a serious cage. But then, if that's the case, what do you need a 5-point harness for?

[dougs68ss]

yes, i see your point . nobody will ever be in my back seat, but im trying to still retain the stock look as much as possible. its different when your 17 years old and one foot in the grave, so being 47 years old and having enough money to build a car that is high horsepower and able to handle like a skateboard, i just wanted to add a little more safety factor since i just added corbeau seats. i didnt want to mount them on the floor. as you get older you get wiser. i really dont want to orphan my 4 and 8 year old children without at least a fighting chance in a wreck. people unlike ourselves drive like nuts! its them i worry about not us yes i do have high horse and do have frame and suspension mods. its about putting the power on and have it bite.BTW the stock 68 seats are just not COMFY!........

[Speed Raycer]

Autopower and some other bolt in cages/rollbars are fine. They do what they're designed to do-provide rollover protection at an affordable price. The weak link in the AP system isn't from AP... it's the chassis sheetmetal that it's BOLTED to!

Whatever you do, weld in some plates for the cage to bolt to that tie into the rocker panel or subframe connectors. Or better yet, weld the AP pads to the added pads.