Hi everyone,

I got the roll bar installed today. There's a NASA/Aerospace/astrospace/nuclear qualified welder here in town and he was able to do it in his shop for me in about four hours. Dan Pendell will make some spectacular welds and install your (prepared) cage for only $50 an hour. It took us four hours. Dan is good enough that he can TIG weld upside down standing on his head! He can also draw a bead on the inside of an aluminum pop can, he's that good.


First thing I did was remove the whole interior from the car, then scrape all of the seam sealer out of the areas to be welded. I then cut & formed backing plates for each mounting location, then cut and fishmouthed all of the tubing ahead of time. After the pieces were prepared, I cleaned the welding areas back to steel with a die grinder.

When I arrived, we first used aluminum foil to cover all areas around where the mounting plates were to be welded in. This prevented any sparks from setting any wires or any residual fabric from catching fire.

Next, we tack welded the plates in place, then heated them up and banged away with a hammer to massage their shape to the floorpan. Lastly, we MIG welded them in place at all six locations.

http://www.ws6transam.org/car/migfloorplate.jpg

Next, we fitted the main hoop into the car and tack welded it into place with the TIG.. I cut the height so that there would be about .400" of clearance between the top of the hoop and the roof seam of the T-tops. This enables me to reinsert the headliner after this is said and done. One area to watch out for is the installation of the side trim panel: You have to place it before the roll hoop is welded in. Otherwise, you will have to break it apart in order to fit it around the hoop. Just be sure to cover it with a doubled up piece of aluminum foil to act as a heat shield. After tacking the bottom of the hoop, we tack welded in the rear supports at the top of the roll hoop. Then, while I carefully held the roll hoop to the proper position, Dan Pendell tack welded the rear supports to the rear plates. Dan then TIG welded the roll hoop and the rear supports into place.

http://www.ws6transam.org/car/tigweldhoop2.jpg

The next part of the puzzle was the seat back brace. This is to be no more than four inches below the driver's shoulders, nor significantly above the point where the front supports attach to the roll hoop. Since this put my door supports rather high, I decided to attach them to the hoop at nearly the same point as the door supports. It took a little fancy die grinder work, but we managed to fit it into place, then tack weld it.

Next, we tacked in the door supports at the footbox, followed at the roll hoop. The door bars gave us a few problems, especially in the footbox area. It was rather tight, and seam sealer kept leaking out of every crack to spit, catch fire, and generally make a stinky mess. However, Dan Pendell gave a spectacular showing of his welding prowess by standing on his head, twisting up into a yoga position, and controlling the TIG by welding with his left hand and squeezing the TIG footswitch between his knees. Once the footbox welds were completed, he did an encore performance to finish up the welds at the interface of the main hoop, door braces, and crossbar.

http://www.ws6transam.org/car/tigupsidedown2.jpg

What can I say? After we cleaned up, the roll bar was so strong that I think I could hoist the car in the air with it!

Later this summer, Dan and I will be cutting the crossbar and door braces in order to install some swingouts and some mounting flanges, along with two additional mounting points that will extend from the main hoop to the driveshaft tunnel. For now though, I'm pretty happy with the job! Everything went in easy, and the welds look like something you would see on the space shuttle!

http://www.ws6transam.org/car/rollbar_nopaint.jpg

Cheers everyone,

--Dan Burk
Haslett MI

 

Excellent! And thanks for the shots of the install.

Ed

 

Looks better than I imagined! Now is time to perfect your drivers seat entry routine. Open door, clib over bar, tilt wheel back down, lock in your harnesses, put helmet on, Start car...

All while trying to not chip your new paint job on the door bar!!

Did you ever figure out WHY your floorpans and what not are so perfect?

 

Hey everyone, here's some details on the painting of the rollbar. It really looks spiffy now with it's silver finish - It'll really lighten up the interior, especially with the two custom sets of 5-point racing harnesses in silver webbing... Heck, I might even do two miniature kids sets for the rear seats, once I get the rear modified for safety... All up, the welding cost me $200, paint cost me $18, and the rollbar cost $500.50 including shipping.

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Good evening folks,

I've finished painting the Chromoly roll bar tonight, and thought you might want to see the pictures. One thing is for sure: Do not underestimate the amount of taping off you need to do. Tape everything off that is glass on both sides. Tape off the dash, footbox, steering column, pedals, and more. Add lots of newspaper everywhere. Tape your car of to look like a giant spitball if you have to. Whatever surface you leave unmasked will be covered in overspray and the Newsprint will be sticky with paint.

Anyway, the paint looks pretty good, though I discovered that if you wait more than an hour or two, you will need to wait a day or so, then wipe all painted surfaces free of overspray before recoating. I have some rough surfaces now that I will have to rub down and wetsand.

It seems the key to a good painted surface is preparation. This Chromoly steel was DIRTY! I scrubbed AND scrubbed for two hours with some Sherwin Williams Sher-will-clean, an industrial solvent chock full of VOC's. I had to wear rubber gloves and a respirator while working with it. FInally, when the steel quit giving up dirt, and the rags were coming off the steel looking clean, I decided to paint everything. I then added another couple of hours taping off the car. I didn't tape everything off, so I will have some rubbing to do when everything is back together. I chose to use a paint called "Hammertone", an indoor/outdoor paint for use on every surface known to man. It's tough stuff, but it takes about two weeks to cure. The painted surface comes off with a textured finish and almost looks pitted. It feels nice to the touch, though. I added four coats and used three cans of paint.

That said, here's the pictures! Forgive me, I didn't shrink them so they are kind of big (150K each) right now. I can reduce them to 50K apiece, maybe later when I get the rollbar installation page online.

Cheers,

--Dan Burk


http://www.ws6transam.org/car/rbpainted1.jpg
http://www.ws6transam.org/car/rbpainted2.jpg
http://www.ws6transam.org/car/rbpainted3.jpg
http://www.ws6transam.org/car/rhsideview.jpg
http://www.ws6transam.org/car/rearview.jpg
http://www.ws6transam.org/car/lhsidebardetail.jpg
http://www.ws6transam.org/car/lhsidebardetail2.jpg