Hello everyone,
So my reasoning behined this post is this...

I plan to do track events with my car this summer at a local race track for my first time. The group i belong to will allow me to use the stock hoops in the S. This is good news because roll bars are not exactly in my price range at the moment, although i would really like one even though i don't plan to really push the car all that much at first. I would just like the hoops to be a little higher than they are for added protection.

Has anyone made there own roll bar using the OEM hoops such as cutting them and lengthening them?

Or maybe creating a roll bar from scratch only using the same mounting locations on the bulkhead?

What would the downfall of this be?

Am i stupid for asking this question? lol (for all you flamers)

I understand this isnt anywhere near as good as a hard dog but it has to be an improvement over stock..., If i get into tracking more seriously i can always take the plung into a hard dog.

Here is a picture i touched up quick for a visual example...


hoops oem by ad28e691420652f2423a5cf6ff8c1f6a, on Flickr


hoops modified by ad28e691420652f2423a5cf6ff8c1f6a, on Flickr

I know if i were to attempt this i could save a butt load of money and avoid a big install head ache. Just strengthening the hoops by using a heavier pipe and connecting them seems like it makes straight forward sense to me.

Thanks for reading, try not to crush my dreams to hard.

 

My guess is it would all depend on the fabricator and the welder, much emphasis on the welder, with bad welds you could compromise the structural integrity all together. Pure speculation of course though, sorry I couldn't be of more help.

 

Thanks for your thoughts Future,

Im more worried about the design, I work in a sheet metal fab shop and our welders are more than good enough for the job. I guess if i were to raise it up enough where there was a little clearence before the hard top and i were to have a roll over accident, would the design hold up using the same piping as the oem piping? Would a different design work better? Will the OEM mounting locations hold up?

Ik these arent easy questions to answer but any info or opinion would be great

 

It would probably be fine if the hoop was fabricated and bent from a single piece of DOM tube, I wouldnt weld anything to the stock parts though. You could make new brackets for pretty cheap if you found a local fab shop to plasma and press them for you.

 

personally i would think it would be pretty good, considering that with the hardtop will be on top of it, i think that it would work pretty well, I would recommend covering the top of the hoop to keep it from hitting the hard top. Again, purely speculation, and I'm just looking at the support configuration and the rigidity, just as an idea, before you put the bolts in, wrap some Teflon take over the threads. The Teflon tape adds some hold in my experience.

EDIT: i agree with Jordan, much better idea.

 

For looks, yes. For safety? No. There's a reason NHRA and other sanctioning bodies specify that the main hoop must be one continuous piece of tube, no cut/weld as it creates a shear point if an accident/rollover were to occur.

-Froth

 

Making the parts should not be a problem as i said before i work in a fab shop and i could design the piece and have a few people i know build it. Im just worried about how well it would hold up, I guess the first step would be using the OEM mounting locations as a start point. Like Jordan stated above the main "top" bar should be all one piece i agrree with this, Starting over would produce a better product visually and hopefully structurally. Now I just need to find out what kind of piping i should use. I might just use the same pipe as hard dog uses sense they seem to be profesionals. I will put a price together tomorrow and share my learnings.

 

if you have fabricators and tools... why not build/design a real rollbar there are plenty of examples and i doubt it would cost much more if anymore than trying to "cutomize" the oem stuff

 

I agree,

I could build a full roll bar or this simple design and i could always add onto it later. The only things that are missing are the rear support bars found on all common rollbars like the hard dog. I guess it all comes down to the price and how much of a pain it would turn out to be. I don't plan to keep my soft top or motors which would make it a lot easier.

 

People generally use 1.75-2" DOM .120 wall tubing for cages. It needs to be rotary draw bent too. Look into the JD squared tube bender for this.