Hi all,

Wael has been very helpful, and I've no doubt that he'll be there for me as I undertake the installation of his Elda bar. That said, the only step in the installation that concerns me is the cutting of the plastic. Specifically, the cutting of the roll hoop covers. I'm a bit of a perfectionist, and I'd like the cuts to be clean, straight, and to have a consistent (and minimal) clearance with the plastic. I thought I'd solicit advice from those of you who've done the installation for how to best go about getting the best results possible.

Thanks,
CB

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C. Bender
2001 Silver/Black
AEM EMS, Fuel Pressure Regulator, and Wideband O2 Sensor; RC Engineering 550 Injectors; Turbonetics TO4B 60:1 Ball Bearing Turbo; Tial 46mm Wastegate and 50mm Blowoff Valve; GReddy EGT and Boost Warning Gauges; Auto Meter Oil Temperature Sensor; Holly 250 Forced Induction Fuel Pump; CM 6" Remote Canister Oil Filter with Stainless Steel Lines; C&R Custom Radiator with Integrated Oil Cooler; Mugen Radiator Cap, Thermostat, and Fan Switch; Speedcraft Front Mounted Intercooler, Mandrel Bent Tubing, 3" Down Pipe, and 3" Stainless Exhaust; A'PEXi N1 Mufflers; Clutchmaster Stage 3 Clutch; Toda Lightweight Flywheel; Upgraded Oil Bolts; Elda Engineering Rollbar (not yet installed); Recaro SPG Competition Seat; Sparco 3" Six Point Harness; Spoon X-Brace; HeCash Brake Ducting; Competch Stainless Steel Brake Lines; WorkMeister S2R 18" Wheels; Lucid's Front and Rear Speakers; 2002 Stereo Head Unit; Rick's Front Badge; JDM Clear Side Markers and Shaved Badges; Muz Shift Knob; Uber Cool Nurburgring Decal

 

All I know is that a shop with an excellent reputation had no problem screwing it up. Have you considered shipping your trim to Elda for their cutting service?

 

I hadn't realized that was an option. I seem to recall Wael saying in one of this threads that every car was different enough that pre-cutting the plastic wasn't a good idea.

 

I did something similar when I installed the Bitterman rollbar into my old '00. I worked carefully, taking several hours to just do the trimming, and was very satisfied with the results. From the photos in the installation thread, it looks like the minimal trimming for the Elda rollbar will be easier. Just remember, you can always cut off more plastic, but you can't put it back!

 

Just my thoughts having looked at one of these installs (done by Elda).

I would find some plastic trim of the same color, or black, to put around the cut after I was done. I think if you have some trim, you don't have to sweat it as much. You will still want to get as close as possible, but if the gap is a little bigger at one end than another, the trim will fill the gap.

 

Would it be possible to sandwich some sort of rubber gasket lining along the cut, between the plastic and the rollbar, for more of a finished look?

 

I'm just aiming for a nice clean job -- where the plastic's trimmed with a nice straight edge and the gaps between the bar and the plastic are reasonably small and consistent. What seems tricky about it is that the cuts for the outside vertical supports of the bar must be made across the edge of the plastic covers for the roll hoops, where the covers curve from one semi-plane to another, so it's not simply a matter of making a simple straight cut. I just thought some of the guys who've done it might have broken the code for doing this in some way.

 

we just installed the elda bar.. best advise i can give is the draw the outline as described on the video.. from there cut about a centimeter in. the lines will vary from car to car, this allows you to test fit and trim little away until it fits. after you're done, sand down the rough portion of the edges and what i did (at the very end and last piece) was heat up the edge of the plastic with a torch then smoothened out the edge with a dynamat roller.

 

Good advice, thank you.

I removed all the interior stuff this afternoon -- 4 1/2 hours, taking my time -- but the bar doesn't sit flush on all four feet. I've put in a call to Wael to see what he thinks, but I'm wondering if my bar is square. Given how well Wael has treated his other customers, I've no doubt he'll send me another if I need it.

One thing not well covered in the video, however, is the drilling of the holes for the bolts. After the bar's been positioned using the two front bolts (per the video), I take it that it's just a matter of drilling holes from the top for all but the two that the video indicates must be drilled from the bottom? Anything I should watch out for?

Thanks,
CB

 

this is what we did. put the factory bolts in the front hole. from there, we aligned the bar centering it. tighten the front factory bolts (10mm i believe).

-drill the front holes. once you're through, 'stir' the drill so that the bit cleans up the hole and enlargens it slightly.

-then work the rear holes. we drilled the 3rd rear hole from underneath the car. we have a long drill bit that's almost a foot and a half long. i'm not sure how else you can drill the hole without removing the control arms.

one major problem we encountered was that the bar didn't fit well around the seat belt guide mount points. the video said it will be a tight fit, but ours just didn't fit.. the space between the factory bar and the elda bar was too close. we barely got the driver side to fit, but the passenger side, i had to modify both the seat belt mount by grinding off a good junk of it and still trying to maintain most of the integrity.. then grind off part of the seat belt bracket also.