was thinking of putting a short, stainless rollbar in my roadster. Anyone have a pic or have used em on their car. Would kinda like a little bit of safety in case this thing flips....To
Old rusty 30 roadster I bought to build has one, old 50s car, 2 bolts & you can remove. I'm going to leave it as I intend to do car up close to what it was in its day. I think anything less than a cage is not really going to do much good safety wise. Kinda look at roadsters like I do bikes, when your time is up, its up. Love em both.
man I thought those would be a good idea after I saw Evil's pre view of bob bleed on the internet that crazy sob was pulling mad dougnuts....I thought it might flip! Anyways I dont think it would be a bad idea personally I have never seen them but I dont see anything wrong with it Owen
I have one in my 32. Was a bit of a pain to get it in where I wanted it to go. Between the body and seat cushion as well as under the top. And also allow the top to fold over it. Somebody said when your number is up, it's up, but it doesn't hurt to plan for the future so to speak. Since I run a top, the roll bar looks ok and is tall enough to do some good. Top down or off, it's a little tall looking compared to some of the very low roll bars I see on some roadsters. Those strike me as more for decoration than for rollover protection. Anyhoo, the specs: 2 1/2" OD mild steel with .120 wall. The tubing is welded to 1/4" plates with bolt holes on each fore and aft side of the tubing. The four point mounting has eight 1/2-20 bolts holding it down to stepped threaded weld bungs in the frame. The stepped weld bungs come in from the underside of frame top and are TIG'd to the top. The bungs are 2" in diameter on the underside with flats to clear the inner frame dimension of 1 3/4". The 1 3/4 x 2" oval form of the weld bungs spread the load and shouldn't pull through the 3/4" or so hole the bung step is welded into. The rear legs of the roll bar intersect with the vertical roll bar proper just under the front of the rear deck and go back to where the frame kickup starts to flatten out at the top of the kickup. An additional safety factor with the four pointer is that there is some protection in side crashes as well as some protection in a rear-ender. Not a great amount, but considerably better than no bar at all. An additional reason for the particular height of the roll bar is so there is adequate vision out the back window. Folding the top takes a little different technique than the usual fold it up and tie it down bit. Once it's loose at the front and on the side pivots, tip the top up and back which clears the roll bar and then fold it. All in all I like having the roll bar in the car and it looks just fine under the top cuz the top is almost always on. With the top off, the bar is taller than good looks dictate, but far as I'm concerned, it's not about good looks. Here's a pic to give you an idea of how it all fits in. Note that the rear window is unsnapped and snapped up under the top inside.
Since you brought it up, I thought I'd share this... There is a guy here in PHX that drives his flathead powered RPU to ALL of the cruise nights. He shows up every week. It's a neat little PU, but I've never been crazy about the huge rollbar he has on it. I was talking to him one day, and asked him if he brought it to the track often. He laughed and said "No... why?" I told him that I wondered why he'd have the rollbar in the car if it wasn't for p***ing tech at the track. He told me that his daughter wouldn't let his little grandson ride in the PU with him until he made it safe for him to ride in. The rollbar in that little RPU has grown on me since then.
Designing a Rollbar or Cage can be more critical for a street car than for a race car. In a street car you are not strapped in that tight and you wont be wearing a helmet. I have seen a couple that were way too close to the drivers and p***engers heads. Like the one a buddy of mine had in his dual purpose street/race car. He nearly cracked his scull on the thing driving home from work, he has no memories of the crash or even most of his drive home. All he knows is he woke up in the wrecked car, and he had been knocked out for a long time...
[ QUOTE ] I told him that I wondered why he'd have the rollbar in the car if it wasn't for p***ing tech at the track. He told me that his daughter wouldn't let his little grandson ride in the PU with him until he made it safe for him to ride in. [/ QUOTE ] Right on about the roll bar. And one reason my 32 has three seat belts. A couple of small kids fit just fine and there's usually more than one who wants to go for a ride. The middle belt has it's own dedicated mounts - none of this doubling up stuff - and is tucked away between seat back and cushion when not in use. The middle belt has a dimple drilled in tongue and latch for easy ID when it's out. Otherwise the car looks like an explosion in a seat belt factory and it takes some time to sort it out. Leaving the unused belt buckled helps as well.
I built one for my '31 Roadster years ago, not so much for the "flip" factor, but to actually add some side impact protection. I figure some bonehead is more likely to T-Bone me than I am to be flipping the car. We built it with the top hoop fitting into the lower structure. It's adjustable. It can be removed while leaving the lower part in the car (invisible) for safety. Also this allows it to be raised to legal NHRA height for the Drags... ALSO! Listen to what METALSHAPES said! Build it so you don't crack your head on it. Once Drag racing, did my burn out and came out of the water, traction took over and really whipped my head back into the bar. GOOD thing I had the helmet on! This is something that I'm always aware of on the street, even before that incident. Even if someone just bumps you from behind, your gonna hit the bar HARD if it isn't high enough. Rather than a little fender bender, you'll be in the hospital, or worse.
My rollbar is about a foot lower then my head. In case I flip, my head would protect the rollbar. Also, I have the LED third brake light built into the rollbar. It helps those old 39 ford tail lights show that I am stopping.
C9, do you have a picture of your rollbar with the top down? DId you have your's chromed? My 10 year old daughter will be with me about all the time in this thing, and I want it to be as safe as possible. Talked to a friend yesterday that might be building me one outta stainless, just gotta deceide if I want it to be above or below my head. Bracing to the back of the car is also a great idea I didn't think about, not a whole lotta protection there in case of an accident, which is the whole reason I won't use my rumble seat. Any pictures appreciated.....Scott
I think you would do better bolting a couple of good solid door pull handles to the floor, down 'tween your feet, so if the roadster does let go and flip big time, you can bend down, grab the handles firmly, and hunker down away from all that flying tarmac. Oh, and you could kiss your *** goodbye while you're down there too
Here is a picture of the flathead powerd T mentioned in an earlier post. The roll bar is well done. Wish I had one in my roadster. I took this while I was on vacation in Phoenix last April. Wish I was there now....It's snowing again.
Here's one pic I found. The angle makes the roll bar look taller than it is. If I get some time tomorrow, I'll roll the roadster out and take a 3/4 front view of it. I did have the roll bar chromed, but ... I let the shop doing the bending talk me into doing it in two pieces. The center is joined with another piece of .120 wall tubing that is a slip fit inside the 2 1/2" x .120 wall roll bar tubing proper. It's rosette welded in several locations as well. The splice is not the problem, what happens is the guys doing the polishing hit hard and soft spots in the metal near the weld and the tubing is not level in that area. Next roll bar will be all one piece....
C9, I think that looks real nice in your car. Did you come straight up with it, or does it come up, say just below the body, turn slightly, then up to make the hard turn? I was wondering about distortion trying to bend a 90 in stainless. Also, what size rear tires and rims are you using?
Thanks Toqwik. The main hoop comes straight up to a couple inches below the quarter panel top. then it bends in, maybe 10 degrees and goes up to where it makes the 80 degrees or so turn to the horizontal. There is no distortion in either bend, but it is mild steel. You may want to think twice about using stainless. I think it can be tough to bend and it doesn't always polish up that great. The bender guy can tell you what to expect with bending stainless as far as distortion goes. The front four bars on the 32 are stainless and the rears I made and had plated. We have a good shop here and they did what they call "show chrome". They have that nice bluish tinge to them and look a little better than the polished stainless front bars. Having said that, the front bars look pretty good and I think the alloy has a lot to do with how they polish out. The roll bar was chromed only in the area where it shows. The remainder is painted black acrylic. That made it a little easier for the chrome shop guys cuz all they had to do was hang it in the tank a little ways down. Even so, the complete, finish welded four point roll bar was a ***** for the guys to polish and in fact they avoided it for 4-5 weeks. Here's the plan for the next roll bar. Bend up the main hoop like the 32 is. None of this splicing stuff. Weld on the rear legs and flat plates. Cut the main hoop in two just above where the rear legs join. Have that part chromed. Stick an inner sleeve of the next tubing size down inside the vertical part of the main hoop and weld the hoop back onto the vertical legs. Clean it up and paint it. If you've chosen well where the rear legs connect as well as how high the upholstery will be etc. you can weld the bar back together without damaging too much chrome. Paint the hidden parts and that should do it. (Keep in mind the bar should be bolted to it's mounts during the tacking process. Then you can remove and finish weld. You may want to make a spreader that matches your ch***is mount dimensions cuz the main hoop will move during the weld and fitting the bar back in can be tough. Regardless, a Spanish Windl*** to pull it together or a simple pusher gadget to spread it a few thousandths will help to get it bolted back in place.) An alternative would be to make the rear legs bolt ons. That would sure make installation in a finished car easier. Make a gussetted saddle that welds to the rear legs and weld threaded weld bungs into the main hoop. Either way, the chrome shop will appreciate having to deal only with the main hoop. Cheaper too. I highly recommend the use of larger tubing for a roll bar. Cages have lots of triangulation, but a four point roll bar relies on tubing strength for the most part. As said earlier, mine is 2 1/2" x .120 wall and that's a good size compromise. Small enough to look good and not so large it overpowers the small size of the roadster. Another way out for a roll bar would be to look into getting a couple of hoops from the Cobra kit cars. They look to be 2 1/2" and are probably .120 wall. A pair of these suitably mounted, tied together and reinforced to protect both occupants would look cool I think. A double hoop setup is in the back of my mind for the 31 roadster. Rear tires are BF Goodrich 285/70R-15's on 10 x 15" wheels with 2 7/8" backspace. Nice tires, they have an 8" wide tread, are fairly soft and grab well on the street. Rear axle width outer drum to outer drum is 55". Here's a pic that shows the bends to an extent.
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