As the dates for my first track day of the season approach, I decided that I'd better get busy on the car.
On Wednesday morning, I called Bethania Garage and ordered a Hard Dog roll bar. Not only did they have what I wanted in stock, but it was delivered at 12:30 Friday! That's pretty impressive service, especially for such a large item.
Highly recommended.
Bethania makes nice stuff.
Which bar did you order? I've had a double-diagonal Hardcore sitting in my shed for over a year waiting to be installed.
In the time it's been sitting there, the car it was going to be installed in has been trailered to Columbus, partially dimantled for an IT car, and now fully dismembered and being distributed in pieces.
Plans for installing the bar in the "new" Miata were put on hold due to the weather... The car literally disappeared for over two months under a snowdrift.
When you do the install, take some pix if you can. The "templates" for the cutting that I downloaded from their site aren't exactly of the highest quality... It'd be nice to have some better visuals, as well as any hints to make the install a little less traumatic.
I bought a Hard Core Hardtop with a single diagonal, because it is Solo 1 compliant. I'll loose a little vision out the back, but I never liked the look of the double diagonal.
When I installed the Hard Dog cage in my last car, I did it without templates; either they weren't available or I didn't know about them. I just did it by trial and error and it still came out fine. I'll definitely look for them this time and I will post photos.
grafmiata wrote:In the time it's been sitting there, the car it was going to be installed in has been trailered to Columbus, partially dimantled for an IT car, and now fully dismembered and being distributed in pieces.
And some of those pieces are on my workbench waiting to be re-distributed back to you. . .
Woody wrote:I bought a Hard Core Hardtop with a single diagonal, because it is Solo 1 compliant. I'll loose a little vision out the back, but I never liked the look of the double diagonal.
When I installed the Hard Dog cage in my last car, I did it without templates; either they weren't available or I didn't know about them. I just did it by trial and error and it still came out fine. I'll definitely look for them this time and I will post photos.
Sounds cool. I got the Hardtop with the double diagonal.
I found the template pretty much worthless. Keith's book was really helpful for the install process. To drill the holes for the rear attachments, I just slid the bar into place, and marked the holes with a Sharpie.
The bar was engineered very well. Apparently there is a hole in the wheel well, that the bar uses as one of the holes that it bolts through. That made it nice and handy to line everything else up when drilling.
you get to buy an 18" drill bit to get all the holes drilled!
thatsnowinnebago wrote:you get to buy an 18" drill bit to get all the holes drilled!
Or a right angle drill.
Or you use a short bit in a normal drill to do one, then use the backing plate as a template to do the others 
All of our 18" bits at FM are either dull or bent, so we don't bother using them anymore. Hint, when using this trick, drill to the outside edge of any slotted holes.
Tips on the interior panel cutting: Do it when you're fresh, not when you're tired from a long day of roll bar installation. Cut less than you should, it's much easier to take material away than to add it back in. And with the Sport and Hard Top bars, start by chopping the trim panel right in half 
Then, after all that, realize that the bottom of the side panels aren't that visible, so screwups just won't be noticed. The carpet, on the other hand...
Keith wrote:Tips on the interior panel cutting: Do it when you're fresh, not when you're tired from a long day of roll bar installation. Cut less than you should, it's much easier to take material away than to add it back in. And with the Sport and Hard Top bars, start by chopping the trim panel right in half
Then, after all that, realize that the bottom of the side panels aren't that visible, so screwups just won't be noticed. The carpet, on the other hand...
...or just snag the cut panels from your last car before you sell it.
