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My Triumph Spitfire "1500" |
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Joe Guinan
Email me at:
[email protected] |
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New "Custom" Roll Bar |
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I wanted a roll bar in my car, but the standard one I had bought would no longer fit with my custom seats. I have the seats mounted as far back in the floor pans as possible, making my car comfortable for my 6 foot 2 inch, 250 pound body. The standard roll bar has a few weak points as far as I'm concerned anyway. It simply bolts through the floor behind the stock seats and the "package shelf", and does not attach to the frame in any way. It also limits the angle of recline available for the stock seats, and that's a problem for anyone over 6 foot in height. The only solution I could come up with was to have a custom bar designed and built. I took a spare Spitfire body tub and rolling chassis to a local race car chassis builder and we came up with a design I like. There is no way this thing will simply push through the floor pans. It is also located in place by utilizing the four shoulder belt anchor positions - but does not adversely affect use of the seat belts. No holes need to be drilled in the body tub, the soft top goes up and dsown easily, and the hard top fits with room to spare. This is about as good a "street" roll bar as we could build without making it a "race legal" design with more height and diagonal bracing running to the front and back of the car.. Please send me an email if you have ANY comments or suggestions! |
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At left - the bar is shown from the rear. Note the heavy base constructed of square tubing. This base sits on top of the frame of the car and is bolted to the frame using the original body mounting bolts. |
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At right - the view of the bar from a "right front" position. This view shows all six "mounting tabs" that are used to locate the bar in place to the seat belt anchor points and through the frame of the car. |
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Close-up shots of the floor mount at left and the lower seat belt anchor position at right. The seat belt "inertia reel" is just hanging by the belt, so the mounting tab and the bolt hole in the rear wheel housing could be seen. |
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This shot at left shows the bar mounted and the boot cover in place. Note that the shoulder belts come around the bar on the outside and are not affected by the position of the tubing. The bar is just low enough that the soft top easily folds up and over, any taller and the soft top would be useless. It actually serves as a good head rest for me now. The padding is a NECESSITY as the back of my skull would be crushed if someone rear ended me. The small temporary pad has been replaced by padding that goes clear down to the boot cover on both sides now, and I'm going to get a vinyl cover sewn up to finish it off.
I "feel" safer now. Of course, I hope I never get to find out if the roll bar works or not. I am sure this bar would have worked well in the kind of roll over accident that the car has already been through, however.
I'm working on modifications to the design that would include raising the cross member to serve as a mounting point for "competition" style belts, adding some diagonal "side-to-side" bracing and trying to see if we can make a "twin hoop" style work. Comments are welcome! |
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Home |
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Fixed! |
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Wheels |
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Header |
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Wreck |
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Wreck Repairs |
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Dellortos |
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Air Dam |
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