Roll Bar Fitting
I took delivery of a TR Lane Fabrications roll bar a while back now and finally got around to fitting it this spring. Fitting was eventful as with anything that's made to fit handmade motors and is not fabricated on site...
The first step was to find the seat belt anchor points on the chassis, with the roll bar came a treasure map to locate these, so it was just a matter of drilling a few holes and removing the glass fibre around the anchor points. This is a bit of a pain due to the lack of space behind the seats but with a bit of patience and test fitting big enough holes where created.
I took delivery of a TR Lane Fabrications roll bar a while back now and finally got around to fitting it this spring. Fitting was eventful as with anything that's made to fit handmade motors and is not fabricated on site...
The first step was to find the seat belt anchor points on the chassis, with the roll bar came a treasure map to locate these, so it was just a matter of drilling a few holes and removing the glass fibre around the anchor points. This is a bit of a pain due to the lack of space behind the seats but with a bit of patience and test fitting big enough holes where created.
The bottom of the roll bar is secured behind the seats by the bolts that holds the body to the outriggers, so it's a matter of carefully pulling up the carpet and removing these.Bolting the roll bar in place was aided by the use of a ratchet strap as it just wasn't the correct size to fit the car. I firstly loosely bolted the bottom of the roll bar in place...
Then using the ratchet strap I had to persuade the top bolts to line up with the anchor points on the chassis, so as always after a lot of swearing the roll bar was fitted!
I did have to you a couple of spacers and washers on the top bolts to raise it slightly for better fitting.
When I fitted the seats back in the car I found that the plastic backs to the seats were causing them to too far forward so they got removed and a better driving position was achieved as opposed to having head resting on the windscreen!
When I fitted the seats back in the car I found that the plastic backs to the seats were causing them to too far forward so they got removed and a better driving position was achieved as opposed to having head resting on the windscreen!
Harness Fitting
When I ordered the roll bar I got them to put inserts into the rear bar so a harness could be fitted. So I got a hold of a used 4 point Luke harness from eBay, now for fitting it.
First I needed to tap a 7/16" UNF thread into the rear inserts, so back to eBay and got some from RDG Tools. After a 9.9mm drill and a certain amount of oil to expand the existing hole it was time to tap a thread, again using a fair bit of oil I used a T-bar to start the process...
...then once the thread was established I swapped to a monkey wrench for ease of use.
Finally when the tap made it out through to the other side the process was done
When the harness arrived the seller had kindly sent 4 harness eyes with the belt so it was just a matter of tightening in 2 of these to the rear bar.
Fitting the 2 bottom eyes was a matter of taking the seat out and replacing the normal seat belt anchor bolts with the harness eyes, this was straight forward until I had to replace the seat...the harness bolt which is attached to the tranmission tunnel caught on the seat, but after a removing a few inch of the glass fibre on the seat bottom everything went back together...
When I ordered the roll bar I got them to put inserts into the rear bar so a harness could be fitted. So I got a hold of a used 4 point Luke harness from eBay, now for fitting it.
First I needed to tap a 7/16" UNF thread into the rear inserts, so back to eBay and got some from RDG Tools. After a 9.9mm drill and a certain amount of oil to expand the existing hole it was time to tap a thread, again using a fair bit of oil I used a T-bar to start the process...
...then once the thread was established I swapped to a monkey wrench for ease of use.
Finally when the tap made it out through to the other side the process was done
When the harness arrived the seller had kindly sent 4 harness eyes with the belt so it was just a matter of tightening in 2 of these to the rear bar.
Fitting the 2 bottom eyes was a matter of taking the seat out and replacing the normal seat belt anchor bolts with the harness eyes, this was straight forward until I had to replace the seat...the harness bolt which is attached to the tranmission tunnel caught on the seat, but after a removing a few inch of the glass fibre on the seat bottom everything went back together...
2 comments:
Hi Woody, just wanted to say I read through your posts again (and again) carefully and have examined all the photo's and think I have good information, I found when trying to fit Cerbie seats that the roll bar hit the seat shoulders, Tuscan seats shouldn't have this problem, I also found the the harness I bolts fouled on the lower seat backs, you mentioned having to grind the fiberglass off the seats to make the tuscan seats fit. so far so good. I have the GP style roll bar not the TR Lane "Lazy M" I like the lazy M and have considered it, but still like the GP. So all in all I'm ready to take the dive and buy some Tuscan seats. I lived in Leeds for many years and my wife is from Cross Gates, I'm in Leeds now and then, would love to see your car. drop me a line sometime.
Thanks
Jack jclayton@nds.com
BEWARE of TR Lane rollcages. I was told over the phone they are to MSA specs (needed one for hillclimbs). My race mechanic refused to fit it since he said it didn't comply because area of "feet" too small & incorrectly welded. No paperwork at all received. Real hassle getting a refund! BEWARE these roll cages should be regarded as DECORATIVE only.
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