Roll Bars???

I am here in Solano County, Calif. And thanks for that suggestion, cause there is a local miata club nearby that I forgot about. I will email them. Thanlks again.

Np, it really is not that big a job. With some sharp drill bits and a good set of jack/jack stands it goes very fast. The hardest parts are trimming the interior panels and altering the boot if you use one.

There is a mechanic in the Austin area who can probably install these in his sleep by now, and he used to charge $180.00 to install one, though I don't know if that included trimming the interior panels and it has probably gone up a bit in price. There is no way it included any work on the boot at that cost.

Good luck!

Pat

What a sissy! Everyone knows roll bars aren't needed for hard headed Texans...

They should be able to point you to a local race car shop which does such tasks routinely.

-- Larry

Hard-headed, now that is an understatement!

Of course, you live in the desert, so...... ;-)

Pat

Look for a racing shop. Around here, the two shops that can installed a roll bar wanted $650 and $800 for the job. It's not hard, but takes all day to do. You may consider doing it yourself. I spread the work over 4 days, and spend 2 to 3 hours at a time. The car was drivable after each work session, just make sure the driver side's seat belt and seat are reattached. The hardest part was bolting the bar to the existing bolts if your car frame turns out not to be perfect straight like mine. Otherwise, it's not too bad.

Not last night, lots of wind and rain along with thunder and lightning... lost electricity repeatedly, it would come on for 5-10 minutes and then go back off. Fortunately I had the rarest of all household tools, a flashlight with good batteries!

Of course I was out in it, I was irrigating. It's amazing how many times it's raining while I irrigate, gotta be against the odds.

Wow, I will gladly install one for about $300.00, maybe less, and my local mechanic may charge $250.00, probably less and certainly no more.

Does this include trimming the interior panels and modifying the boot? $800.00 is still quite high if they do, imo.

The first install took me about 7 or 8 hours having never done it before. The second one took about 5 hours, having all of the tools on hand and the knowledge on how to do it. This was working alone.

Ahhh, that will add some time, though it shouldn't take that long to shim one side up to match the other. Maybe add one to two hours for washers or fabricating metal spacers.

Both bars that I installed bars in sat straight with no problems. These were both Hard Dogs, one a Sport with single brace and one a Hard Core with single brace.

Pat

We are getting daily natural irrigation. I can't believe how long it has been raining now with so few breaks. Very unusual here.....Our fish are flourishing and our cotton is dying.

Pat

Errr, make that both cars that I installed bars in. I haven't installed a bar within a bar yet.......

Pat

Always ready for a liquid refreshment during driving, this Pat. Couldn't live without.

Leon

Wow, that's high. Our local club does it for a $50 donation to the club. We usually have 2 or 3 working on the bar together and it only takes 4-5 hours total. It took just under 4 hours to put in Vixen's new Hard Dog M2 Sport. And that included trimming the carpet.

It took me about an hour total to alter the boot cover the next day.

Iva & Vixen

"Because the man from Mars stopped eating cars And eating bars And now he only eats guitars Get up!"

Come on Leon, you know the song. Start groovin'! :-)

Pat

That's what I was thinking. $800.00 would be about $175.00 to $200.00 an hour in labor charges for a competent shop, which is extremely high.

Bell Engineering only charged $75.00 an hour in labor for my exhaust installation. (11.75 hours total, a bit pricey) :-)

$50.00? Do you have to be a member? I would expect a lot of people to take advantage of that opportunity. The local club here had/may still have tech days where they did rollbar installations, but it was not an automatic thing for $50.00.

Pat

I'd say it's more like the mental image is an image of being rearended (that's called paranoia). I can see no other way a persons' comfort level could be lowered by the roll bar. Gosh and a lessened feeling of freedom? Now you sound like those motorcyclists that say if they have to wear a helmet it totally ruins it and they'd just as soon, not ride at all. Hmmmm.

To each his / her own I guess.

Chris

Considering the number of miatas on the road with rollbar installed, I would think that we would hear about someone smashing their head during a rear-end collision on about a monthly basis.

We don't.

Off to experience a very limited amount of freedom feeling with my closed-in miata now that the rain has momentarily stopped.

Pat

Actually, no. But I guess now I do. :)

Leon

Can you clarify this?

Leon

Yes, you have to be a member. And you have to either help or take pictures and provide food and beverages.

Iva & Vixen