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Watson Racing 4 pt. roll bar install

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I was real excited to get the Watson 4 point roll bar since it was advertised as easy to put in for a track event, then easy to return the car to normal for rear seat use. I was focused on installing this roll bar so that I could quickly install before a track event and remove afterwards. I read through the instructions a few times and realized that the key to a quick install is to have the bolt holes line up properly. In the end I was able to remove the bar completely and re-install it in less than a half hour total. Here is what I did with some tips that I learned along the way as well as some things I would have done differently.

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[*]Removing the seat bottom and seat back were really straight forward, I just followed the instructions without any issues.
[*]I read some one had problems with the door sill plate. I found that I could wedge my fingers between the inside of the plate and carpet and give it a good pull and the clips would pop out. There is double sided tape on the outer edge that I worked up slowly as the metal Power by Ford plate feels like it wants to bend
[*]The lower side trim was easy to remove following the instructions. There are 3 'fir tree' type retainers that are visible from the outside, an overlap tab with the upper trim piece and a single hidden push retainer that comes out with low effort. The trim slides out forward.
[*]The main hoop goes in pretty easily. I folded both front seats forward and slid them full forward and at 6'2", I had no problem working in the car. Like the instructions say, be sure to move the wiring harness over the bar so as not to pinch any wires. I had a small clip on the back center of each gusset which looked like it would come out by sliding it forward, but in reality, it had to slide backwards.
100_1174.JPG
Metal clip slides backward to remove
[*]Here is where I deviated from the instructions slightly. Rather than mark drill points on the gusset, remove and drill, I decided to use a guide to help me center the pilot hole on the gusset and drill in place. I actually removed the gussets before this step just so I could see what was behind there, but in retrospect, this step wasn't necessary. I also decided to continue the pilot hole for the rear center hole through the substructure and this would serve as my pilot hole for the clearance hole [step 12 in Watson instructions]. I had to dig around my parts bin to find a suitable part to use as a drill guide. Later on I opened up these holes from 7/16" to 1/2". Had I done that up front, it would have been much easier to find a spacer to use as a drill guide.
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[*]After drilling these holes I removed the gussets, be sure to remove all 9 bolts as 2 are hidden under the carpet. I found I missed them when cutting the seam sealer. I took a knife along the perimeter of the gusset and a screw driver to cut through the seam sealer. Once I did this, the gusset popped out pretty easily.
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[*]I drilled holes out to 7/16", but eventually opened them up to 1/2" for better bolt alignment and used the rivets provided. I ended up replacing these rives with countersunk #8-32 machine screws and backed them up with a nut. This worked for me because I didn't have confidence in the rivets and I can't weld, and I wasn't patient enough to wait to have a friend weld these for me. In retrospect, I'm happy with how this turned out, but welding would have been better and easier. I was lucky I had a number 8 countersink tool. The screws should be 3/8" long and button head screws won't work, don't ask me how I know, they don't clear the bar bracket. I was very happy that when I put the gussets back in all the holes lined up [well sort of]. I was able to install all 8 main hoop bolts the first time, but I was concerned with very tight clearances might lead me to cross thread a bolt down the line. This was when I decided to open up holes to 1/2". Since my gusset nut plates were crewed in and not welded I was able to open these holes easily. Definitely something to consider doing before welding the gusset nut plates.
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[*] I then used a hole saw to cut out relief for the rear center gusset nut. I had a cheap Harbor Freight hole saw kit that was probably designed to cut wood. After barely scratching the surface in a couple of minutes, I went and bought a Milwaukee 7/8" hole saw and piloted on the hole I drilled through in step 5. This saw cut through the structure like butter. You do only need to cut a relief in the center rear as per the instructions. When you install the gusset, it goes in best if you lower the rear edge allowing the front edge to tilt upward, then gently push down on the front endge and it will pop into position.
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Picture re-installing gusset. Rear edge is flush and front edge has this large gap. Put a few pounds of pressure on the front edge and it will easily pop into place.
  • Next I installed the rear bars. I had a very tight fit between each rear bar and the main hoop. I had actually noticed this before I began the install and took off some of the powder coating with a file. Did not take much to get them to smoothly slide together. I did not eve file thru the coating. I fastened these and then used the same drill guide to drill the 8 main screws. Make sure that the plates are flush with the floor pan. I was flush on one side, but the other had about 1/8" clearance. This clearance caused a slight misalignment on that side which I was able to correct easily with the 1/2" hole opening. I made up a different drill guide for clearance to the M6 socket head screws that hold the nut plate in place.
  • I put the nut plates in by myself [no helpers throughout this project] by slipping the front side under the metal line and used some duct tape to hold up the back side. Note that these nut plates are asymmetrical and the longer end goes forward. If you have any questions just line them up with the rear bar to see which side goes forward.

    This is the finished project. Since I plan to use the roll bar for track events only, I did not cut the interior trim.
  • 100_1170.JPG
    100_1172.JPG
    I was very happy with the fit and finish and general quality of this roll bar and I'm glad I can now get some good 6 point harnesses to hold me in better.
 
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So, help me out here. It looks like the front of this roll bar is bolted to a couple of plates screwed into the sheet metal with #8 machine screws? Am I seeing that correctly?

What am I missing?
 
Believe me it's well bolted in place and won't go anywhere - plumb vertical for the main hoop is pretty critical as it dictates where the rear bars land on the deck- when the main hoop is in it won't move more than 1/8" front or rear no matter how much you push or pull - it's planted on the gussets.
 
Oh, boy. I don't know how I got so many things so wrong, but this took way too much time and aggravation. I just could not get things to line-up. I'm a slow, meticulous mechanic, but I just could not get the main hoop/gusset/backing plate holes to line up for hours upon days of trying. I finally had to ditch the retaining rivets, because I needed to adjust the plates so much. Finally, after getting the main hoop installed, I thought the rear bars would be a breeze. That's when I ran into two problems:

WR_backing_plates.jpg
1. I still struggled with alignment of the rear bar backing plates, even after being very careful with the drilling of the holes. I would try to start a bolt and it just wouldn't go. I looked and the holes looked like they provided correct clearance. Finally, I pulled the backing plates and gave them a good hard look. Once I looked, it was obvious that some of the welded nuts were misaligned so badly that a bolt could not get started from the plate side. If I tried to run the bolt up from the nut side, it would stop cold when it got to the plate. This was true for three out of the eight holes!

I wasn't struggling with alignment at all. It was a manufacturing defect. I can't help but wonder if the gusset backing plates had similar issues that were causing my frustration. (I'm not going to remove the bar to find out.) Anyway, the defects are obvious and if I had bothered to call them, I'm sure Watson Racing would have made things right. But I hate dealing with returns and this project had taken far longer than I had planned, so I just ran a tap through everything and called it a day. If the nuts had been aligned perfectly, a tap wouldn't do anything to the plate itself, but the picture above shows how far off they were. The left side had a partial interference, but the right side was clearly misaligned badly until I tapped it. Once this was done, the plates bolted in easily.

2. The driver's side rear bar foot plate sits too close to the front of the car and the body interferes with the backing plate. So, I turned the plate 180 deg. so that the short lip was towards the front of the car. That was enough to allow alignment with the top plate. The "helper" bolt holes were now misaligned, but I didn't find them to be that useful in the first place, so I didn't use them.

So, my PRO TIP is obvious: run a bolt through all of the backing plates before you do anything.

Now that it's in the car, I'm sure I will be very happy with this roll bar. It's SOLID. Even without the rear bars bolted, I was yanking on it like crazy to try and get the bolts to go and it wouldn't budge. I'm glad. Because this thing is never leaving the car.

Now I have to go make rear seat delete panels. Sounds easy. Right... :rolleyes:
 
@Jimmy Pribble glad you got the bar in. There are a few roll bar install threads and in most of the others we cover checking the threads before you start. Oh well at least it's in.
 
I still had the pictures so I went back to the original post and edit it with the pictures. I can also provide an update since this original post. I run about 3 events per year and install the roll bar before and remove after each event. I have never had any issues doing this other than one sill plate clip that came off the sill plate. No issues with alignment or stripped bolts. Usually takes about 1/2 hour to install or remove. I've been very happy with these bars.
 

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