Yesterday we visited Blackbird Fabworx in Northridge, CA to have a custom windshield header bar fabricated for the Pitcrew Roadster. Moti did a great job turning our ideas into reality. This modification essentially turns the existing Hard Dog Hardtop rollbar into a 7-point street semi-cage. Do do this mod required welding captured nuts into the windshield header to distribute the loads over a larger area, as well as fabricating a custom mounting pad and welding it to the main hoop of the roolbar. It does a great job adding stiffness to the body, eliminating all cowl and windshield header vibration.
Here are some pictures of the mounting points. Notice the bolts that hold the front of the brace. These are bolted into nuts that have been welded into the windshield frame so that the stresses are dispersed over a wider area. The rear view mirror screws are not placed under any stress at all, they still only hold the mirror in place.
The rear mount uses four allen bolts to a plate with welded nuts inside the mount.
This bar will not only act as a chassis brace, but will also be used to secure the G-String bikini top instead of the PVC tube that comes with that top. The bar is also a bolt in affair, allowing it to be easily removed. These pics show the bar in its unpainted state, but it is being sent out to be powdercoated for a nice finish. Once it’s back in place, new SFI padding and a leather cover will be fitted to the rollbar again.
I’ve always wondered if it would work!
there is a Japanese roll bar that was setup similar to this but used the striker bolts with spacers and 2 tubes with a gusset in between them.