Quote:
Originally Posted by Track Junky
Ron, I'll be using fiberglass doors for next season. Would love to chat about door bars.
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Gotcha. Do you have a roll bar now without door bars?
If yes, post some info on it ... brand, diameter, wall thickness, material, bolted or welded in ... and photos would help.
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A couple of quick tips:
a. You typically want it to connect to the main hoop at the bend, in line with the bar behind the seats. But this is just a starting point.
b. Ideally, you want to run the lower mount as far forward as you can, to create a wide "truss-like" footprint.
c. After you mock up some plastic sprinkler pipe at these two points ... we need to see if we run into "packaging problems."
d. We want to make SURE the door bars don't interfere with your ability to steer the hot rod. because seat height, door bar height & driver height all play a role ... i never know until we mock it up.
e. Often times, the bar is too close into the driver's seat (passenger too) and putting a bend in the door bar, with the curve "out" ... provides more driver cockpit room.
f. At the other end, we simply need to make sure it doesn't interfere with your feet or pedals.
g. Don't put a downward bend in it if you can avoid it. Especially in a track car. The improved strength & safety of having the bar at the right height outweighs the inconvenience of climbing over the bar.
h. I like to use 4130 Chromoly for door bars, regardless of what the main hoop is main of. Chromoly welds to mild steel just fine & the increased driver & passenger protection is worth the small difference in tubing cost.
i. I typically use the same size of tubing for the door bars as the main hoop ... 1-3/4" or 1-5/8". An exception would be if we need to go down 1/8 or 1/4" for clearance purposes. If you use 1-3/4" or 1-5/8" diameter Chromoly ... .083" wall is good. If you drop down to 1-1/2" diameter ... bump the wall thickness to .095"
When you post the info & photos we'll be able to discuss more.