Just cleaned out the whole garage this Sunday and now my Integra is able to fit inside it and be worked on. I'd like to put it back up on the 4 jackstands it was on before and do some fun stuff with tools - remove the side door glass and gut the doors, take off the front and rear suspensions (So I can sell the Tokico shocks/Eibach pro springs and be able to get Koni/GC [Eibach Racing] springs), remove all the old original bushings replace them with polyeurothane ones, ...etc. Another reason I want to keep the car up on jackstands is to no have to worry about flatspotting the tires I have on the stock alloys (I'm selling my 15x7 and 17x7 alloy wheels and performance tires and plan to get reacquainted with the car at a driving school using the stock 14x5.5 wheels and Dunlop D60A2 tires, worn down to just right at the wear bars.) Racing quality wheels and tires to come later.

If the car is carefully put on the jackstands would there be any reason to worry about installing a roll bar when it's up in the air? I've heard that you want to minimize the chassis deflection while installing a roll bar since the roll bar would basically not allow the chassis to settle back down if it was twisted when lifted up. Would a little chassis deflection be that big of a concern for an autocross-only, dedicated racecar?


[Modified by Vracer111, 6:35 PM 3/4/2002]

 

Put it in with the car in the air, but don't tighten the bolts. Drop it back down and *then* snug everything up - should work just fine.

 

When I put in my Kirk 4pt, I think I did the whole thing on jack stands. I have not heard of bolt in bars/cages messing up the chassis though. Not that I am expert.

 

Just make sure that you're jackstands are all at the same height. If one corner is off, the bar will fit funny, and the car will be unstable anyway. If you're doing all 4 points at once, you should be fine.

 

I'm with Karl on this one... install it in the air, drill the holes and etc, but don't tighten the bolts down until the car is on the ground... just to be safe.

Also, don't forget to re-tighten after 1 week of street driving and/or after your first event. Then check them occasionally after that just to be sure...

Jon

 

Cool...thanks everyone. I think that I will install it but not tighten it like yall said. Then when I'm finished working on the rest of the car and drop it back down it will be tightened. And once I know the bar is exactly how it should be,I'm also going to weld it to the unitbody....

 

If that's the case, you had better be really sure it's in there with minimal tweaking. Before you weld it, drive around with it bolted down for a month or so to allow the steel to mold to your car. When you get around to welding it, remove all the bolts and make sure it doesn't "pop" out of place. All the bolt holes should line up with all the bolts removed. Then weld away! (although I'm not sure that's necessary. If you do weld it in, let me suggest that you extend the size of the foot plate, since most bolt-in bars have foot plates that are too small, IMO.)

 

What bar do you have and why do you want to weld a bolt-in? If you wanna weld, get a got shop in your area to make you a nice bar. Bolt-ins are designed to be bolted to the floor pan, which is not the stongest part of the car. Why weld it there?

 

Right now I have no way of moving the car ( I don't have a trailer...it's last on my priorities) so I would like to have something I could just install without having it custom fabricated....Of course I could have the next door neighbor who build's up late 60's camaros and other muscle cars weld up a roll bar maybe, but I'd rather go with a proven design, an AutoPower Race Bar (going to order it this week, hopefully have it by May). I mainly just want to weld it just for a little added safety incase the bolts should ever fail. I will take larger plates and weld them to the floor areas to help spread out the potential force - since this is an autocross only vehicle I'm not really concerned with preparing for highspeed crashes here, and the less weight the better.

This car is not legal to run on the road anymore since it is for auto-X only, stripped down to a true basic vehicle. So I won't be able to legally drive it on the road.

You know what's fun: gutting the driver side door...it takes forever and they don't give you a lot of room to work with (but that's what skillsaws and cutoff wheels are for...hehehe). But ahhh when that window slides out and then the slides and motor come out it feels like you conquered the world! LOL, Now on to the passenger side door tonight after work....yeeeehaaaa! And now that the sunroof it out I gained an extra 1.5" of head room....which should just be enough to keep from scratching up the helmet. Man working on cars is fun when you don't have to worry about putting the parts back on....you get to use power tools!


[Modified by Vracer111, 12:24 PM 3/5/2002]

 

UHAUL

 

Those U-Haul car Trailers are HEAVY - 2,000+lbs ! I don't think that would work with my Tacoma...

Ok I guess I could use a U-Haul truck, but it would be tough pushing the car up the ramps...