Roll Bars part 2.

Well here's part two. I opened the holes out in the boot floor just enough to pass two lengths of 12mm threaded rod (the securing bolts are approx 12mm, half inch I think, hence the use of 12mm rod) though the roll bar fixings. The rods had been cut to length and long enough to reach the underside of the rear deck. I used a brace between the two to make sure they stayed parallel to each other and used a nut top and bottom of the roll bar fixing points to secure the rods in place.



I used the ends of the rods as a reference point to mark the underside before removing the rods and drilling though.



With the rods placed back into position I opened the hole out to reveal the ends of the threaded rod where I'd previously drilled a 6mm pilot hole to act as a guide for the pilot drill on the hole saw.



After a quick double check to ensure the rods were straight and hadn't been pulled out of alignment I set about drilling a 51mm hole through the rear deck. I decided to use a holesaw the same size as the leg and open it out as required rather than drill a bigger hole to start with. Whilst the final hole will be 61mm giving 5mm clearance all the way round, I erred on the side of inconvenience and a bit of fettling to get the legs to fit rather than run the risk of an error by trying to drill it to the correct size in one operation.



Once the two holes had been drilled I was able to place the roll bars into position albeit with the third leg pointing forwards awaiting the third hole to be drilled. Apologies for the poor pictures, I wasn't sure what the weather was going to do so I had to carry this out in the garage.



The whole process was repeated for the other side and I have to say it all went rather smoothly.



Unfortunately I haven't been able to complete the fitting as I don't have a holesaw of the correct size to cut the clearance holes in the boot floor for the main legs. I realise this isn't seen and I could've just cut something out using the Dremel but there's no rush. For this reason the roll bars are sitting a little high in the photos. Once the holes in the floor have been cut I can mount the main legs with the third leg pointing forward (as in the pictures) and use a template to cut the hole in the rear deck for the third leg. I have thought about using a similar method with the threaded rod to mark the third hole and may decide to take a different approach.