Thanks to Rick Neuenschwander for the pic!

Another weekend, another event…  I was the only E Stock class car entered in the event, so there wasn’t anything to directly compare times against.  I ran out of time to tweak the tire pressures exactly as I wanted, but the balance felt pretty good after the first 2 runs so I decided to just stick with the settings for the rest of the day:  32psi in the fronts, and 34psi in the rears.

DNF’d the first run because I missed a cone (should have walked the course one more time!).  Best run of the day was a 57.7, though I did make mistakes.  With a few more runs I think I could have broken into the low 56s, unfortunately with over 100 cars entered in the event we were limited to only 5 runs each.

This was also the first opportunity to test out the CG-Lock seat belt locks that I had installed last week.  Basically it locks the lap portion of the seat belt, preventing the torso from moving around as much in the seat during cornering.  Overall I’d say the product works as advertised and definitely helps keep me in place so I don’t have to hold on in the corners.  Nowhere near as good as a proper racing harness, but much better than stock.

Next event is in Indianapolis on the 16th, and I’ll see if I can get summer tires on the car before then.  With the tire availability severely limited for the 14″ rim sizes I’ll probably go with the Falken Azenis RT-615 195/60R14, though ideally (if the budget wasn’t a concern) I’d like to get some 15×7 rims and run a Bridgestone RE-11 on 205/50R15.

Forgot to bring a camera so I’ll edit the post with pictures when I find them…

Event times have been posted.

Edit:  Here’s a video posted from a E46 M3 driver on his run:  http://vimeo.com/5912368

Now that the rollbar is in the last step is to reassemble all of the interior trim and carpets.

Part 3:  Reassembly

I’ll start with the easiest piece to prepare for reassembly, the lower carpets behind the driver and passenger seats.  These need to be cut in order to fit around the lower attachment point of the rollbar below the seatbelt towers.

Carpet needs to be trimmed slightly to fit back around the rollbar

Carpet is easy to trim using a box cutter or scissors

The aluminum gas tank cover also needs a bit of a trim in order to put it back in place.  I marked out the necessary areas that needed to be removed and then cut it with aviation snips.

Measure twice, cut once...

The area that is to be removed is marked out

Now before you bolt that cover back on, make sure that the insulation pad around where the rear mounts of the rollbar currently are get reinstalled first.  Just mark out and cut the pad to fit around the rear mount plate.

Insulation pad is replaced before the cover goes back on

With the cover cut and the insulation pads replaced the cover can be bolted back on.  Remember to clip the lower carpet back onto the cover when everything is reinstalled.

Aluminum cover and lower carpeting reinstalled

Now to the upper carpet.  The insulation, rubber layer and the carpet all need to be cut around the rear brace of the rollbar.  This is pretty self-explanatory stuff but its a real pain to do because the top needs to be up to reinstall the carpet.  All I can say is that patience is a virtue, so take off small sections at a time and keep test fitting until you get it right.

Carpet and insulation cut to fit around rear of rollbar

Carpet is reinstalled after a while of cutting and test fitting

The last part to reinstall is the ‘quarter trim’ seat belt tower plastic covers.  The instructions from the manufacturer suggested either to cut the quarter trim into two pieces (no thanks…) or to carefully cut the cover to fit around the lower mount of the rollbar.  It really just took a lot of test fitting and making additional cuts to get it to fit just right, but I think overall they came out pretty decently.  It helps that the lower carpet is able to cover up a lot of the cover that has been cut.  With this piece back in the rollbar install is complete!

Trimmed quarter trim panel behind the lower carpet

Completed re-install of quarter trim

With the rollbar installed the car definitely feels more rigid and responsive.  Now that the rollbar is installed the car should be ready to pass tech inspection for a trackday.

Continuing on with the rollbar install, in part 2 I’ll cover the installation procedure of the bar itself.  We’ll pick up where we left off from part 1, with the rear interior removed already and ready for the install.

Part 2:  Installation

First things first, the necessary cut to the shelf is marked out based on the instructions from the manufacturer.  I cut this with aviation tin snips, though I’d guess it be a lot cleaner/easier to do it with patience and a dremel and proper cutting discs.

Marking out the cut line on the shelf

Not the prettiest cut, but it'll do

While you’re there, remove that insulating foam pad.  It will need to be cut to fit around the rollbar once it has been installed.  Next, remove the seat belt reel from its housing (2 bolts)

Seat belt reel is housed in a plastic bag

...and easily removed from the body

Now jack the car up, put some jackstands on and remove the rear wheels, and then proceed to remove the wheel arch splash guards (4x10mm bolts)

Rear wheel arch splash guards need to be removed

Splash guard has been removed

With the shelf cut, the seat belt reel moved and the splash guard removed, it is time to test fit the roll bar in place.  Get an extra set of hands to help here because although the rollbar itself isn’t too heavy to pick up solo, you don’t want to risk swinging it into the car body and damaging the vehicle.  Thanks to Brad for helping me out tremendously with this part of the install!

Test fitting the rollbar

Once we have it in place where we want it the space is marked out and then cleaned and a liberal amount of silicone sealant is applied to prevent moisture/air from getting there once the bar is installed.

Brad is applying some silicone sealant to prevent moisture/air getting under the plate and into the bolts

Next, bolt in the seat belt reel behind the rollbar as per the manufacturers instructions, using their provided 14mm bolt on the bottom (no washer) and the original 10mm bolt on top.

From here on out the photos were a bit limited because I just simply started to forget to grab the camera at every juncture (sorry!).  We drilled the most forward hole for the rear brace first, from the top using a 12″ length 3/4″ drill bit, and then bolted it in on the bottom to the backing plate, then used the backing plate to drill the remaining holes from the bottom using a shorter 3/4″ drill bit

Installing the backing plate for the rear mount

Once all of those are bolted in to the rear backing plate, drill the holes for the lower front brace and repeat.  I bolted each of these on, including a dab of loctite on the bolts (leave nothing to chance).  You will need somebody on the interior side holding the bolts while you tighten them unless you are Stretch Armstrong or have limbs of a giraffe.  Many thanks to Julie for helping out with the install at this point while the rollbar was bolted down to the backing plate.  Then I sprayed the backing plates liberally with some rubberized underbody coating (nasty stuff, but it works).  Make sure to cover up the brakes and the suspension when you are doing this so you don’t get backspray onto these components

Rear backing plate coated

Front backing plate coated

Once again, not leaving anything to chance I sealed off the top side with caulk to prevent moisture/air contact with the bolts.  Yes I know having the battery cable around the bar isn’t ideal but I couldn’t get it to fit behind the bar   Hopefully some other people have more luck with this when they do their installs

Sealed off the top side with caulk

Now the rollbar is in and all that is left is to reinstall the interior carpet and quarter trim, which I will cover in part 3…

Roll bar is installed, just the interior to go

In order to run a trackday event and pass tech inspection the car needs a rollbar that passes the broomstick test.  I went ahead and ordered a Hard Dog M1 Hard Core roll bar to install, and in this post and the two following installments I’ll go over the installation process.

Overall its a bit of a lengthy process and a bit tricky at times during the install, but definitely not something too difficult to do for someone who is willing to get a bit dirty working on a car.

Part 1:  Preparation

First the style bar that was already on the car needs to be removed.  Uncap the plastic snap on seat belt tower covers:

Style bar needs to go as it serves no functional purpose

Cap removed, exposing 16mm bolt

Then unscrew the 16mm bolt that holds the seat belt to the tower, and remove the style bar + misc spacer hardware on the bolt.  Reassemble without style bar.

The next step to remove the carpet behind the driver and passenger seats.  This consists of both the carpeting on top of the fuel tank and the carpet behind the seats.  They are held in place with plastic tacks that can be gently removed using a clawhammer.  Two additional screws with plastic inserts on the rear carpet are removed with a #2 phillips screwdriver.

Carpet tacks gently removed with a clawhammer

Next up is to remove the ‘quarter trim’ plastic covers on the seatbelt towers.  A couple of M40 torx screws for the top cap and hardtop latch, and some regular screws plus a plastic tack that removes when the center button is lifted need to be removed for this.  Then pull back the plastic trim on the doorsill and the plastic cover comes off.

Top cap on quarter trim

Hardtop latch removed (M40 torx)

Unbolt the seat belt from the tower

Off comes the quarter trim

Below the carpet and quarter trim is the aluminum cover that is held in with several 10mm bolts.  This needs to be removed too.

Unbolting the aluminum cover w/ 10mm socket

With the aluminum cover bolts and the cover removed, remove the fuel hose cover in the trunk and then the car is ready to start work on cutting for the rollbar installation

Remove the black fuel hose cover using 10mm wrench

Interior removed and ready for work.

In part 2 I’ll go over cutting the bodywork for the rollbar, and installation of the rollbar itself.  Happy motoring!