I ordered a Hard Dog Hard Core Roll bar (the non hard top version) online from The Dealer Alternative's web page (www.dlralt.com) on Dec 17, 1998 for $365. They had a holiday special going on at the time wherer shipping was free.
I got a personal order confirmation message via email from Bill the same day. I received the bar via UPS on Monday Dec 28 and spent the next 3 days installing it. I was fortunate that I was on vacation (our company has a holiday shutdown between Christmas and New Years Day), and this gave me a very relaxed attitude during the installation process. Knowing I had the time off meant that I didn't have any time pressures to hurry and finish the job.
The bar was packaged in a nice triangular shaped box ( 01, 02, 03) which had a recessed cutout on the top to serve as handle. The bar was wrapped ( 04) with a protective packing sheet. On the bracket which mounted to the passenger side seatpost tower there was duct-taped the 4 backing plates ( 08, 09, 10). On the other seatpost tower of the rollbar was duct-taped the nuts, bolts, washers and installation instructions ( 11, 12).
Rather than describe the installation in great detail, I'll provide the links to web pages of other people who've done roll bar installations. They all helped me in my install.
For the most part, I followed Aaron's writeup as well as followed the instructions that came the Hard Dog bar. I have a feeling that the rollbar instructions that came with the package has been updated since Aaron wrote his writeup because it refers to specific instructions for installing on a '99.
I did the installation myself...I'm just an impatient type and I didn't wait until my wife, Jeanne got home from work to help me position the bar in place, So I ended up just being pretty careful, slow and methodical.
The bar itself is not that heavy. I weighed it on a bathroom scale at 37 lbs. But it's bulky, and has really sharp, pointy corners at the bracket end, which unfortunately will tear into any cable harnesses or deeply gouge into your exterior paint if you're not careful. If you go at it alone, I think you just about have to remove the two front seats to give you more room to maneuver in the car.
The first order of business is to put the top down and protect the rear window. I placed a rolled-up cotton towel outside of the rear window ( 13, 14) so that the window wouldn't crease when the top is folded. After the install, I ended up using some thread and needle to sew down this towel so it wouldn't unfurl and lose its rolled up shape whenever I remove it and store it behind the seat.
Begin by remove the carpeting from the package tray area ( 17, 18, 19, 20). Although some sort of upholestry tool to remove the carpet buttons would have been good to use at this point, I ended up using an ordinary fork ( 15, 16) with the tines bent a little bit. When you pry the buttons out, you can stick a screwdriver under the end of the tines to give youself more leverage when prying the carpet buttons out.
Next, I removed the rear brace ( 22, 23, 24). My car is a '94. If your model year is earlier, it's not going to have this bar. Incidentally, you can put this bar back into place once the rollbar is installed.
The side trim panel is removed next. ( 25, 26, 27, 28). Before the trim panel can be removed, a rubber trim piece has to be take out (26), and to remove this trim piece, you have to unscrew a phillips screw from the door sill (26).
After the plastic side panels have been removed, I took out the vertical carpet piece that straddled the transmission hump ( 32).
Next, I removed the package tray cover( 30, 31, 33).
Now, a look around... Behind the passenger seat on my car is the engine computer ( 34), which will have to be unbolted and moved out of the way. Above that ( 35) is the passenger side seat belt retractor mechanism, which will also have to be removed. Above the seat belt retractor is the passenger side of the parcel shelf ( 36) that's going to be cut later.
Continuing the look around...behind the driver's side seat ( 37) there's a cable bundle, with a harness that keeps it in place. This has has to be pulled out from the back wall because it gets in the way of the rollbar. Above this is the driver's seatbelt retractor ( 38) which will have to be removed, and above that is the driver's side of the rear shelf ( 39), which will have to be cut.
I removed both seat belt retractors ( 40, 41). The OEM bolts and spacers which hold the retractors into it's cavity ( 40) will no longer be needed, because the Hard Dog install contains a longer replacement bolt.
The next thing I did was to cut the top mounting bolt (there are 3 in all) for the engine CPU box (43). It has to be cut because the rollbar is going to be lying flush with this surface.
At this point, I finally got around to removing both passenger and driver's seats ( 44, 45). I should have done this at the very beginning, because it makes maneuvering around in the car much simpler. Before removing the passenger seat, I unplugged a cable harness that was under the seat which leads up to the headrest speakers. The same has to be done for the driver side seat. There's also a second additional harness that's under the driver's seat that has to be unplugged.
The next thing I did was one of the hardest parts of the install. The parcel shelf has to be cut on the passenger and driver's side to accomodate the rear legs of the rollbar. I couldn't quite reconcile the cutting diagram that's shown in the Hard Dog instructions. So I followed Aaron's advice about doing what makes sense. "Test fit" the bar in place, and observe the location where the rear legs are going to end up falling.
I ended up making cuts (46, 47), that were about 3.5 in wide x 6 in long. Since all the cutting will be covered up by the removed parcel tray, and the carpeting, neatness is a secondary consideration. I had bought sheet metal tin snips for this job, but I'm sure there's some other tool that exist (like an air powered metal snipper, or even a jigsaw cutter) that would make the cutting a physically easier job. I have to admire people who cut through the parcel shelf with a dremel tool and a cutting disc, because I tried that for a little while, and I just got impatient at how slowly it took, and how fast I wore out cutting discs.
After much effort , I finally made the cuts in the passenger side (49) and the driver's side (50) of the parcel shelf. At this point, I debated whether I should wait till my wife got home to help me position the bar into place, or whether I could do the job alone. I got eager and began the process of putting the bar in myself.
Realizing the bar has many sharp points and edges (52) which could damage cable harness, I moved the harnesses which would be in the way of the roll bar's legs, and taped them down, out of the way, with duct tape. Be sure to move the seat belt retractors back into place, and when positioning the bars, move the seat belts to the inside of the bars. Then I slowly lifted the bar into place (53). I loosley bolted the front legs of the rollbar into place using the bolt that goes through the seat belt retractor (54).
Next, I jacked up the car (55), and placed jack stands underneath the rear supporting points.
Under each rear wheel, towards the front, a plastic shield (56) has to be unbolted to allow access to the the other side of the unibody, where the backing plates and nuts are going to go. I drilled the 3 holes for the driver's side front leg of the roll bar (57) and stuck the supplied bolts into place (58), put the bracket on the other side and torqued them down. Then I torqued down the seat belt retractor bolts.
Once the front legs of the rollbar were bolted in place, it was time to attack the rear legs. Now either my rollbar was a little bit misaligned or the unibody of my car was a little tweaked, because the plates of the rear legs of the rollbar was about 1/2" away from the of the car. At first, I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do. I decided to go ahead and keep drilling, and once I bolt things down with enough torque, I figured it had to bend into shape.
I started with the passenger side rear leg of the rollbar. Using a 12 inch drill bit that was 3/8" long, I drilled the hole closest to the passenger seat (54, 55). I did this with the top down. I put the backing plate on the other side, then put the washer and nut on, but realized I couldn't even get the nut in place without removing the washer first. So I took the washer out, bolted the nut down, and this bent things enough so that both rear legs of the rollbar was now flush with the unibody. Next, from the top also, I drilled the hole for the passenger side rear leg that was farthest from the passenger seat, and bolted that down. I drilled this hole with a normal 3/8" drill bit with the top up. Before drilling, I had to remove a large, quarter-sized rubber plug which plugged up a hole in the unibody where the hole was going go.
I went back and removed the nut from the first bolt I had torqued down, put the washer back into place and torqued it down again. Next, I went to the driver's side rear leg, and drilled the front and back hole from the top, and bolted that down.
I drilled the 3rd and last holes for each rear leg from the bottom (wheel well side) up, and bolted those down. After all 4 legs ( 63, 64, 65, 66) of the roll bar were bolted down, I sprayed rubberized undercoating on the backing plates (67).
At this point, I was basically done. I used a Shop Vac to suck up all the metal shavings inside and outside the car. I then began the process of putting the car back together.
I had to trim the corners of the metal rear parcel tray that was removed earlier, in order to fit with the rollbar now in place. I used a dremel cutting disc to cut notches in the passenger side (69, 71) and driver's side (70, 72) of the tray, and once trimmed, the tray was bolted back into place (73, 74).
Although I don't have a picture here, I also had to cut part of the bracket which holds the engine computer in place. I was very puzzled at the diagram that was provided in the Hard Dog instructions showing what to cut, but when you begin reinstall the computer, you'll know exactly what to cut. Only two of the 3 original bolts hold the computer in place now.
As I write this, I still haven't trimmed or put back the rear deck carpet, or trimed and put back the plastic side panels. When I figure out how to properly do those things, I'll update this page.
I tend to work on the slow side, so the total time I spent installing is probably on the high side: the 1st day was spent just removing the carpet, the side panels, the rear tray, and just beginning to cut the rear parcel shelf. That took about 4 hours. The 2nd day was devoted to continued cutting of the rear parcel shelf, and the actual drilling holes for and bolting down the rollbar. I think I spent about 6-7 hours that day. The 3rd day was spent vacuuming, trimming the engine computer bracket and rear shelf, and putting things back together. I think I spent about 2 hours that day.
Like I said earlier, I did the job alone, but it will definitely save a lot of time if you have help. What would really help though is having some sort of power tool to cut the notches into the rear parcel shelf. That was pretty time consuming. Also with two people, the nuts and bolts could be torqued down faster.
Stay tuned for an update after I get some rollbar padding, and when I around to reinstalling the rear deck carpeting and the plastic side panels.
I began trimming the plastic trim panels today and found that contrary to the Hard Dog instructions, I didn't have to cut the trim panel in half. The driver side trim panel (79) is cut just a little bit (80) in order to fit (81) around the rollbar. A similar cut is made to the passenger panel (82) to make it fit (83).
The rear deck carpeting was next. I separated the sound insulation material from the carpeting and cut notches in it (84) to fit around the rollbar. Similar cuts were made to the carpeting. I applied some white glue along the cut edges of the carpeting to prevent future fraying.
Next up is altering the bootcover to fit around the rollbar, as well as installing some rollbar padding. I already have some padding ordered from Racer Wholesale and I think I'll just tie wrap it to the bar. The bootcover will be a little more complex...I may have to find an auto upholsterer to have it properly cut and finished.
I got around to finally taking pictures of the padding I used and putting on this page, even though I've had it on the car for about a year. I think I purchased it from Racer Wholesale for about $12 for a 3 ft section of a half-pipe. It's a high density, SFI rated foam which was a bit more expensive than their regular foam, but I think it will do a better job at protecting my head. I used tie wrap to place it on the bar - not pretty, but easy.
Up till now, I haven't trimmed my boot cover yet. I really haven't needed it, and I'm getting used to the ease of dropping the top without and further fussing around.
My padding was showing signs of UV damage and I was too cheap and lazy to go to an upholsterer to get a custom bar cover made. So I bought these rollbar covers called "Roll Bar Rapz". It's a neoprene material with velcro running along one side. Here's a store which sells it, but I actually ordered it from a different on-line store. I used almost all of the cover material that came with the package. The result was ok; it certainly not as nice as some of thoese custom leather covers I've seen on cars in our local Miata clubs. But for $25, it was more than adequate for the purpose it serves.
