John E Posted August 17, 2002 Share Posted August 17, 2002 As I'm approaching gainful employment I'm considering the fitting of an FIA bar to my 1990 LC. What are the pitfalls here? I've taken the standard bar off a couple of times so are the fitting points the same or is the FIA bar held in place by greater numbers of bolts. I appreciate that boot the cover will have to be modified but will the standard hood still fit if needed, I dont have high visibility weather gear. Edited by - John E on 17 Aug 2002 10:43:46 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dirty Den Posted August 17, 2002 Share Posted August 17, 2002 I've had the FIA rollbar fitted to my classic recently, by Caterham. I do have the high visibility weather gear, but the old hood still fits. IIRC, the FIA bar is bolted to the car in more places than the standard bar. As you say, you need a new boot cover and if you have a tonneau already, that will need to be either cut to fit around the FIA bar, or you will need a new tonneau. Den 😬 - Self portrait - still unable to remove the smile! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Casbar Posted August 18, 2002 Share Posted August 18, 2002 It just bolts on. The rear fittings are the same, the front ones are held by a bolt through the suspension tunnel and the harness bolt also goes through the mounting plate. The only fiddly bit, is having undo the top damper nut to get it out of the way to be able to fit the roll bar bolt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ECR Posted August 19, 2002 Share Posted August 19, 2002 From memory (and it is a long time ago that I took off my standard bar !) the main difference is that the FIA bar has an extra bolt which is fitted from underneath the bar through the top of the damper "body cowl". (adjacent to the top damper mounting bolt). These extra fittings have a thinner head to clear the damper bolts and are easy to round off unless a degree of care in fitting is taken. This extra (as compared to standard bar fitting) bolt is needed because the blue book says: " Each mounting foot must be attached by at least 3 bolts" Edited by - ecr on 19 Aug 2002 13:59:29 Edited by - ecr on 19 Aug 2002 14:00:39 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Sewell Posted August 19, 2002 Share Posted August 19, 2002 ECR, I have a feeling that your comment applies to the de dion chassis and not the live axle. This required very little work other than temporarily removing the shock absorber nuts at the top and the rubber washer and caps. Then the new rollover bar fits in the same place as the old and uses the outer top harness bolt for additional strength. I than ran the boot cover over the mounting points (under the bolts if you see what I mean) to keep a tidy appearance. Low tech luddite - xflow and proud! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbo Posted August 19, 2002 Share Posted August 19, 2002 I fitted an FIA to my live axle a couple of weeks ago. Very straight forward, it just bolted in. My hood (lo-Viz) still fits fine. The most time consuming bit was the new boot cover. Not too sure why, but a few of the pop rivets pulled right through the supplied popper attachments things. My only concern is what a mess that diagonal will make of my head if somebody runs into my rear (oo err). I will have to work out how that funny head rest thing works. J Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Sewell Posted August 19, 2002 Share Posted August 19, 2002 Which is why I ordered my 'fia' bar without the diagonal cross brace . I would prefer whiplash to the use of a 500kg baseball bat! Low tech luddite - xflow and proud! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ECR Posted August 19, 2002 Share Posted August 19, 2002 Thanks Graham Yes you are correct, I had overlooked the fact that it was a live axle car. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Casbar Posted August 19, 2002 Share Posted August 19, 2002 If you don't have the diag cross bar, is it still and FIA approved bar? If the cross bar isn't needed, why is it there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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