4th Gen Roll Bar Choices

[LTb1ow]

Looking for options for roll bars (5,6, or 8pt) for a 4th gen. Mild Steel. Weld in.

I know Wolfe makes one, yes thank you, but, they have a 4-6 week back log. Midwest Chassis makes a kit, but no definite answer on how they fit etc.

Other than that, there is S&W, or CompE, both of which seem to bounce from a crappy fit, to a great fit. Upside is I can drive to PA to get a S&W and their cheap.

So basically I find it hard to believe that 3 or 4 company's make a roll bar for a 4th gen and looking for some other options.

[NJ Torque]

Love the fitment of my Wolfe bar... I know, I know... doesnt help you.

[Dudbird113]

Wild rides

[LTb1ow]

I'll swing over to them this week, thanks for the suggestion. Know anyone with their bar?

[Dudbird113]

I do believe my one buddy has there cage in his 69 camaro. But ive had a couple other friends get other work done there and they say its good work.

[qwikz28]

Be wary if you order from Midwest Chassis. I ordered a rear from there in November, two months ago they told me what I ordered was not what I did in fact order (I lost the invoice), last month they apologized and said it was an error, now I still don't have a rear.

I'll probably put my experience in a post some day, but yea, they have awful customer service.

[Dudbird113]

Midwest chassis took about 4 months to get me a manual rack, kept saying it would ship nect week blah blah blah, inner tie rods only lasted a month being drivin on the street haha.

[WildBillyT]

Doing the install yourself or paying?

[deadtrend1]

MD Chassis in Warminster, PA did mine

[coolmanvette75]

I have a Wolfe. Can shoot ya some pics if you want even though they have a wait right now

[LTb1ow]

Would be installing myself, so having it at a "hold and weld" status is paramount.

[NJSPEEDER]

From what i have seen over the years you can get just as good a fit out of about any kit out there. No quality kit will ever be made to exact lengths and no car will fit exactly anyway. Notches and tube lengths will always require some tweaking to make perfect. I have seen Jeg's kits look like masterpieces and supposedly superior Wolfe kits look like the tin man took a **** in the car.

My suggestion would be to get yourself as many various angled welding magnets or clamps as you can find. The more of the tubing you have in place before you do the final welding the easier it becomes.

Also, if possible, measure and figure out a way to lock the car square before you lay down any plates or anything.

-Tim

[WildBillyT]

Originally Posted by LTb1ow

Would be installing myself, so having it at a "hold and weld" status is paramount.

I can only speak for the one bar that I did, and it was an S&W into a Chevelle.

The kit itself fit pretty well and didn't require too much re-work. It did help having a chop saw, drill press, sawzall, and hole saws on hand.

If they list a "pro street" kit for a 4th gen get that one. I am unsure of the offerings.

[Pampered-Z]

I have the S+W 8-point 4th gen kit, with Swing outs.

It was allot of work - But for the price, I really can't complain.

We put the car up on jack stands at the suspension points so the body wasn't tweaked, we did the cage and SLP 6 point subframe connrectors. We measured and recorded all the gaps to ensure nothing changed as we welded everything in.

The two big PITA is doing the floor plates to be NHRA legal, there isn't any flat flooling, so you have to bend the plates to get a good fit. heating the plates and a BFH outside the car gets them close before statrting to weld them in and doing the final beatings into shape. Other PITA was getting all the panels and headliner back in!

As WBT stated, it's not a perfect fit. We had to rework some of the notches and cut every tube, either to proper lenght or to change angles a bit. Even the main hope was a bit tall. The chop saw was key. We had to make a few trips for the extra plating material as well.

The way we installed mine was to run the rear tubes into trunk well sills, so we could add a cross bar for some aditional structure support. I've seen a few do the back tubes welded to the top of the deck or into the speaker holes.

The swing outs actually flexed the floorpan, so we built additional supports. Also did full plate over the trans tunnel that covers above the X brace mount for support of the Spohn torque arm mount so the angle bars off the main hoop mount tie everything together. Last we also aded tabs to mount the harness to the cross bar.

We did not have a bender that would work on the side bars, so my bars are straight. They are in the way of using the arm rest on the door. So when I'm doing allot of street driving I just remove the side bar, and bolted it back in at the track.

Be VERY careful with welding the floor plates on the drive side! the plastic fuel rails are right there. Few people have burned their cars to the ground!

[zraffz]

Not trying to hijack this thread but it seems like a relevant question since I'm in the same boat (and leaning towards the S&W since I can fabricate).

What is the "pro street rear runner" option from S&W? My car doesn't have rear seats anyway; if it mounts the rear bars closer to the wheel wells rather than the rear deck I'd prefer it that way.

[sweetbmxrider]

PRO STREET STYLE REAR RUNNERS ARE AVAILABLE FOR MOST S&W ROLL BARS AND CAGES. PRO STREET REAR STYLE RUNNERS ARE DESIGNED TO GO THROUGH THE REAR PACKAGE SHELF AND REQUIRE NO MODIFICATION TO THE REAR SEAT NOTE: NEED TO SPECIFY MAKE, YEAR AND MODEL AND VEHICLE TYPE

I'd call them.

[zraffz]

Originally Posted by sweetbmxrider

I'd call them.

They make the diagram of the pro street runners look like the rear bars run out level with the roof until they pass the rear seat and then bend down...

I prefer the cage like Pampered Z has. Tying to the deck seems like it won't stiffen up the body like it would trying in right above the unibody rails.

[sweetbmxrider]

A cage is 10 points or more. Aka a halo and bars going to the front from it. We're looking at roll bars here.

[zraffz]

In case anybody was wondering, I went with the S&W 8 point roll bar. It cost $309 shipped. Shipping weight was 109 lbs but can weigh approximately 85 lbs without the two points & plates to the trans tunnel.
Rear bars off the main hoop are 64" or 69" long (forget what he said on the phone) and are designed to tie in behind the rear wheel wells.

The pro street runners are sort of useless. They go strait out and have a 30 degree bend after the seats to try and fit rear passengers; however the cross bar on the main hoop still gets in the way of rear seated passengers.

[WildBillyT]

Originally Posted by zraffz

In case anybody was wondering, I went with the S&W 8 point roll bar. It cost $309 shipped. Shipping weight was 109 lbs but can weigh approximately 85 lbs without the two points & plates to the trans tunnel.
Rear bars off the main hoop are 64" or 69" long (forget what he said on the phone) and are designed to tie in behind the rear wheel wells.

The pro street runners are sort of useless. They go strait out and have a 30 degree bend after the seats to try and fit rear passengers; however the cross bar on the main hoop still gets in the way of rear seated passengers.

No. S&W does not recommend passengers. I was told the ps bars allow you to keep your rear seats for appearance, hence the pro street.

[zraffz]

I must have misheard him when I spoke to him.

[Mike]

He probably said or meant to say "rear passenger area" rather than "rear passengers"

[Troy]

Mid west chassis has a history of saying things will ship "next week". I have run into this myself and gotten PMs from people on Ls1tech saying the same thing. His stuff is good but he is not truthful.

[Dudbird113]

Originally Posted by Troy

Mid west chassis has a history of saying things will ship "next week". I have run into this myself and gotten PMs from people on Ls1tech saying the same thing. His stuff is good but he is not truthful.

He wont be getting my buisness after the fiasco with my manual rack. Took him 3 months to get it to me

[zraffz]

My S&W 8 point bar came in today after waiting 2 weeks. They had a bad batch of piping that didn't meet specification and had to wait for an order of pipe.
I haven't even spent much time looking at the package today but from what I've seen I am impressed. All piping meeting the floor pans/base plates are angle cut already. It looks like any pipe coming off the main hoop is jig notched too. From what I can tell the only things not jigged or angled are the 2 point of the main hoop (obviously) and the 2 bars from the main hoop to the trans tunnel. I am not sure if this is how all S&W bars are or if they spent extra time on mine due to the delay.

I sorta hope something needs to be jig notched to justify my newest shop purchase lol.


I won't be installing the roll bar until I get my seat mounted in the correct place. Unfortunately we have a few vehicles at the shop that are our main priority, my business partner just picked up a new toy that we are tinkering with and I'm in the process of getting another 94 A4 Z28 w 109k that needs some minor body work for $300 - pending title status.