Bar £330

Rubber pads £5

Leather £120

Harnesses £120

VAT on above £100

Postage £40

Upholsterer £80

Total £795

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With the silicon I guess it just about hits £800. Ouch!! I had put off
working it out and now I know why!

I would say having spent all of that, that the car feels so much better to
drive due to the stiffened chassis. I really didn't expect to feel such a
difference but I can - it feels much as I would expect a upgrade in
suspension to feel like.

If anyone is seriously contemplating doing this themselves, the procedure I
followed was basically this:

Put rear of car on axle stands and remove wheels

Remove seats

Raise centre console (it took me a while to find handbrake adjuster - on
mine it was by rear suspension whereas others describe it as in the
transmission tunnel - which I take to mean in the centre of the car)

Peel back carpet on rear shelf leaving the foam underlay in place (stuck to
fibreglass)

 

Overlay Tower View template but do not cut holes as shown on template.

Drill test holes to ensure you are in the right place then enlarge to enable
bar to fit. I used a series of small drill holes to outline the desired
shape, cut with hacksaw blade and then filed smooth (this took me some time
as I was keen for the holes to be as small as possible). Ensure as best you
can that the bar does not touch the fibreglass anywhere.

 

Install bar into front hoop brackets (boots) and very loosely attach rear
struts to chassis.

 

Test fit of roof over bar. On mine the roll bar was v. slightly twisted
which combined with an inconsistent gap between chassis and body, meant I
had to apply a fair amount of pressure to get the bar even.

Cut and remove foam underlay around holes cut in fibreglass (as shown in pic
's) and first make a template then shape a rubber pad to fit (as big as
possible to help adhesion). The rubber pad has to fit around the bar so will
need to be cut with a stanley knife. I tried to super glue this back
together again after fitting but it didn't seem to take so applied a thin
layer of silicon which worked fine. This is very easy around the rear struts
but not so easy around the front hoop as there is very little room and the
hole is right by the edge of the rear shelf behind the seat. It takes a fair
bit of trial and error (well it did for me!) to get the pads absolutely
right.

 

Using the fixing points behind the seats for the centre console, make a
template. Peel back the leather trim on centre console and cut fibreglass.
This is the one situation where you can afford to cut on the large side as
you do not want to replace the console more times than you really need to.
When suitably trimmed, re-glue the leather.

Loosen off all fixings (take out the fixings holding main hoop in the boots)
This was a pain for me as the whole thing was under tension.

Apply fairly silly amounts of force to get the console back in being mindful
of the earthing bolts that can catch both front edges of the centre console.
Be mindful also that the centre console is fairly thin fibreglass and due to
its shape will not put up with much bending or it will craze. I should point
out that Tower View often get the centre console back in without all this
hassle so it will depend on the car. The leather covering may also have made
it worse as I was keen not to damage it.

Re-fit the bar and tighten everything up again.

 

At this point I would take the car for a drive to see if it squeaks (it was
nearly 10pm the day before Castle Combe for me so I didn't have time!)

Fit rubber pads with silicon - I used the black automotive stuff available
from decorating direct ( by a helpful Pher). After
sticking pad down I placed a bead of silicon around the bar to seal it to
the pad - above and below.

Trim and replace carpet.

Replace seats (recommend swapping to even out wear)

 

I hope you found the information above useful

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