Brown Santa (UPS!) arrived today with a new toy - an Autopower Street Roll Bar - and I couldn't wait to put it in. The bad thing was that it arrived on a Friday afternoon and the garage is a disaster area so it had to be done outside. The dark and rain on Saturday made it a long installation that was finished on Sunday morning.

After unpacking and reading the instructions, it was time to tear everything down. First thing out was the Frenzy Style Bar via the 2 seat belt bolts. Next thing to come out are the trim pieces that go from the seat belt tower to the sill guards and then the seat belt tower trim pieces - front and back side. Once those are out the seat belts themselves are taken out. After that came all the carpet fasteners and the two screw down stops that the top rests on. Once the trunk lid carpet is out, take out the carpet fasteners at the top of the carpet behind the seats to get to the rest of the 10mm bolts holding the deck lid in place.

Once all the deck lid bolts and the lid is out the fun begins - cutting the rear deck! The trick in installing a roll bar is that the roll bar goes down under the top. To get it inside to measure where to cut will take a second person and some tricks of having the top about 1/2 way up. Be careful that you don't smack your head (or theirs!) when the top decides to come back down - it DOES hurt!

Next, cut the deck using a dremel tool and some (I went through 5!) cutoff disks. Once finished put the roll bar back in & see if you measured good enough to get the bar installed.

This one fit on the first try! Double check for any pinched wires and to make sure that the roll bar won't interfere with ABS lines or trunk/gas release cables.

Now test fit the bar and trim the seatbelt tower trim to fit. On the driver's side I trimmed out a big channel on the inside and then a rectangular area under the hole in the back trim piece.

It turned out that it was overkill and on the passenger side I just cut the rectangular piece out of the area under the hole.

Once this was done I put the back bolts in and the nut/washer on the bolt up inside the tower. and bolting the bar in with the sandwich plates.

On my 2003 there is a single rubber plug on the driver's side that will be slightly covered by the rear mounting plates but there are no wires/cables going through it and there is an emissions piece in the way that's under the passenger side. It unclips and there is a spare hole in the body where the splash panel fits so I zip tied it to that to hold it in place.

Once this was done it was a matter of drilling all the holes for the sandwich plates and bolting it all in.

Here's the 2nd part where you will need help. Someone will need to hold a wrench on the bolts up top while you are under the car tightening the metal/nylon locknuts.

Now it's time to reassemble! I used a bandsaw with a metal cutting blade to trim the rear deck plate and bolted it in. Next is to trim the front seatbelt tower covers. This is very easy and neat to do with a dremel and a cutoff disk. It melts the plastic as it cuts and the waste plastic just snaps off nice & clean. After those are done then the carpet behind the seats gets put back... and after that is the hardest part, cutting the carpet on the rear deck. This takes patience and some undercutting as it's easier to make the hole a little big bigger than to try to make it smaller. My first one was ugly and the second one looked very nice.

Once done I sat in the car and found that I had a little less than an inch of head room with the "Broomstick Test" and when I had my helmet on I had gone about an inch above the broomstick. Ouch. So the next thing to do in the future will be to trim out some of the foam from the driver's seat bottom.

Fit -n- finish:
The sandwich plates on the bottom of the car had some VERY sharp edges. A quick hit with a grinder to smooth them off was needed. Autopower tells it's customers that the bar's finish is just to protect it after it leaves the factory and that you will want to refinish it. Well, they aren't kidding. I knew this from my research on the bar but Moss Motors doesn't tell you this info on their website. The paint condition was worse than I thought it would've been. But, instead of repainting it I'm simply going to put some padding on it and it will be hidden ;)

Chassis Stiffening:
Very nice! Does an excellent job of stiffening up the rear of the car.

Seat Clearance:
The bar does lean to the front a bit so if you like to have your seat all the way back and leaned back too then it will hit the bar. I find that I fit just right but then I'm 5'8" tall and have a short inseam.

Bang for the buck:
A great one! Moss Motors had this on clearance for $189, regularly $289. If you want to go Solo-1, this isn't the roll bar for you. If you want protection at a TCB price then it's a great value.

Can I do it myself:
No, but the only help I had was with putting the bar itself in the car and with installing the nuts/bolts for the sandwich plates. Other than that it was a single person installation.

Time:
All-in-all it took me a little less than 6 hours from start to finish.

Tools required:
A drill, a long 3/8" drill bit or an angle drill to drill all the holes necessary to bolt the bar to the seat belt towers and to install the sandwich plates.

10mm and 14mm sockets for the seat belt retractors, seat belt anchors, and the rear deck lid.

#1 and #2 phillips screwdrivers to remove various trim pieces.

A dremel tool with a good supply of cutoff disks to trim the deck base and trim pieces to clear the bar.

1 Jigsaw with a metal cutting blade to trim the removable rear deck lid.

A set of hemostats or kelly clamps to slide under and pry those carpet fasteners up!

And lastly a nice very sharp knife to cut the carpet on the rear deck.