Back when I still had a shop, I would just pull out 5-6 sticks of DOM and ruin about 2/3rds. of them working up a nice well-fit 6-point bar. Now that I don't, I am stuck buying one from a supplier, which brings me to a quandary. I have yet to see one that fits particularly well. All of them seem to have one or another (or several) fitment issues. Does anyone here have any experience with a really good one? I am mostly concerned with the fit around the B-pillar and headliner. Pictures?
Good fitment takes time to create which adds to cost plus makes it harder to weld for the novice. The average buyer will always go for the $300 bad fitting kit instead of the well fitting $800 one off kit. Then the consideration of the install time. I think Art Morrison has a file cabinate with more individual car prints than most other shops, But if you have a look in your mind of how YOU want it to fit, a custom shop is in order. Scab one together out of PVC, and give it to a bending house
friend of my is building a '61 Falcon for Bonneville - came up with dimensions for what would work in his car, and meet safety requirements. recently took info to Chris Alston's Chassisworks in Sacramento. was quick turn around time, and good price.
Check with 'Auto Weld' in PA, I think they the actual mfgr of most of the kits and have an extensive inventory. Its' one of those companies you don't hear about.
Affirmed Doc. I got one for my 67 Nova from AM, nicely done. Jalopy Joker beat me to it, Alstons (Sacto) has a good product also. Reasonably short drive for you, save on shipping, gas prices now really helps too.
Hopefully you'll find what your looking for. The last kit installation I saw (pretty sure it was Alston), the builder said he could have done it cheaper from scratch, because it took so much time to modify to make it fit "right" (his definition of right was tucked up nice and tight to be as unobtrusive as possible). Not really a knock on Alston, just another vote for custom if you want better fit than one size fits all (well, all Chevy B bodies anyway).
Art Morrison bent up the custom one for my 55' 2 door sedan Studebaker, fit great. They used to have a measure it yourself sheet that showed where to measure.
You might look at the vintage rally car suppliers... Hope you show some photos when it's done. Falcons are kool.
I used an AM in my chevy II, and it works great for me. I don't know if would think the fit is tight enough at the B pillar. I kinda like it so you can see the main hoop easily, but not the front part of the cage.....I think it makes it look more traditional. But you may not be going for that look.
I was not infering that you could not weld, only a statement as to why the kits fit so loose and the reason they dont advertise a poor fitting kit and a tight fitting kit in their catologes. Their customers are not the pro builders who would build the cage themselves, but the people who buy a kit on price alone and maybe never finnish the car. Not offered in kit form
You might check out Mike Thomas' thread on his 64, may be same as yours. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/1964-falcon-b-fx-build-thread.648057/
Most of the 6-point roll-bars that I have seen in early round body Falcons look like they were made for another car, and just happened to be plopped in there. This is a street going vehicle, so functionality is critical. It will never see the track, as long as I own it. I am just looking to stiffen the chassis, and add a bit of safety in the B-pillar area. It already has subframe connectors. For those that don't know, the first-generation Falcon had none of the bracing of the later ones, and tend to be flexible-flyers. I was working on a crease just behind the door post, and I was not pleased by just how much I was able to move the whole panel, with just my body, and I ain't no big dude. I am probably just going to spend a couple of days emptying out my storage units, to dig out all of the tools. Sometimes, there just is no shortcut.
Gimpy, sounds like your Falcon needs a roll bar as much if not more than most unibody cars. When people ask me why a roll bar for just a street car, I just tell them to stick their head under any car built with unibody design. They usually say; I didn't know these didn't have a frame under them. They seem to think the only need for a roll bar is if it was a race car and was concerned about a rollover. I did learn one thing when doing my Nova; if you have the car on jackstands when final welding, you may find that the doors won't close when you put it on the ground. Got lucky on my car, jut a slight twist, but I have heard horror stories about others' experiences. I see you already have subframe connectors, most roll bar kits for unibody cars have two diagonal tubes for tying in to subframe connectors. IIRC racing rulebooks only require floor plate mounting but made sense to tie them in to my subframe connectors when I did my Nova. Like you, no big track plans, but it sure helps tighten up the car. Pretty sure all this won't be news to you, just passing along (to whoever) my experience putting the roll bar in my Nova.
We have done three Falcons in the last year, one of them was the Morrison kit. While it did fit and would have worked it was as you have said slightly too small. In a small car, that use of space makes a difference. We ended up using a few parts from that kit but then bent our own hoops and halos for that car and completely built our own for the other two.
I just saw a post on Facebook where a guy used a Fox Body Mustang bar in a Round Body. Said it fit like a glove, but now I can't find the post.
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