Features Roll Bars - What's The Best Look?

Seems like the low ones would be fine for organ donors....

 

Ryan has it covered.Reality based?Pete Chapouris' Lime Fire..

 

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I admit to building that roll bar for my friends v8 60 powered T. It was drive shaft
tubing and gas welded, what could go wrong.
I was 17 and my car had a similar square bar, me on left. Their was a 1 1/2 in dom moly bar under the rear cockpit cover. It was 1956 and passed tech at Parks Airfield Drags in Il.
dechrome

 

I am one of those guys that like roll bars but they can be dangerous in some instances for sure. Here are the covers put on my roll bar. They snap in place and I had my upholsterer make them real tight so they don’t move easily. I always run with the hardtop in place but the pads really help with a helmet on during shifts.

Some guys say they don’t belong on the street and can be dangerous and that is true of some but I figure I run with scissors occasionally so I am into taking risks.

 

I have built very simular looking "camera" mounts on open cars, but would never call them "roll-bars"

 

I am not so sure that this thread is a tutorial on how to build a proper roll bar; more than likely quite the opposite. My post was in response to a comment on a cover for a rollbar and I posted in that regard. I would not suggest that anyone duplicate what I have and probably the guys with some of the short bars would not either. There were some comments that they look cool though which to some people may be the case. There were statements as to safety considerations which should be paramount. "Should" is not always the same as "must" with hotrodders probably. To a professional that builds bars and cages for racing some of these homemade “bars” are probably something you may shake your head at and with good reason. The best way is to build it is so that it is functionally going to do its job but if you go that route then it may not look the way that we want and so some of us take some risk. The key though with me is to not get silly on the risk.

I am 6’1” and with my seat made thinner than normal and with the bottom cushion on the floor (instead of tracks) and with a helmet on, I barely miss the hardtop. To get a bar that I find to be visually correct (in my mind) I have to lay it back. I want my head when belted in to miss hitting the bar. The bar cannot go any higher without hitting the hardtop. Is it correct in terms of design-most likely no. This car had a three point bar from its drag racing career for probably 10 years or so and it passed tech I assume. It was pitiful and I removed it but still wanted the basic look as I was trying to duplicate 1966 as a target year for a nostalgia/vintage drag car. I tried to make whatever I do as safe as possible for what it is. I did not try to build a functioning approved rollbar. I would not sell blueprints for what I have.

That being said the bar has been teched by the NHRA at two different tracks and they have looked at the bar closely in some instances and pulled on it and inspected the mounting points. They realize the car is set up for 12 seconds right now and so does not need to meet the 11.50 cutoff. They have told me if I go 11.50 I have to change it out. They also realize that I am replicating an era but they do not want a bar that is going to obviously fail and hurt me or others. They have only made two comments to me on the bar-”nice” and “your good to go”. If and when that changes then I may have to go to plan B-but so far so good.

 

Yeah Jim...if someone wants the De rigueur modern roll bar they can get all that from the current rule books for the class they are building for.
Pretty sure most on here are more concerned with era respectable styles that match the build of the early cars.
Like I said...mine is just to keep the body up in a simple, slower speed roll.
I lost a new friend and his wife to a T bucket roll a couple of years ago.
My understanding is that it wasn't a high speed crash. Just went into a ditch and flopped the car.
I certainly don't expect to survive a high speed crash...but I sure as hell don't want to hold a car up with my rib cage either.
Lets face it...you might as well be on a motorcycle for all the safety in an old open car.

 

Inconspicuous ..

 

Safety should be the main factor.

I would much rather walk away from a crash, than tell everyone how cool my rollbar looked from a hospital bed.

 

I hate to tell you this (and I have a roadster also) these old cars are not built for safety, we are driving cars that are one small notch safer than a motor cycle, if we get hit front, back or sides at speed over 30 mph we're dead, I would not worry about a roll bar. The only way to be safe is jack it up and drive a newer type car under it. I have giving this a lot of thought and have worried about safety, and am I going to stop driving my beloved 32, HELL NO!

 

Thank you for that. My next build is a 31 roadster and this thread had me thinking about a roll bar and maybe some other reinforcement . While I would never tell someone that it's not necessary,I happen to ride a motorcycle so I think I'll stick to plan A.


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I started a company in the early sixties that built the first bolt in SCCA legal roll bars for sports cars. In my humble opinion, roll bars installed for looks are worse than nothing at all! Perhaps a chrome muffler moly break away roll bar might work!

 

The best roll bar is the one that saves your head! If you are not going to build it high enough, be ready to get crushed under it.

 

@denis4x4 - can you post some pics of some of your roll bars you built?

 

If you have '28 Roadster then you won't have much of a choice if you plan to have a top. It'll be lower than your head, it should be anyway in my opinion. If you have a race car it is different, a traditional hot rod is a different breed of cat.

 

It was back in the early sixties and there were sold under the Autopower Safe-Speed brand. Don Vesco ended up with the company and I think that they still run the Autopower logo on their Bonneville car. There were a lot of factors going in to making a roll bar. We had a Pines mandrel hydraulic bender. If I remember correctly, the minimum wall thickness had to be 1/8" and the size of the backing plates was critical as were the grade 8 fine thread 3/8" bolts.

 

closed cars are easy!

 

I've struggled with this very concept and problem in my mind. I'm currently working on a blown Hemi high horsepower 34 five window - will be chopped about 3 - 3.5" . . . was pondering a roll-bar, but the more I think about it, the more I realize there really isn't any room and I wouldn't build it like a real 'roll cage' that we run at Bonneville, I'm not wearing a Hans device, I'm not wearing a helmet and I'm not racing the car . . . so what is the real point? I think I just talked myself right out of it! LOL

 

Logic. Racing it with any regularity? Worried about taking little kids along? Do you use it ass daily driver? In the majority of instances we drive our pleasure craft very carefully. We look further ahead, stop sooner, are more aware of other drivers, etc. The odds of missing something and suffering a bad wreck? Slim, but it happens. If you ended up going over would you have the presence of mind to dive down or even jump out? Probably not. Any open car roll bar consideration should be a full cage if you're looking for protection. That sexy chrome windshield is a pretty false sense of security for the forward aspects of protection in a serious incident. Just sayin...

 

Yeah....is there not some safety to be found between the extremes of no bar in an open car and a full on 12 point cage with all applicable occupant worn safety devices?
I realize that as you go away from the "fully approved for 300 mph impact" cage setups, the downward slope on the safety chart is pretty steep.
But...there has to be a point where it levels out and a regular roll bar does actually offer some protection...however slight it might be!
Many modern, (and not so modern!) open sports cars were equpped with simple roll bars...from the 67 Shelby convertibles on up. You see all kinds of 2 seaters with those little double hoop style bars...and some Mercedes sports cars even used a roll bar that popped up automaticly once the car assumed a particular angle of uncorrectable roll.

There has to be a balance between what you like visually and what you can accept as a safety limit...but personally I can't accept the thought that a braced hoop offers absolutely no protection...period.

 

They usually have a high seat back between the person's head, and the hoop, eh?

 

True for the moderns...not so for the older cars like the Shelby convert...or an AC Cobra for that matter.

I did some restoration on a 500KR convert for a friend many moons ago.
The car had been in a roll over several years earlier, prior to him getting it...but I don't know the details.
The original bar was kinked slightly in the accident and had some rub marks on the decorative casing...but nobody died.
Must have been a slow roll, perhaps just into dirt as the car left the road or something.

Not every accident is at triple digit speeds...and VERY few early Hot Rods are gonna ever be equipped with headrests, air bags, side protection, collapsible columns etc.
But if I go bottom up on a lawn avoiding a head on or something, I'd at least like to have some space between the car body and the ground for someone to reach in to pull me out from under.
With a roll bar...yeah, you might hit your head on it. Thats true!
Without it you are definately hitting the ground with your head, and you have no choice but remain within the body envelope, or wedged under the body lip, till heavy rescue comes.

I guess it comes down to personal choice and what degree of accident you feel most likely to encounter.

 

Very interesting topic....Early in my motorcycle days, I was told to dress for the crash, not the ride. Heavy jeans, leather jacket regardless of temperature, full face helmet, cold sober, gloves, and constant surveillance left and right to identify the next threat......sound like fun? Not to me. Kinda misses the point of the whole freewheeling, daring, freedom loving, open highway-face in the wind thing. Retired from riding last summer, getting too scared of texting and rudeness on the road, and too old to tiptoe that heavy pos around. Need at least one deathtrap in the stable though, so I decided to stuff a nailhead in my bugeye sprite. My point? All this shit is dangerous, and while a full cage, straps and padding may be safer, the element of danger and hot rod aesthetics matter to me also. Maybe the right way is somewhere in between.

 

If you're not just a little afraid of your hot rod, you need more engine.

 

Years ago before I ever owned a camera. the worst roll bar that I ever looked at was 2 pipes from the frame with a truck bumper in the roof area. It had no kicker bars. This was about 1957 or 1958. the car was a 32 Ford 3 window. with one of those new V 8 Chevrolet engines with 3 carbs and headers that had 8 to 12 inch pipes.

 

On a street open car the best one is "the one you leave off" .

 

Outside of the issue of hanging your head off the roll bar without a helmet on, the concept of adding a roll bar that is not high enough just doesn't make much sense to me.
If you insist on adding a roll bar, at least make it useful.

The bar has to be able to support the weight of the car, if it won't, what is the point?
Lets assume you roll over your roll bar equipped roadster, understand that if there is just a roll bar (and it can hold the weight of the car), while the car is upside down on a flat surface, 1/2 of the car is resting on the bar, the other 1/2 is either laying on the front of the car, or the back of the car, which ever end is the heaviest (unless the roll bar is a 4 point cage surrounding the driver). If its laying on the back of the car, all is probably good, where you are strapped in it in the air.
However most roadsters are nose heavy, and the radiator is probably not going to support the weight of the motor. That means either the motor, or the front frame is supporting the front 1/2 of the weight of the car (the roll bar is supporting the back 1/2). You need to draw a line from the top of the roll bar, to the place in the front that will support the weight of the motor, and your head needs to be below that line for a roll bar to stand a chance of being effective. The roll bar has to be high enough and braced enough for you to be siting upright and clear the ground. The odds of you being in a lap belt, and being able to lay on the seat to get low enough to save your neck (even if you had time to react and can get yourself into that position) is pretty slim. Go ahead, try it. If your not wearing a belt, the roll bar can be an obstruction to being thrown clear, so why even bother with a roll bar in the first place?

If your not using at least 1/8" wall 1 1/2" diameter tubing for a roll bar, that is not braced either forward or rearward at least 1/3 of the way from the bottom base to the top, your roll bar will likely not support the weight of the car.

The danger still exists of banging your head, and scrambling your mind, and the roll bar is only as good as what it is attached to. I certainly wouldn't call it a safe roll bar. The debate is weather it might be safer then nothing, to which I stand on; NO, probably not! There are better odds of smacking your head, then there are at rolling over on a street driven car. Padding the roll bar is another fake impression of adding safety, unless a helmet is added. The bar is still hard, 3/4" of foam (however nicely its covered) won't make it any softer and won't do much for your head, it may prevent a helmet from cracking though.

I've encountered a slow gentle roll over before. I can assure you, even if it seems slow, it isn't, and your first reaction is to put your hands over your head to keep the ground away. You would also be surprised how much stuff is flying around you. You probably need to watch a few u-tubes shot inside a rolling car. Gene

 

Denis - I thought the Nolan & Rick White had something to do with AutoPower - I sold (and used) many of them in the mid 70's through the store I was working for. I didn't know that Vesco was involved, I'll have to ask Rick Vesco about that when I see him next. I know that AutoPower is still in business today.

 

I am sure Rick owns Autopower, I bought a harness for a Bonneville car from him a couple of years ago,

 

Marty - Rick White or Rick Vesco ?? LOL