dash and door bars?

Required or not?

Good idea or not?

I see lots of builds with out one. It seems like you would want something connecting the two sides.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/25/2013 11:03PM by Greg Donovan.

Not required. Most cars have some sort of factory dash bar plus the stampings of the firewall and wiper tray make that a fairly strong area . If I was pulling the dash I'd likely put one in . Note that you can't place one below the steering column.

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heymagic
Not required. Most cars have some sort of factory dash bar plus the stampings of the firewall and wiper tray make that a fairly strong area . If I was pulling the dash I'd likely put one in . Note that you can't place one below the steering column.

thanks gene. Car is a 95 impreza sedan. Good to know about location on relation to steering column. Wouldn't want our knees to hit that.

I don't like them. Get bars close enough and you can weld to stock dash bar. Put one in, you may as well take heater core out and get a summit universal one, especially in a subaru.

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Grant Hughes

On the subject of bars, let's talk about door bars again.

Sill bar and one bar at angle from main hoop to bottom from corner and a a-pillar support is good to go for RA?

Like this car: http://www.dirtyimpreza.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28567

Grant, your crew did this one didn't they?

Looks just as safe, easier to enter/exit and easier to fabricate.

I wouldn't get in a car(well a fast one anyhow) that didn't have double vee style door bars. attached pic

Dash bars not so important but I've been in a roll where the base of the a-pillars narrowed by about 35mm.
Also it gives you somewhere to mount the diagonals from the front strut towers to.

The bent door bars are actually pretty damn easy. and they add a lot more strength and protect from SIDE impacts, ya know, the kind that result from going sideways in the woods. not sure if you ever ended up with a bender, im in St. Cloud, and have a bender and bend teck pro, if u need help.. and a welder, pasma, and notcher too.

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I be sorry as a muthafucka I did, still sorry I did n' hustled ta peep what tha fuck I holla'd a lil' bit better, or at least try to.

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mke723
The bent door bars are actually pretty damn easy. and they add a lot more strength and protect from SIDE impacts, ya know, the kind that result from going sideways in the woods. not sure if you ever ended up with a bender, im in St. Cloud, and have a bender and bend teck pro, if u need help.. and a welder, pasma, and notcher too.

That would be beyond awesome. In my build motivation thread I laid out my timeframe for completion.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/26/2013 09:29AM by Greg Donovan.

In Andrews picture I would have reversed the position of the bars a bit. The shallower bend would have been the lower bar. I like the congfiguration but like it a bit lower. I'd also run an actual sill bar tho.

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heymagic
In Andrews picture I would have reversed the position of the bars a bit. The shallower bend would have been the lower bar. I like the congfiguration but like it a bit lower. I'd also run an actual sill bar tho.

Good notes, I am definitely putting in a sill bar. Not sure about stuff out to strut tower or not. I would like to add bars for footwell protection.

I prefer the sill bar and single bar. The V adds 10 feet of tubing and 8 additional gussets and makes a removable steering wheel almost a necessity and makes entry and exit a huge pain. I do the bent V style if people want it, I always give the option to people, but I personally prefer the two bars like in Ryan's cage that we built that Greg linked to.
I also do not tie into the front strut tower. I advise people to rally cars that can have a complete reshell/cage for around or under $5k and think of the car as disposable. 3 miles into the first rally I did I came upon a crash in which both driver and codriver had to be life flighted and were lucky to live probably. Tree came into the front bumper about 24 inches and firewall also moved a ton. Talking with the safety steward after the fact, a few things that stood out to him that increased the injuries was overstrengthening resulting in no crumple zones and too strong rear skid plate mounts so engine/trans only had one place to go, straight back, instead of back and down.

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Grant Hughes

I agree with Grant. Energy has to disapate before transferring into the occupants. Shells are replaceable, people not so much. I personally either use the sill bar/down angle like Grant or a sill bar and a V bar. The nice thing about both configurations is with a bit of planning you can still have roll up windows in some cars...such as a Focus.

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heymagic
I agree with Grant. Energy has to disapate before transferring into the occupants. Shells are replaceable, people not so much. I personally either use the sill bar/down angle like Grant or a sill bar and a V bar. The nice thing about both configurations is with a bit of planning you can still have roll up windows in some cars...such as a Focus.

Our car had crank windows and that is another reason for my design choice.

Now, am I going to want to have my door bar bent out a bit or straight and the tied into the b-pillar?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/26/2013 10:42PM by Greg Donovan.

A staright bar is stronger but room is at such a premium I would bend it out to the inner door skin. You can't gut the door without a bunch of grief.

Gene, I recall you posted a pic of a cool doorbar design in which the single doorbar angled down and met the sill bar in the forward third of the door opening, then bent back up to meet the upright of the half-lat. Am I remembering this correctly?