help me with roll bar padding please
 

I went over a bump yesterday, and made blood come out of my head. Help me decide what to buy.

http://www.good-win-racing.com/mazda/miata/30-1026.html
but I don't know how thick it is, and very expensive.

http://www.longacreracing.com/catalo...d=869&catid=21
is that too thick for a off-the-shelf wrap?

the thinner version
http://www.longacreracing.com/catalo...d=933&catid=21

Can I buy some pipe foam and go arround the bar and the padding, or will it be too thick? Will it look all gayed out with just the sfi if I don't wrap it?

Any pics?

My head is still oozing goop.

thanks. If you have knowledge where I can get this stuff cheaper, please chime in too.

I don't even see how you could hit your head on your rollbar.

I have the formed stuff on mine in link #1. The stuff is SFI rates so it's made to make contact with a helmet. Betcha if you hit your head on it you could make it ooze just as easily.

You probably just want some impact foam to keep small impacts from hurting.

http://www.ogracing.com/eshop/home.asp?categ=175

yeah i've heard this discussed before but for me to hit my head on my rollbar i'd have to come out of seat a good six inches and then snap my head back, though i do have pretty low seats

my head is higher than the roll bar, and the seating position is so far forward that I can't comfortably drive the car without my knee in the dash.

5'11, 208lb.

Before the roll bar, my seat was two clicks from the teh rear, and leaning back against the parcell shelf. I'm just too broly for the car...hehe.

link to "impact foam" please.

i did, it's on the bottom. It's the stuff you typical see rollbars wrapped in with zipties.

I don't know if I should get that or sfi.

what rollbar do you have. I have a the hcdd and with my sparco sprints i'm about 6 inches under the roll bar. I'm 6' 203

There was some discussion at the last autox about the foam. Get the "good" stuff.... the pool noodles, look the same, but it's not dense enough. You definately need something that will prevent/slow your head from going through the foam.....

I'm 6'2, and I find that I can sit straighter, but still need the seat basically as back as it will go... especially if we are talking this time of year, when there's more "layers" of jackets, etc... In summer, I can go up a notch....

I've got only the style bar at the moment, and want to get a bar... but I just haven't wanted to give up my modified tonneau cover yet..... But I'm also leaning towards a boss frog, rather than a HD HC DD..... (which would be the only other choice. <G>

Dave,

I have a sport bar with a cross member and harness bar that does not restrict access. I'm all torso (5'11" witha 32" inseam). I need those seats. Can you tell me anything about how you mounted them? I was going to use the sparco mount, but how close can you get the bottom of that seat to the floor with that mount? Even with the foam cut out of a seat, my head is at the roll bar, and hair is in the hard top.

My head middle of the back of my head is still over the top of a sparco evo2. I'm a freak apparently.

Wait until you roll the car.


I'm 6'4" 240lbs. The seat is all the way back... and I've got the parcel shelf removed so I can lay the seat back another 2". Oh, and I've taken about 1" of foam out of the seat bottom. You can see in my vbGarage (pics updated today) how far back the seat goes. If I lean my head back it touches the bar. I'm absolutely fooked if I ever wreck it... I can't imagine surviving a rollover (bar or not). Mine is fully covered with SFI and I had a custom leather cover made for it... totally trick. Updated pics in my vbGarage right MEOW.

:confused: That's just not a nice thing to say. ;)

The roll bars that plant the main hoop on the parcel shelf are usually shorter than anything that moves the hoop to the floor. Unfortunately all the roll bars have some sort of compromise. The HDs use a funky foot for the main hoop that has a horrid shear angle BUT that's what maximizes the seat space and gets the hoop peak up. Ideally you want pedestals welded to the the frame channels and then the main hoop to meet that at a 90 intersection. Of course that's not practical for most. I wonder if your bar is the parcel shelf (each side of the gas tank) mount type, and that's why it's low.

The high density foam padding is the only the thing that's legal for racing nowadays. The light density (pool noodles) shows too much compression on impact. That said, this is all in reference to somebody wearing a helmet. That might be different when speaking of flesh, a bump and impact. - rob

Exactly why I recommended the low density stuff. It's soft and you're head should bounce off it. But at high speeds and big ass bumps and your head is going to go right through it.

But then again, the high density stuff I have from HD is just as freakin' hard as the bar itself. Hitting my bare head on that will damage me just as much as no padding. But it's SFI rated for the track use with a helmet.

I'd like to use some thin sfi, and pool noodles over it all, but thats not going to work. I can't decide...and need to figga this out now, my head is still leaking goop from saturday. Ya think the oblong padding from jegs is the best choice?

just use the SFI pad. its not that hard.

the important part is not killing yourself, and the sfi would do a better job of saving your skull vs the bar. If you hit the bar at a moderate speed (read non-lethal) its going to hurt, but a bruise and a mouse is better than the low density just giving way and cracking your head open, which is way easier to do than you think.

the low density does offer some protection, but its your head. Make some calls around to some reputable race shops or rollbar companies and ask which is safer for bare skulls.

I didn't make the brackets i bought them from wideopentuning here on this forum. I believe he had them done at a local shop, by the looks of them they're about as low as you can go. I have a hard core roll bar which i believe a few inches taller than your sport and with my seats i'd say they put me a few inches lower(i'm basically sitting on the floor with a 2" pad under my ass.

oh and as far as rolling the car, i also still won't hit the rollbar thanks to my harnesses.

how much and do you think they will make me a set?

that would be a better question for "wideopentuning" as i believe it was a local shop to him that did the fab work