door bars are worth every cent
 

I have a 1991 with 170k miles, so its the most flimsy of all Miatas. The car now feels like one piece of metal, rather than two subframes which twist around, it was so bad in my car that on 205 r-comps on 99 wheels I was lifting the front inside wheel on corner exit. The car now rides smoother and doesn't feel "over-sprung" anymore. The hardtop rattle at cruise is gone too.
http://i49.tinypic.com/58fib.jpg
I now must remove the RB rear bar and try a stock bar again because adding throttle causes front wash-out. If I had better dampers I'd just remove the rear bar and add valving but my Flex will jack with any more stiffness.

Yes, you should buy them. My car feels half its chassis age.

Short concise review, nice. But what does this mean? I first interpreted that as understeer, but then, changing rear ARB to a softer one would'nt cure that.

Does this only brace the chassis twisting and not longitudinal bending?

Bolted or welded in?

What brand?

Already have frame rails right?

Hard Dog bolt in bars right?

Great review and good to know it makes a difference. Boss Frog slams them so much I was waffling. Got a set coming for the holidays now.

I have said it before but a +1 from me on the door bars. I have the Hard Dog bolt-in set (with a roll bar) in my '99 and they really make a big difference. The door bars form a triangulated structure (with the floor pan/frame, and the chassis behind the seat forming the other two legs).

Yup, I've heard the door bars make more of a difference than the rollbar. I'll be picking some up hopefully before the season starts.

What seats do you have?

I've been putting off door bars because of potential seat interference, but it looks like they fit well with yours.

Can you measure hor far they sit away from the door sill? X inches in and X inches higher would be awesome.

Thanks for the input, hustler. I've been considering these for my 213k-mile '90 as part of a plan to get rid of the flimsy-factor.

Did you get yours directly from Bethania or elsewhere?

both
Bolted in.
hard dog
no overprice, heavy frame rails.
yes
The seats are Ultrasheilds from TDR. Those are new too. It all depends on how you do the mounts. The bars touch the door card all the way down.
Bought them from Gary with the seats.

Cool, i'll be getting a set soon too.

How do you like the seats? I really want a pair but, i've heard that they are not very comfy, especially for a daily.

For dual duty seats, take a look at Cobra Clubmans

Door bars are nice, but getting my 240 pound butt in and out of race buckets with the bar in the way almost makes me want to pull the door bar...... ALMOST :)

Quick release steering wheels make life easier though

I doubled the foam padding in the butt and added some lumbar and its just as comfy as the old sparco sprint. My hips AND shoulders fit in this seat which is nice. I don't know my measurements, but I'm 5'11, 31" waist, and weigh 184lb...the shoulders and thighs never fit right.

cuse your soo jacked :cjerk: lolol

Having setup cars with Hard Dog door bars and frame rail braces myself. I have to say the Door bars are like an order of magnitude more effective at stiffening than the frame rails even compared to a full butterfly.

On my car I have a Hard Core Bar and door bars. I also seam welded the chassis and welded in reinforcement plates at the roll bar and door bar attachment points. I also added my own version of under fender braces (more like Tucken 99 than Boss Frog) I have my own front and rear subframe braces My own front shock tower bar that triangulates through to the base of the windshield. I am also running FM frame rails but without the butterfly.

Of all of these things without a doubt the most effective chassis stiffener I have done is the door bars.

Bob

I'm jealous, Bob. I've only driven the car home from the shop, but it feels half its age now. I'm putting on the stock sway and hopefully going to the track this weekend. Hopefully the car won't be as sketchy because it was a little daunting at times through highspeed stuff. I really need aero...but that's for another car.

Yea I alwas ran the Racing Beat 1 1/8 hollow up front and as I got the chassis much stiffer I went back to running a stock bar in the rear instead of the 5/8” RB.

I recently installed ISC sways. 1 ¼” X 1/4” wall in the front. And 5/8” in the rear. Right now I have the rear on full soft and the front 1 hole from full stiff. But it is hard to compare directly to other bars because both front and rear have much more adjustment range than other bars and the arm lengths are much longer making them softer than they might seem.

Bob

Great to hear! This is the next purchase for my car.

Do you have install pictures, and do you think it stiffens the bosy more than frame rails?

This thread sucks...

...now I have to have them. I must cure my rattles at all costs. Better handling a plus as well.