Autopower Rollbar – Impressions

Well, I installed the Autopower Rollbar today shortly before ptmon came over and we traded decklids (He purchased my spoiler). After all the garage work was done I went for a little drive. I was amazed at how solid the car feels now. I didn’t think it would be that noticeable. I forgot to weigh the bar to see how much weight I added. If I had to guess, I’d say maybe 15-20 lbs.

I did lose 6lbs off the rear after “removing the spoiler”. I’ll gain another 4.6 lbs once I install the real TRD one. Not sure when I’ll get around to that though.

But anyway, i don’t want to thread drift too much…

Here are some comments on the install:

  • I followed the instructions on spydermagazine for the most part.
    Take off the door sil plastics in addition to the other 3 pieces. it will make it easier. Also, the storage bin doors make a good flat surface when open.
  • To cut the hole in the plastics, I used a hole saw bit for my drill. it’s like a cup with a drill bit in the center. I will post pics later, I just wanted to get this info out there while it was fresh in my mind.
  • I used a variable speed jig saw with the speed set to the slowest setting to cut the straight parts.
  • The image on spydermagazine is not really set to size. I’m going to post a template that you will be able to print out and tape to your piece. You will need to use legal sized paper to make sure that the whole thing gets printed, but it should work fine for you.
  • Fitting the plastic side pieces in after the bar is in place is not easy. You need to sort of bend the section up that has the circle cut while you slide the other cut section around the forward piece of the bar. While you’re doing this, you need to make sure that it will click back into place too.
  • Remember where you took everything off.
  • 4 of the clips are not the same as the other “push center in and lift out”. they must be pryed out. Hopefully, you have a clip puller or something similar. I’m lucky enough to have a lot of these types of tools, so it wasn’t bad for me.

That’s about it. I’ll post some pics once I get them off the camera and on my site. I’ll really get to test out the bar on Sunday down at Homestead. 😈

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