Watson Engineering Roll Bar Install

Epiphany said:

Anything you see that Watson could improve upon?

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No complaints. A recommendation was made toninclue 10.9 M8 bolts for the B pillar attachment and they said they are now going to include them in the kit. I think they may also be making some adjustment to the bracket that slips over the factory gusset at the base of the B pillar. Apparently every car is a little different so sometimes the holes have to be hogged slightly to line up. Mine lined up perfectly though.

Does any of the interior plastic need to be trimmed?

Only a small roughly 3" area at the bottom of the side panel around the main hoop.

Looks great. What are you going to do about mounting the lap and anti-sub belts. Do you see any issues with putting this roll bar in and keep the stock Recaros?

AMpowerJ said:

Looks great. What are you going to do about mounting the lap and anti-sub belts. Do you see any issues with putting this roll bar in and keep the stock Recaros?

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Using the Schroth eyebolts mounted to my Planted Seat base for the sub and lap belts. No issues with the Recaros....I just bolt in my race seat for the track and put the Recaros in for the street. It's only four bolts. I am upgrading the rear bolts to grade 12.9 for a little extra peace of mind.

cloud9 said:

Only a small roughly 3" area at the bottom of the side panel around the main hoop.

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Gary, can you post areas of the trim where you cut please. Looks great. I may pick one of these up when I go to Watson next week for my dyno pulls. They had a stack of them sitting there last time I was there. I should of got one then.

Voodooo said:

Gary, can you post areas of the trim where you cut please. Looks great. I may pick one of these up when I go to Watson next week for my dyno pulls. They had a stack of them sitting there last time I was there. I should of got one then.

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I took the best pics I could now that it's installed....it's just a small cut and arc for the bar to fit around.

cloud9 said:

I took the best pics I could now that it's installed....it's just a small cut and arc for the bar to fit around.

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Looks awesome

I'm about to do my install, how is it getting the nuts on the rear down bars from underneath? I'm going to be tackling this on stands.

I won't have exhaust on the car so hopefully that free up some room.

Thanks. Should be easier with no exhaust but definitely a two person operation. I was glad I had a lift.

Appreciate it.

I asume Watson also makes an NHRA legal 6 point roll bar?
This one would not pass any tech inspection.

Yes, they make a bolt in 6pt that is NHRA legal. That's the one I'm installing. They are essentially the same except for the addition of door bars.

How do you use 6 point harnesses with the stock seats? Has any one modified the seats so submarine straps can come through?

rallycobra said:

How do you use 6 point harnesses with the stock seats? Has any one modified the seats so submarine straps can come through?

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I test fit a bracket for 06mach1 at the other forum that bolts to the rear seat bolts and has eyelets for the sub belts. I'm not using it personally ,but he's making them for guys that want to use the stock seats. He had eyelets for the lap belts tack welded on the prototype that I test fit for him but I had to remove them due as they didn't clear the trans tunnel or outside frame. I think he was going to make them more vertical on the production units.

I like the roll bar a lot but i am on the fence because of additional weight. I can not find weight info about Watson, only info that shiping weight is aprox. 75 pounds. That seems to me a lot of weight. I doubt that packing will be so heavy so most part of the weight must be roll bar itself.... In comparison Cooltec says 42 pounds. But even the 42 pounds is additional weight increase in car like R, where you try to decrease weight down as much as possible. Any opinions?