My Spyder Roll Bar Question

[Tahoe]

When I bought my car it had (still does) a Spyder roll bar with cross brace and side sill tubes.

The question is this. How close to the roof is your Spyder roll bar? Mine is 3 inches (75mm) from the roof on either my soft top or hardtop. I think (know) it should be higher. I have found some pictures of other Spyder bars and though it's difficult to tell exactly, they all appear to be much higher than mine. Mine was installed at Spyder around '82 before the car moved to Canada, and now California. Maybe the later bars are higher? My plan is to either modify the existing bar to be higher or replace it with something else. Besides the height issue, I also don't like the way the cross brace limits the passenger seat from going further back. I can live with the cross brace but might not live with a lower roll bar if the car rolls!

[lotocone]

I recently bought a used Spyder rollbar that hasn't been installed yet. The height is 35-5/8" from the top of the triangular base plate to the top of the rollbar. I don't know how old mine is. Another Elan owner told me that the Spyder rollbar height was increased at some point in time, but I don't about the height change or when it occurred.

[Spyder fan]

Russ
Mine was fitted 2 years ago, I will have look today and report back.

[Spyder fan]

Russ
I have had a look and mine is 40mm 1 1/2" inches from the underside of my soft top. I hope never to test it's capabilities but there is at least one member here who is convinced it saved his life.

Regards

[Tahoe]

I just measured mine. It is 33 7/8" from the top of the triangular plate to the top of the roll bar. So mine is a 1 7/8" inches shorter than lotocones. and based on Spyder fans measurement his approx. 1 3/8" shorter. I measured to the inside of the hardtop without a headliner so our measurements could be different. Given all of our possible errors in measuring it's clear mine is at least 1 1/2" shorter. Even with the headliner installed in my hardtop mine could easily be 2 1/2" higher and not interfere with anything.

I took the seats out, removed the cross bar and was looking to see how I could increase the height. The problem is there is no straight vertical tubing on my bar. From the bottom it angles, out and then at the top of the seats in angles in with gussets. I would rather cut the bar and sleeve it at the cuts to move it up. I would still need to fix the back braces and fix the cross bar to allow the passenger seat to move back. After doing all that it seems like it would just be easier to build a new one.

[lotocone]

Russ, How about adding some height just below the point where the cross brace meets the vertical tube? Mine looks straight in that area. I guess yours could be different. Maybe you could take it to a welder and see what can be done.

[Tahoe]

Bob,

I wish mine looked like yours. Mine is not vertical but slants out slightly, and my cross bar is not welded in, but bolted in. Because my bar is so early they must have made lot's of changes. I think I'll take the hard top off, remove the roll bar, get my seats exactly where I want them and then figure out if I can modify the existing bar, keeping it strong, and functional. It's fine if I'm the only person in the car, but the passenger seat is too far forward, making it uncomfortable for anyone, except my dog!

[lotocone]

Russ, I hope you can get it modified so that it works alright for you. In my car, there's normally no passenger or a very good passenger - my dog.