Miata Mailing List: July 1999, Message #204

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Lugged all my tools, rollbar, ramps, etc, over to the folks house - 
planned to use a pulley system in the rafters of their garage to 
hoist the rollbar up out of the way, drive the Miata under it, and 
then lower the bar down to test fit, raise it back up, trim/cut/etc, 
lower and test fit again.

Bar went up fine - a little heavy to pull with just one hand, but was 
no problem with two hands.  On the second attempt, got the Miata 
lined up pretty much directly underneath the suspended rollbar.

Now, imagine your favorite type of apple.  Granny Smith, Golden 
Delicious, you name it.  Perfectly ripe - crisp cold and juicy.  
Perhaps a little bit of condensation forming on the apple, since you 
just purchased it freshly from the cold storage at your local 
orchard.  You're about to take your first bite - you close your jaws 
on the fruit, and it's so crisp it denies your first attempts - so 
you clamp your jaws with increasing vigor to break into the 
delectable item.  Then one of your teeth penetrates the outer barrier 
with that sound that only crisp apples make when you bite into 
them....

That's exactly what I heard in my head when I stood up to walk out of 
the Miata, and smack into the pointy end of the rollbar mounting 
plate with my forehead.  <thock>

Rollbar on a hoist - bad idea - but I continued... got over that 
little incident, and trooper that I am, kept on with the program.  
Got to lowering the bar in, to make sure where I wanted to cut the 
rear deck - lowered the bar to about the top latch level (with the 
top lowered of course) and it wanted to spin 90 degrees from where I 
wanted it.  I was outside the car holding the rope, and couldn't 
reach far enough inside the car to rotate the bar the way I wanted 
it.  So now one of the rear mounting plates was 'caught' underneath 
one of the top latches.  The other side was grazing along the topside 
of the latch, threatening to rotate over the trunk.  Joy.  So while 
holding the bar steady with one hand, tried to raise it back up with 
the other.  Nope.  Remember the first part?  Hard to do with one 
hand, easy with two?  Yup, so there I stand, everyone else had left 
for the 4th of July Firemans parade, keeping the rollbar from 
spinning with one hand, and keeping it from falling lower with the 
other, not able to raise it back out of the way.  After about a 
minute of contemplating what predicament my seemingly bright idea had 
wrought upon me, I took a deep breath, and heaved with both hands on 
the rope, as the bar broke free from the side where it was caught 
under the latch, which put it in a definite spin, and I heaved for 
all I was worth to get it well above the trunk before it spun too 
much..... that worked, and was about the only thing that went well 
tonight, if you call that going well.

Backed the car out, put the bar back on the ground, and went at it 
the old fashioned way... lugging the bar in and out by myself in the 
driveway.  Of course, I removed the center console, and left it at my 
place.... why would I need that?  Power windows.  So there I am, 
lugging this rollbar in and out of the car, just certain I'll graze 
the upper corner of one of the raised windows and smash it to 
hell.... but I did escape that fate.  I did have the doors open, I'm 
not *that* stupid  :-)  

So to keep the bar from marring the sills and possibly puncturing the 
carpet when I set it down in the floorboard (both seats are out, and 
backing the Miata out of a garage whilest sitting in the floorboard 
is something everyone should experience once!) so when I leave the 
car, step on the sill area, terry towel folded double on a stainless 
sill, as they say about Summit Point, friction is fiction.  Bad idea.

Don't know why all the raving about dremels.... damn useless in this 
application.  Bought a $5 cutting wheel, and tried to use it to cut 
the CPU mounting bolt.  Wheel was uselessly dull in 20 seconds, and 
had to wrench the bolt off with my bolt-cutter-sized pliers.  Can't 
imagine trying to cut out the rear deck with one of those things...

Which brings me to the one "high point" of the evening.  I did in 
about 5-10 minutes, both sides, what some folks say took them quite a 
while.  Did some rough measurements (oversized Hard Dogs recommended 
slot per suggestions by fellow listers) and drilled a 3/8" corner 
hole on each side, and then went at it with a 1960's vintage jig-saw 
and a brand new metal blade (that is, a blade designed to cut metal). 
 Total time, both sides, 10 minutes at the absolute most.  Bottom of 
the line Skil brand jig-saws are $40 at your local home improvement 
store.  2-pack of metal blades about $5.  Perhaps a good item for 
local clubs to stock for their members to borrow.  Didn't look at the 
blade, but I imagine it's barely spent.  Past experience says it cuts 
the removable aluminum shelf like a hot knife through butter.  That's 
the method I used when putting in the rear deck subwoofers.

So now the bar sits in there, needs to go rearward about another 
inch, as per a previous email to the list tonight, my freaking ABS 
sensor wires come up through the rear trunk tunnel area right where 
the rear mounting plate is supposed to be.  At the moment both rear 
mounting plates are sitting on a literal mound of body adhesive, or 
whatever that stuff is they use when putting the front fenders on, 
etc.  Whoever did my car was a slap-happy sumbitch.  The stuff is 
maybe 1/3" high, in a circle about 2" in diameter?  gadzooks.

Those are the highlights - other logistic nightmares left to your 
imagination (like leaving ramps and jack at home first try, not 
having rubber inserts anymore in rhino ramps, so they slipped on 
slick concrete floor, and so on, and so on)

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