Retro fitting Side Impact Bars

[Pacman1972]

Seen all the previous posts about SIP and read the horror stories and not overlly concerned, however currently have both door cards out and noticed there is plenty of room for some kind of side impact protection. Presumably wouldnt be that costly to have something made up that bolted to the door mounting points and the door lock.

Anyone tried this or done something similar?

[constablergt]

I got some way through this idea but never finished, this might be something that I finish. The problem I found was that nether mounting point was very strong so it kind of seemed pointless unless you also strengthen these as well.

This was half way through.

[V8FROG]

they import fews chimaera in australia and they have all the side impact bars so it is pretty easy i guess.my car will be ship there too.so i will need to get it done!!

[V8NRG]

There is no point puting bars in the door if they dont link to bars in the front wing and rearwing, these should then conect to the chassis just as a full roll cage would.

If you just put bars in the door, all your doing is adding weight to the door...not crash protection.

[Pacman1972]

V8FROG said:

they import fews chimaera in australia and they have all the side impact bars so it is pretty easy i guess.my car will be ship there too.so i will need to get it done!!

Be interesting to try and find out how the aus cars have them fitted. Assuming it's for regulation they must have some benefit.

[Pacman1972]

V8NRG said:

There is no point puting bars in the door if they dont link to bars in the front wing and rearwing, these should then conect to the chassis just as a full roll cage would.

If you just put bars in the door, all your doing is adding weight to the door...not crash protection.

Was thinking the door mounts for the hinges would join to the chassis to handle the weight of the door presumably the same for the latch? This being the case would at least deflect some of the impact although granted in a high speed impact the benefit might be marginal. But anything has to be better than nothing.
Will do some investigating.

[900T-R]

Pacman1972 said:

Assuming it's for regulation they must have some benefit.

The benefit being 'passing the regulations'...

[rev-erend]

Dont forget that bars is also the thing that will break your bones - be it an arm or hip. So careful positioning is vital as is a more absorbant door card .. TVR probably excluded them for just this reason as it gave them less scope in the door card.

For reference - the wedge cars had the door beams as they were exported to America at the time and have a good few inches air gap between the bat and the door card.

Guess it would be good to see photos of the Aussie car bars for reference.

[JR]

900T-R said:

Pacman1972 said:

Assuming it's for regulation they must have some benefit.

The benefit being 'passing the regulations'...

Yes, the 'Aussie answer' is a red herring.

[JR]

Pacman1972 said:

Was thinking the door mounts for the hinges would join to the chassis to handle the weight of the door presumably the same for the latch?

Your thinking is logical but that's not the way that the cars were built. As the rev mentioned the wedge cars were the only ones built to pass crash tests; have a look at the hinge on those cars. To convert a GriffChim would be a big job: not only would you have to re-design the door but also the hinge, latch and connection to the chassis and the ability of the chassis to transmit the loads at your connection points. More than a weekend job.