Installing the rollbar

Four years after making the rollbar, I'm finally to the stage where I am working on the canopy and have planned out how I want to install the rollbar.

First thing I did was figure out at what fuselage station to drill through the longerons. I needed to make sure the bolts attaching the rollover structure wasn't going to get in the way of the bolts that attach the canopy hinges.

I drew a horizontal mid-line... and then the station location... two for the forward section..

...and two for the aft section.

I then removed the rollover structure from the fuselage... and drilled 8 pilot holes..

Before drilling through the longerons, we clamped the rollover structure tight against the longerons in both the vertical and horizontal axes...

And then drilled through.. opening up the holes to #12 for AN3-7A bolts...

I then inserted AN3 bolts through to act as pins to temporarily hold the rollover structure in place while I drilled the other side...

Clamped the other side down and drilled those holes...

I then needed to open up the outside of the fuselage so the t-nuts would fit... I started with a 0.5" dia drill bit...

I then used a dremel with a sanding drum to remove the fiberglass and the foam up to the longeron...

Tee-nut (aircraft spruce 04-02057 TEE NUT 10-32)...

I then used longer AN3 bolts in order to reach the tee-nut... to start torquing it so that the tee-nut would start to bite into the longeron...

Once the tee-nut was further in, I was able to remove the longer AN3 bolt and replace it with the perfect length AN3-7A bolt. At first, I was concerned that there wasn't the normal 2 threads showing. However, the tee-nut has more thread than a standard nut, so using a longer bolt would result in it bottoming out at the bolt's grip shank.

Super happy with the result! This roll cage isn't going anywhere! And I am confident that in the event of a rollover, would keep the fuselage afloat!