Porsche TE Roll Bar Installation Instructions
Instructions are rather simple: Remove the rear view mirror. I did not need too. Of course the seats are already out of the car. Slip the roll bar into the car by rotating it on it's side with legs facing toward the rear of the car. The front legs should be oriented on the bottom when doing this. Carefully get it into the car and slowly rotate the bar up and back towards the final position(If you have a sunroof, be very careful. The mechanics under the roof lining are sharp and the roll bar can cut the liner when it rubs up against it. KPV is aware of this issue) GT2/3 owners will not have this concern). It helps to remove the seat belt height slider units first(Use a flat head screw driver to pry the units off of the bolt the seat belt is attached to. The bolt head has a hole in it where the peg of the adjuster unit sits in, held in by the friction between the peg and the hole. Once it's pried off, the top portion of the unit is held in by two plastic clips that will snap out) you will also need to remove the clothes hook right behind the sliders too. This can be done using a plastic spatula to pry it up and off from the roofline molding. I found it easiest to attach the front legs first that attach to where the front seat belt ring attaches on the door pillar by the rocker panel. Now push the roll bar back into position so that the rear legs line up with the mounting holes on the side of the chassis in the seat well(You will be crushing the plastic rocker panel during this process) I recommend disconnecting the negative on the battery. Another poster indicated that there is some wiring that applies to the airbags running through the rocker panel. You don't want to chance it having the air bags deploy during the positioning process when the rocker panel is crushing. If you have a TT or coupe with rear seats, they will have to be removed. The mounting bolt hole will be visible.***If you have a GT3 or GT2, you are not as fortunate. You will need to cut a hole in the carpet to expose the bolt hole. What's worse is that the bolt hole is covered by a polypropylene plastic cap. Not just any cap mind you, a screw cap. What makes it difficult to remove is the fact that the cap is flush with the chassis, almost exactly like a bumper plug, so you can get a wrench, pliers or anything on it to get leverage to unscrew it. Use a screwdriver to pry the edges up far enough so that you can use some needle nose pliers to grab a hold of it and unscrew it. Cutting the holes and getting the caps off almost took an hour for me since I did not have the benefit of these instructions.
Position the rear legs so that they line up with the holes. It may be helpful to try screwing in the bolts first to get a feel for the correct angle and orientation of the bolt screwing in. Once the bolts are screwed in, your done...Pretty simple, right???The problem is things just done line up just exactly perfect. I found the rear bolts more difficult to screw in than the fronts. At least with the fronts, the big metal sleeve orients the bolt screw in angle correctly once it's lined up with the hold.
I found no need to use compression straps for this process. Two people are ideal for this job since one can hold the bar into position to line up the holes while the other focuses on screwing in the bolt. If your crazy, like I am, doing it by yourself requires you to hold the bar in position with one hand and screw in the bolts with the other. No easy feat. Best of luck...
PS: You may be asking yourself, once the seats are in, how do I attach the lower seat belt ring to the rocker panel where it was originally attached. It's not a good thought. Basically once the bar is in, you will need to install the seats. Once they are in and you have threaded the belt through the hole on the seat back, you will need to unscrew the roll bar's front mounting leg bolt. Slip the bolt through the seat belt ring then screw it back. I have yet to do this, but am confident that it won't be too difficult. Since the rocker panel is crushed(the roll bar will pretty much stay in position since the other 3 bolts are still attached), you can use some wedges of some sort to keep the front leg into position while the bolt is removed to thread the seat belt ring through it and re-tighten the bolt. Or have some one hold the bar into position for the brief time you have to pull the bolt out.
Position the rear legs so that they line up with the holes. It may be helpful to try screwing in the bolts first to get a feel for the correct angle and orientation of the bolt screwing in. Once the bolts are screwed in, your done...Pretty simple, right???The problem is things just done line up just exactly perfect. I found the rear bolts more difficult to screw in than the fronts. At least with the fronts, the big metal sleeve orients the bolt screw in angle correctly once it's lined up with the hold.
I found no need to use compression straps for this process. Two people are ideal for this job since one can hold the bar into position to line up the holes while the other focuses on screwing in the bolt. If your crazy, like I am, doing it by yourself requires you to hold the bar in position with one hand and screw in the bolts with the other. No easy feat. Best of luck...
PS: You may be asking yourself, once the seats are in, how do I attach the lower seat belt ring to the rocker panel where it was originally attached. It's not a good thought. Basically once the bar is in, you will need to install the seats. Once they are in and you have threaded the belt through the hole on the seat back, you will need to unscrew the roll bar's front mounting leg bolt. Slip the bolt through the seat belt ring then screw it back. I have yet to do this, but am confident that it won't be too difficult. Since the rocker panel is crushed(the roll bar will pretty much stay in position since the other 3 bolts are still attached), you can use some wedges of some sort to keep the front leg into position while the bolt is removed to thread the seat belt ring through it and re-tighten the bolt. Or have some one hold the bar into position for the brief time you have to pull the bolt out.
