904-090
June 3, 2004

Back in the old days (late 60's and 70's), real roll bars became kind of a must if you planned on racing hard.

Looking at these pictures, you can see that the roll bar was an add on. The original roll bar was bolted in with four 6mm bolts. The best thing to do was to weld in a thicker wall, bigger diameter, tube, and add a cross brace in the middle.

But to do this, the fiberglass bulkhead had to be all chopped up to get the new bar in. 090 never had the bulkhead repaired because the new roll bar was bigger and a different shape. We could leave this structural bulkhead as it was, but it would look like crap. Even though the fiberglass is thin, it still adds strength to the cockpit.

In the first pictures on this update, you can see that there is no covering on the roll bar. This is where the bulkhead was cut away. In these pictures, I've added a cabosil base
(bonding the roll bar to the cockpit), then a mat surface to reconstruct the original bulkhead.

When I'm done remaking the bulkhead, it will have a little bit of a different shape than the original, but it will be safer.

To get the shapes of the fiberglass similar to original, I use masking tape and cardboard to obtain the shape. You know how I love to use tape and goodies to make quick shapes for quick lay ups. Remember, we don't have a lot of time to make plugs and molds.

After a quick skin of cabosil (this makes the perfect shape) and two layers of 3/4 oz mat, the bulkhead is ready for bodywork and paint. The side you're looking at is the driver side.

Now I'm preparing the passenger side with the same steps of construction. I did both these sides in one day. Tomorrow I'll do the bodywork and finally flip the car over.

This is the passenger side during the lay up.

While I'm doing the glasswork on 090, Jack is still working on 068 and Andy is preparing shocks absorbers for final paint. In the picture you'll notice some springs, they are for 906-127.

Every morning, if we're restoring parts for paint we try to get any of the parts from other projects that are going the same color. This makes it a little more efficient for all projects.

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