Sparco Harness Bar. DIY Installation.

vo7848 · 03-10-2009, 10:51 AM

As promised, here is the DIY for all you shade tree machanics who like to do your own work. This is going to be a two day process for me, installing it on my 2003 Touring model. I ran out of mounting hardware on the 1st day. I will have this stickied and my orginal thread removed:
http://my350z.com/forum/exterior-and...tion-tips.html

Bare with me, this is long with tons of pics.

I started off by purchasing a use silver Sparco harness bar from one of our forum members. It had a few nicks, scuffs, and the bolts on it had some rust. I decided to have it smoothened out and repainted to match my Bride seats. This would make it fit with the theme color of my car. It's also pretty noticable from the rear hatch window, in this bright red color. I also visited the local harware store to pick up a couple new bolts to go with it. Remember that the Sparco bolts are Standard, not Metric. I sat at the harward store for awhile puzzled as to why I couldn't find Metric bolts of the same size.

While at the hardware store, I picked up a couple longer bolts(2 1/2inch) and zinc plated washers(7/16inch) incase I needed them. *Note: 3/8 washers will work also

During this time, I had already sent the bar off for painting at a local body shop. Before sending the bar off, I had to remove the "Sparco" decal plate. It's made of aluminum and is glued to the bar with 3M. I decided to heat up the plate with a heat gun, then use a foot long piece of fishing line to wedge it out. It was like dental flossing. BTW, the glue is still good on the decal. I plan on just pasting it right back onto the bar once I'm done.

vo7848 · 03-10-2009, 11:05 AM

Day 1 of installation. I received my bar and brackets back from the body shop. Ready for install.

You want to prep the car first. This will make the install easier when you're doing it by yourself. It will also keep you from scratching up your interior panels.

I've included some before shots and pics after I pulled my seats forward and placed/taped drop clothes everywhere.

vo7848 · 03-10-2009, 11:10 AM

Next we remove the portion of the seat belt that atattches to the B-pillar.

vo7848 · 03-10-2009, 11:14 AM

With the OEM bolt unscrewed from the B-pillar, we can see all the inner workings of the seatbelt bracket. Not much to it.

I placed the OEM bolt next to a ruler for sizing.

vo7848 · 03-10-2009, 11:20 AM

Next I took a measurement of the Sparco bracket, just to see how thick it was. I also test fitted one of the 2 1/2 bolts I purchased. It turned out to be too long. I test fitted it with the OEM bracket, OEM spacer, and Sparco bracket attatched. With the new bolt tightened all the way down, until it stopped, there was still a good 1/4 gap left to fill. I decided to go with the factory bolts instead.

vo7848 · 03-10-2009, 11:25 AM

Here's a couple test fit shots with the OEM harware. It looks good, but there's problems.

vo7848 · 03-10-2009, 11:28 AM

3 problems!

vo7848 · 03-10-2009, 11:34 AM

I decided to tackle the outer portion of the OEM bracket problem 1st. Simple solution: two 7/16 washers. *Note: 3/8 washers will work also. This fixed the seatbelt swiveling problem and also fixed the asthetic cover piece fittment problem. However, the additional 2 washers made the problem of not having enough bolt thread even worse. I took a thickness measurement for reference.

vo7848 · 03-10-2009, 11:37 AM

I killed 2 problems with one stone here. I decided to replace the OEM spacer with five 7/16 washers. *Note: 3/8 washers will work also. The large gaps between the interior panel and Sparco bracket are gone, and the OEM bolt is allowed to thread futher into the B-pillar.

A total of 7 washers is needed per side to compelete the job.

vo7848 · 03-10-2009, 11:41 AM

One last pic I took last night. This is as far as I have gotten so far. I ran out of washers. I'll be headed to Home Depot after work today to pick some up. I'll finish up the install tonight and post more pics tomorrow. Comments are welcomed.

got556 · 03-10-2009, 05:17 PM

awesome write up.

vo7848 · 03-10-2009, 07:23 PM

Thank you sir. I just finished the install. It looks immaculate! I could not be more pleased.

I'll post pics tomorrow once I edit them...

got556 · 03-10-2009, 07:52 PM

Can't wait to see the completed project. This bish should be stickied in the how to after everyone is done drooling on how complete and kickass of a DIY thread this is.

definitionxmk · 03-10-2009, 09:05 PM

great writeup! i'll be using this when i get mine =)

BTW, where did you get the harness bar?

Edit: nm, i skipped over your first post x_x

2k6-z33 · 03-10-2009, 09:11 PM

on all of the above nice writeup.

vo7848 · 03-10-2009, 09:34 PM

Thanks fellas.

I got the bar from a member who was parting out his car. He was from Corpus Christi, TX. He sold the bar to me for $320.00...

Blck350z · 03-10-2009, 10:36 PM

off topic but, can you use the stock seat belt w/ the cuga's???? i had a really hard time affixing my seat belt receiver to my old sparco's ?!?!? ( I know you installed a harness bar for harness's but just curious)

MethodRN · 03-10-2009, 10:39 PM

Great write up as always. Now you'll need some harnesses. I know people will say red harnesses, but I'd actually go with a different color. It might be to much red if you go with red harnesses.

MethodRN · 03-10-2009, 10:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blck350z

off topic but, can you use the stock seat belt w/ the cuga's???? i had a really hard time affixing my seat belt receiver to my old sparco's ?!?!? ( I know you installed a harness bar for harness's but just curious)

I think Val has Vorga's with the lower side bolsters so don't think it affects him. However, I've had Bride Brix before and didn't have any issues using the OEM belt.

vo7848 · 03-10-2009, 10:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MethodRN

Great write up as always. Now you'll need some harnesses. I know people will say red harnesses, but I'd actually go with a different color. It might be to much red if you go with red harnesses.

Thanks Junior.

I'm definitely not going to use red harnesses. You know how streamline and conservative I am, so I was thinking about silver. Then, there's always the timeless Takata classics too.

What do you think?