[frankym]

I tried to sheer it off with a chisel but it didn't budge, as for securing the new bar to the same spot, I found that when secured in only 2 spots, it shifted a bit. I drilled a new 1/8 hole and then bought some 10-16x3/4 self drilling screws. I bored the screws into the hole and kept inserting new screws to avoid snapping the screws. Sure enough I sheered the head of the screw. WIth that, I took a nail set, set it over the screw remains, and tapped it a few times to mushroom the screw a little, it seems to fit just fine, if I need to replace it, I can always drill it out. It's pretty solid now, and it looks pretty good. I was going to treat the bare steel with phosphate wash after sanding it down and then clear it. But I wound up just hitting it with high gloss epoxy paint from VHT, it's called roll bar paint. it gets a nice glossy finish that's pretty smooth and it can be fine sanded with 1500-2000 grit paper and then compounded to a miror like finish. The black looks pretty tuff, and it matches the interior nicely, in fact, the leather wrapped wheel gets a little accentuated.

I think the ideal way to secure the other end of the hoop would be to drill and tap the bar and solid nipple, and then just thread a bolt throuhg it, but my knuckles were ripped to shreds getting that damn pro 5.0 shifter tower. man that thing is tuff, it's not so much the limited space to access the bolts, nor is it the limited turning capability of the socket ratchets in the confined space, it's that those bolts are secured with loc-tite, so every 1/8 turn required a lot of effort.