Has anybody ever swapped out the plastic :blush2: "chrome" on the top of the roll-bars for something more in the metallurgical family? The plastic makes me weep.
If the 2nd Gen is like the 1st Gen there is metal under there just a plastic cover that pops on around it all...
Maybe someone who can build roll cages could bend some tubing to replace 1, 2 3 and 4... RealOEM.com  BMW R57 Cooper S Trim panel roll bar Ben is right, though... I'd be worried about performance of the pop-up roll-bar things. I don't like messin' with safety equipment
Yeah, I'm tracking with both of you on the "this is part of the safety system" worry. Still, swapping an exact dupe of even piece #1 from the digram shouldn't change anything. My neighbor *is* a machinist. Plus, he's the one who pointed out the plastic, so he should do this for me for free.
I think that I would rather have a piece of decorative plastic smack me in the head in the event of a rollover vs. a piece of metal should either choose to pop off. But that's just me, I'm prone to dinting.
Be careful swapping out a plastic piece with a metal piece. If you increase the mass of the part, and you will be doing this going from plastic to metal, it takes more energy to move.... E=MC2. Should a roll over occur, it will take longer for the roll bar to activate in the up position, and I assume it needs to lock in place at the higher position for roll over protection. It may not reach this locking point. All of this action is supposed to occur in a very short period of time.....