Once you've finished marking the mounting holes, put the window down and take your drift/punch and tap a deeper depression into each hole you marked. These punch marks will help guide the drill bit squarely into the mark and reduce the chance the bit will wander. First, drill the middle hole and both 2nd to outside holes (Most safari kits we've installed are the 7-hole flavor) saving the last few holes for drilling once you hang the safari. Grab 3 screws and your phillips screwdriver and have your assistant lift and position the safari so that you can mount it to the lower roof crown. Tighten the screws but not more than snug. You're gonna lower the safari into the "closed" position and double check your center alignment before you drill those final 4 holes. Done? If all looks fine (equal reveal/gap) along both sides of the window opening, carefully pivot the safari back into the fully open position and drill your remaining 4 holes, add screws and tighten all 7 down to a good solid feel. Take a break, admire your work and then do the other side....

STEP 5. Mounting the Pivot Brackets

With both windows mounted securely you can now fit the 3 steel pivot brackets which maintain the angle (open or closed position of the windows) and are, luckily, interdependant of each other. The kit we're installing requires welding the brackets into position -vs- screwing or riveting. We ALWAYS recommend the welded approach as it provides secure rigid mounting points which will not move, slip or fall off (unlike screws and rivets).

To register the bracket (figure out exactly where it needs to be welded to the pillar) close the window (fully down position) and grab your bag of supplied goodies (should be 8 plastic washers, 4 wing-bolts and a bunch of metal washers) take the wing bolt and slide it through the long oblong hole of the safari pivot and thread it into the mounting bracket. In our illustration (bottom photo) we've already raised the safari pivot arm out of the way after we've indexed the bracket, but, you should get the idea. What you need to do is position the bracket so that, when the safari is fully closed, there's still a half inch or so of travel left "above" the bracket. You can verify your positioning by temporarily clamping the bracket in place, loosely mounting the wing-bolt/pivot arm and having your assistant slowly raise the safari into it's fully-open position. You should have close to an inch of travel left at the bottom end of the pivot arm.