My bullbar's custom underwear
Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2012 7:26 pm
For the last year and half I've had a bullbar with no 'bumper' or guard underneath. The one attached to the bullbar when I bought it was a PIA fibreglass thing that maintained the original factory shape - useless! What's the point of having a bullbar if you don't gain some improvement in departure angles... so off it went and ever since the front end has been a little 'naked'.
I've finally found the time (and skill) to get started on this little project. It started about 2 weeks ago with lots of things getting in the way.
I started by mocking up the panelling with cardboard:
Then it was time to clean up the old sheet metal I had lying around:
I did the rust removal with an abraisive wheel that connects onto a power drill (you can see it in the top RH corner of the pic below) - very effective!
From there it was time to cut to shape:
After that it was time to try out a few different techniques for bending and folding. I don't have an oxy torch, nor a folder, so it was time to experiment with different methods of shaping. I'll come back to this point later with some photos as I forgot to take them, but essentially I either scored a line with the angle grinder cutting disc in the thick stuff (2mm), or bent the thin stuff (1.6mm) in the vice, starting with the hammer and then moving it onto a peice of angled steel that was 10mm thick and clamped to the edge of the bench. This worked really well and after about half an hour of work I started to find the sweet spot with the hammer and things started to take shape.
From there it was bend, check, bend... check... tack tack tack and onto the next peice.
A few days hiatus with other stuff getting in the way and today saw some good progress. This morning it fitted up nicely and all tacked up. It took me a few hours to seam weld it all up and grind the edges nice with a few little extra bits of metal here and there to box up some gaps.
Here it is after sanding with a flap disc on the angle grinder, ready for paint:
And with the first coat of etch-primer:
While it was drying the first coat of etch I removed the bullbar and modifed the mounts so that it now sits a bit higher - before it was about 20mm too low and there was an ugly gap between body/lights and the bullbar. That's closed up nicely, however I feel it still needs to move back about another 30mm so I need to modify the other mounts for that to happen... this'll occur when I mount up the new bottom facia.
I'm very happy with how it's looking. I've learned lots of tricks doing this little project which will help with both final appearance and time needed when building my rear bar... which will hopefully happen next week!
Cheers,
Owen.
I've finally found the time (and skill) to get started on this little project. It started about 2 weeks ago with lots of things getting in the way.
I started by mocking up the panelling with cardboard:
Then it was time to clean up the old sheet metal I had lying around:
I did the rust removal with an abraisive wheel that connects onto a power drill (you can see it in the top RH corner of the pic below) - very effective!
From there it was time to cut to shape:
After that it was time to try out a few different techniques for bending and folding. I don't have an oxy torch, nor a folder, so it was time to experiment with different methods of shaping. I'll come back to this point later with some photos as I forgot to take them, but essentially I either scored a line with the angle grinder cutting disc in the thick stuff (2mm), or bent the thin stuff (1.6mm) in the vice, starting with the hammer and then moving it onto a peice of angled steel that was 10mm thick and clamped to the edge of the bench. This worked really well and after about half an hour of work I started to find the sweet spot with the hammer and things started to take shape.
From there it was bend, check, bend... check... tack tack tack and onto the next peice.
A few days hiatus with other stuff getting in the way and today saw some good progress. This morning it fitted up nicely and all tacked up. It took me a few hours to seam weld it all up and grind the edges nice with a few little extra bits of metal here and there to box up some gaps.
Here it is after sanding with a flap disc on the angle grinder, ready for paint:
And with the first coat of etch-primer:
While it was drying the first coat of etch I removed the bullbar and modifed the mounts so that it now sits a bit higher - before it was about 20mm too low and there was an ugly gap between body/lights and the bullbar. That's closed up nicely, however I feel it still needs to move back about another 30mm so I need to modify the other mounts for that to happen... this'll occur when I mount up the new bottom facia.
I'm very happy with how it's looking. I've learned lots of tricks doing this little project which will help with both final appearance and time needed when building my rear bar... which will hopefully happen next week!
Cheers,
Owen.
