GU rear Half bars / quarter chop

[rb30e]

Hi Guys,

got sick of the crap plastic rear bars on my series 1 GU wagon always coming off and having to cable tie them back on. Plus the rear lights always falling out, put that many dodgy tech screws in them to hold them in it was looking hideous.

I decided to make some half bars and chuck the old ones, plus help increase my departure angle to a degree.

Pics below

[threedogs]

Rear bar if you'd call it that are usless. was toying with the idea of making sheet metal ones with increased departure angle, and still look factory. look forward to pics of what you come up with

[rb30e]

I didn't take a whole lot of pics to begin with but this is the bare frame of it.

You can see I used a section of the old reinforcing that sits behind the old plastic rear bar.

I cut it in line with the chassis rail and welded a 4mm plate to cap it off. I the drilled two large 14mm? holes for the bolts to fasten it onto the chassis rail.

using my mandrel bender i bent up some sections of 1 3/4" mild steel tube. was my first project with the pipe bender and took some serious stuffing around to figure it out and get all the bends right.

To secure the front half I welded a straight it of pipe towards the chassis rail accessible through the wheel arch. Then welded some mounts onto the chassis rail to make it easy to remove if necessary.

[rb30e]

Three dogs, Rear bar if you'd call it that are usless. I found the stock ones useless as mentioned I tore them off that many times and the lights especially. Had to find something more permanent, which could also help with the departure angle as a secondary objective. I guess it depends on how serious you want to go 4x4ing and the kind of situations you may find your car in

The center section of the rear bar is fine for me so I figured why change it, I only wanted to make something up for the crap corners that fall off all the time. And fix up the rear lights

[rb30e]

my mandrel bender in action.

[rb30e]

the two finished products now in primer

[rb30e]

wanted to fit it to the car and figure out how much of the rear quarter protrudes so i could mark it out ready to cut the bastard off.



You can also see the ebay fully functional lights I've already installed and wired up. not bad for $120.

[rb30e]

now to mark off the section of the rear quarter thats gotta go.

[threedogs]

Looking good, plus if you get whacked in carpark now they'll come off second best, those benders are worth every penny, awesome piece of kit for the workshop. didn't want to fill in with checker plate and recess some LED lights?

[rb30e]