Ratbag's 2006 Fox XS - Roo2

Gidday Folks

Guess I should start a journal. Seems a goodly system of keeping this stuff organised ... :poke: :lol:.

Anyway, I have fitted the OEM roof bars and Rola basket to Roo2 in the last couple of days.


E-30_JAK_2012-_4037410_Ew.jpg



Took it for a spin into town today on the Nepean Highway.

From about 70 km/h, it started to purr.

By about 80 km/h, the purr had become a more of a roar ... :( :(.

This will drive me NUTS, in short order ... Fortunately, it is my intention to fit the basket to the lid on my rebuilt trailer, where it should be out of the wind, and the noise should be well behind me ....

Will keep you posted about all this ... :iconwink: ;) :raspberry:
 
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Well, I've successfully removed the OEM front bumper and reinforcing bar, without breaking anything - on either the car or me ...

I now have the SubaXtreme reinforcing bar fitted (loosely) and a friend is coming around tomorrow to help me attach the SubaXtreme bar.

The fog lights need to be removed from the OEM bar and fitted to the SubaXtreme bar.

I have taken photos of the entire process. Hopefully these will fill in some of the yawning gulfs in the SubaXtreme video!!

@ MAS:

The OEM bumper and expanded foam padding weigh around 6 Kgs total, and the OEM reinforcing bar weighs around another 6 Kgs.

Thus the difference in weight is 33 Kgs - 12 Kgs = +21 Kgs increase.

It will be interesting to see if I notice any difference in the ride or handling.
 
Ratbag said:
Gidday HC



Too bloody right, mate! :( :cry: :puke:

The most solid thing so far holding the bumper onto the car has been the two bolts that attach the number plate ... :eek:. They were the easiest thing to remove ...


Have I ever mentioned how much I dislike body clips, perchance?
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Told you :rotfl:

Let us know when the bar is on and we'll fit your UHF antenna. Have you got some red cable as we'll also run the live wire for the power as the same time :ebiggrin:
 
I've got a mate coming around in the morning to help fit and adjust the bumper onto the mounting bar.

Once the position is right, I can tighten up the mounting bar bolts and then remove the bumper to do the other work.

Does anyone know anything about properly designed after market body clips?
 
Is it possible to buy decent ones?

e.g. metal, better designed, spring loaded ... almost anything would be better!!!!
 
From experience I offer you this simple yet invaluable tip when fitting or removing front and/or rear bars.

Until the bar is firmly bolted into it's final position place a strip of heavy duct tape on the quarter panel at the place where the bar may come into contact with your paintwork.

These things bars are very heavy and awkward to maneuver with precision and there is a high likelihood you will bump your paintwork. 30 seconds of prep work and a cheap little bit of tape now saves an expensive/ugly paint touch up later.
 
^ Brilliant advice! Thanks LV :biggrin: :cool:

I would have thought of that about 1 millisecond after gouging the mudguard ....

I might put the tape on the bar instead of the panels however. Should work just as well. I will think further about this during my waking up process ;).

I'm a careful, neat worker, but poop still happens :cry:.

BTW, just because I'm a neat worker doesn't mean I'm a neat 'sitter arounder' - quite the contrary! You ought to see my garage ... :puke:.
 
Doing up the 6 bolts is a PITA!

If you're using nylock nuts every turn needs half a dozen swings with a ratchet.

While you are taping the fender protectors, tapa a bit of cardboard in front of the rad.
 
^ Yeah, it is ST ... :poke:.

The bar is now fitted to Roo2, with fog lights removed from OEM bar and fitted. It may need to come off again to adjust the mounting bar upwards, and so that the bar can be moved backwards a little further.

There were two long bits of plastic moulding running behind the OEM bar where it joined the mudguard. I have removed these, as the bar didn't seem to want to fit with them in place. Did you have to do this? I took some photos, but am too buggered to upload and post them ATM.

I now have to buy some suitable material to manufacture the top grill holder from. This stuff will also serve to make up side skirts for where the bar doesn't join the mudguard liners ... I may also make up some side channels for the sides of the grill. These bits of aluminium channel can be blind riveted into the bumper material, which is quite thick at this point.

My bar is also not quite 'square', in that the wing tips at the rear where they meet the mudguard will not align accurately. I need to exert some considerable sideways force to bend them both outwards slightly - about 5-10 mm each side. We got the mounting bar central and pretty square, I think ... However, this might need to be moved up a little.

A jack under the front of the bumper to take the weight, then slacken off the mounting bar to car chassis bolts and re-align the bar upwards.

The lowest point on my car is now the leading edge of the sump guard. There needs to be a flap that extends from the bottom lip of the bumper back over this. Screw onto the front of the sump guard and the rear edge of the bumper, perhaps? I have literally hundreds of dome head/Philips head appliance screws, in either zinc or cadmium plated ...

The height from ground to bottom of the OEM bumper was 310 mm, both under the fog light recesses and under the bottom centre of the OEM bumper. The new bumper is 328 mm under the fogs, and 345 mm under the centre. However, I also think it extends further forward than the OEM bar, but not at these measurement points. i.e. the approach angle should be that all-important 20+ mm better.

There will be room to reach between the top of the light bar and the bottom of the centre/upper tube to release the bonnet safety catch ...

The aerial fits very nicely, but removed again until I fit it permanently. Will do that next week when I get the light bar (which was shipped via Aussie Post yesterday, so should rock up around Monday/Tuesday).

It has become patently obvious to me just how much detail about removal and fitting their bar SubaXtreme has omitted from their "how to" video ...
 
Well, HC

havachat said:
My 2002 has a polished bar and the 2004 has the same colour hammertone as the bar you have. I would never get another polished bar. Too hard to keep clean and to stop the headlight glare I put two inch wide electrical tape on the back of the tubes (very durable). With the hammertone finish on the other bar this is not necessary. The hammertone is very durable and to repaint the bar would be a very expensive and time consuming exercise.
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Took Roo2 for a spin around the block this evening.

The bar didn't fall off ... :lol: :rotfl:.

However, I will need to paint the back of the bar with matte black paint. The high beams don't reflect off it. But the bloody low beams do!!

Oh well, the bar has to come off again at least once to adjust the mounting bar upwards as far as it will go. When it does, I'll hit the back of the outer bars with some matte black paint.
 
^ I hear what you are saying, but the bar has to come off anyway, so may as well do it with the matte black paint.

It is hard to get across just how sensitive I am to these things ... :iconwink:.

The matte black will blend in very well with the hammertone, so it won't matter if the job I do is less than perfect - which it will be ... :lol: :rotfl:. Won't be quite as rough as guts, but I don't intend it to be a work of art either. All it has to do is stop that small back reflection which I find so irritating and distracting.
 
The rough fitment completed.

The mounting bar still has to be adjusted more accurately, then the bumper needs to be jacked into position and fixed.

Before the latter, I will cut out some fog light protectors out of some perspex sheet I have about the place (the OEM ones I have don't quite fit). I will blind rivet some brackets onto the inside part of the fog light recesses with a tapped hole for a screw to hold these in place.

I also need to fit some channel section at the sides of the grill to locate it better.

After re-fitting the bumper, I will then apply some force to the rear of where it joins the mudguards on each side to improve the fit and finish.

By the time I have done all that, I should have received the light bar. When I have it, I will wire up both it and the UHF aerial and power feed at the same time.

I might start another thread with detailed photos of the SubaXtreme bar components from all angles, and the removal of the OEM bar and fitting the SubaXtreme one.

Here is a teaser of how Roo2 looks with its new moustache ATM:

E-510_JAK_2015-_6208264+copy_Ew.jpg
 
Thanks, MAS.

Still a fair bit of work to do yet though.

What ST said about protecting the radiator core while doing up the six bumper to mounting bracket is only too true.

Fortunately, I have two sets of sockets and ratchet handles. One handle is the standard size and the other is a much shorter (and cheaper and nastier) one. The latter one fits without hitting the core, if one is constantly mindful of that possibility.

I will do the final tightening using a ring spanner on one side and my big ratchet on the other.
Those bolts really need to be done up tight! I reckon around 60 ft. lbs.
 
Mounting plate mating surface gaps too great

The cold (literally ... ), hard light of day reveals the following ...

1) The mounting plates on the bumper section are around 10 mm thick, and seriously strongly welded onto the bumper from top to bottom, both sides.

2) The corresponding plates on the steel mounting bar are 6 mm plate, and are also seriously strongly welded onto the bar and chassis rail mounting plate, both sides.

3) There is a 'credibility gap' between the two plates of about 6-8 mms in total; i.e. about 3-4 mms on each side (I need to relieve the bolts and measure this more accurately ... ).

4) Tightening all six 12 mm HT bolts very tightly is not sufficient to bend either of these plates into a proper mating surface!

5) The bumper bar part has to come off so that I can measure up and drill some 3-4 mm alloy bar or plate to make up the difference, otherwise I will never be able to get the bar to stay in position! It currently moves around relatively easily.

6) This will probably only take a couple of hours, as the holes in the fish plates can be a few mms bigger in diameter than the existing bolts and bolt slots. Probably best to make them out of a piece of checker plate 3 mm aluminium I already have. This may allow a small amount of 'crush' that should stop the surfaces slipping over each other in use.

The good news is that I have managed to bend the upper/rear 'wings' of the bumper out slightly by use of substantial force with one foot braced against the tyres. This makes for a far neater fit between the mudguard and the top/rear of the SubaXtreme bumper.

I am yet to locate any suitable plasticised material for constructing the plates that marry the lower edges of the bar to the rest of the car to exclude dirt and crap generally. I may fabricate these out of some 2 mm aluminium sheet instead. They will not be held on with body clips, except to tie onto the existing mudguard liners ...

The parts involved are:

a) one for each side at the bottom of the new bumper, about 250 x 300 mm;

b) one across the front to fill the gap between the lower trailing edge of the bumper and the leading edge of the sump guard, about 1050 x 120 mm;

c) a 740 x 100 mm piece to anchor the top of the grill to the mounting points on the bonnet lock cross-member in front of the radiator.

d) one for each side of the grill to radiator space that have currently got a bit of floppy sponge rubber in them. These will be about 450 mm high by 150 mm deep each, with a further 20-30 mm as a right angle bend to bolt them on, roughly shaped to the inside surface of the new bumper, and bolted on to the car side uprights.

I don't recall seeing any of this stuff mentioned in the SubaXtreme video, or on their web site ... :poke:.
 
^

Just measured the mounting bar and bumper bar.

Mounting bar is 839 mm external edge to edge.

Bumper bar is 846 mm internal edge to edge (i.e. the mating surfaces).

Half way through making up shimming plates.
 
The bar is now fitted. Centred sideways; up and down at front and rear; lines up with the line of the mudguards pretty nicely.

The shimming plates worked well. I added some ice cream container lids each side to help 'bite'. I can now rock the car up and down vigorously using the bar without anything shifting.

I hurt all over ....

My frog lights are now koala lights ... :(
I'll leave the adjustment of these to a bit later ...
 
Thanks, mate :).

How is yours coming along? I see that you are busy accreting new bits for your engine swap.
 
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