Front Fender Removal - Page 2

Next we added a second bar below the main bar.  It was put in so it sat just slightly out from the main bar, following the angle on the side of the hood. 

Next Shane used the plasma cutter to cut my frame extensions at an angle that would allow my new winch bumper to sit flat.  I cut some material and he welded it in to cap off the center portion of the bumper.  the notch is to get the winch down lower.

Next came the push bar and it's supports. 

Nearly done. 

For the battery I chopped up the old battery tray so I could bolt it back in to it's original location.  Shane then welded a tube off of the main bar and attached a plate to the end of the tube to provide support for the battery shelf. 

11 hours later.   I have to still fab headlight mounts, P/S cooler mounts, P/S reservoir mounts, horn and relay mounts and some way to route the various wires around the engine bay and figure some way to latch the hood. 

First up was figuring out a way to latch the hood.  Through shear luck the top of the front clip fit in nicely behind the tubing.

Just past the headlight you can see one of the brackets that were welded to the tubing so I could bolt the piece of the original front clip to the tubing.

On both sides I bent and then welded in some 1/2" steel tubing to provide a place to attach wires and as shown in the second picture, to support the ends of the hood latch piece.  In the first picture you can see I welded a plate to the tube right in front of the battery to act as a gusset and to mount my horns and starter relay (relay gets attached to the tapped hole in the center).

For headlights I went with a pair of Hella 500 driving lamps, they use an H3 12V 55W halogen bulb.  They ran $64 from Pep Boys and included a relay, plenty of wire and even some covers. I also picked up a second relay.  An old trick to provide extra juice to the stock lights is to wire each one to their own relay.

To mount the lights I welded a flat steel plate to the steel support tubes and drilled a hole for the stud on the light and then drilled and tapped holes for a ground, light relay and A/C relay.  To make these light work with the light stalk on the steering column I had to wire the relay to trigger off of the running light power.  Only downside to these lights is you won't have a high beam.  The upside is these are way brighter than the stock lamps or even the halogen rock lights I use.

In the first picture you can see the bracket for the power steering reservoir was welded to the support tube on the drivers side.  Next I enlarged the mounting holes on the ARB compressor and mounted it to the firewall using the bolts that anchor the front end tubing.  I still have to add a gusset plate to the support tube and move all the relays above the compressor to it.

Visible in this shot are all the tabs I welded on to attach the lexan body panels.

All done.  I am thinking about adding some hood pins and eliminating the stock hood latch piece.  With the lexan panels on the gap between the hood and tubing is pretty noticeable.

One of the last minute things I added before painting was a tab on both sides just behind the headlights for a rock light.  I am hoping to illuminate hills and slopes by aiming these downward in front of the tires.

Update: 7-12-01  Got rid of the stock hood latch and added some hood pins (Pep Boys,  Mr Gasket #1016, $9.96).  To avoid having to weld another support on I made a bracket from 2 pieces of angle iron and used the headlight bolt to mount it.

With the stock latch out of the way I was able to attach the turn signals to the mounts that used to hold the stock latch.