Push Bar

[Hiredgoon]

I've been wanting something to mount some lights on for a while, and so my fabricator brother-in-law whipped up a push bar this weekend. It's still got to go in for a powder coat (or possibly undercoating, I want something with a bit of texture to it) and it needs a couple of nice big shackles in the grommetted holes, but other than that, the major work is done.

http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/thumbs/Push_Bar_Drawings_Small.jpg (http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=18426) http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/thumbs/Push_Bar_Design_Render_Small.jpg (http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=18425) http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/thumbs/First_Fit_Small.jpg (http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=18424) http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/thumbs/tack_welded_Small.jpg (http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=18427) http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/thumbs/Final_Fit_Small.jpg (http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=18423)

[joshi]

Nice job ! Let me know if u have 1 for sale :)

[killinformula]

Very impressive! What software did you use? If you feel like sending me the file I would like to mess around with it on a stress test and deflection test on it. My email is KillinFormula@gmail.com

[Riff Raff]

Interesting design. However, it appears to really deminish the "approach angle" in an off-road environment. Might be best served for the street only.

If mounting points for extra lights is the primary goal, there is a replacement License Plate Holder Bracket available that looks like Cattle/Bull Horns which would be a very simple solution for additional lighting mount points. Perhaps L-Dub will post a "link" to the specific thread.

[Hiredgoon]

It's the primary purpose but not the only. I wanted something unique looking that wouldn't require any structural changes to the vx, as well as something that accentuated the lines. I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, but I'm pretty happy with what we came up with. It's held on with 4 bolts, and if I wanted to remove it, it's easy to do. I know off-roading is the primary use that many of you put the vx to, but with the cost of repairing it, I don't plan on doing much. I go off the street regularly but for anything too serious I just wouldn't want to risk it, when I could do essentially the same thing with a jeep beater, albeit in a little less comfort and a lot less style.

I did the original designs and renderings in Vectorworks, and the finished product is made of hardened 1/2" aluminum and sched 40 pipe. Like I say, it's mainly for show, and making it out of steel would have made it really heavy, for the square foot of added protection it would add. As it stands, it's rigid as hell, anything that hits me hard enough to really damage it would have written off the front end anyways.

I never liked the look of the bull horns, although I've always liked the JDM rig Crotchrocket has on his machine.

My brother-in-law had a lot of fun putting it together as well, so it was almost more of just a nifty exercise than anything, with a result I like enough to keep.

[crotchrocket]

I think it looks amazing!! good work!! i would consider increasing its size accross the front over the headlights?

[Ldub]

I like the look of the raw aluminium...:yesgray:

I'd sand the whole thing with 120 grit in a random orbital sander to even out the surface appearance & call it good...but that's just me.

[vt_maverick]

Nice job, always nice to see a fellow Foxfire sportin' a cool new mod. Can't wait to see pics after the powder coat (black I presume?) and with lights mounted.

Very nice! :thumbup:

[vt_maverick]

So did you ever powder coat it?

[Hiredgoon]

I did, it looks sharp in black. Next time the weather's nice enough to warrant a wash I'll take some pics.

[RamAirZ]

Looks good, your bro-in-law does good work. It does take up a good bit of ground clearance though, gotta be careful not to mess it up if you offroad it.

[Hiredgoon]

He does do nice work! It's actually held on with 4 bolts and some loc-tite, so if I was doing any (planned) offloading, I'd likely pull it off first. On the other hand, while it may lose me a touch in approach angle, replacing it would be a lot easier/cheaper than trying to track down new front cladding!

[RamAirZ]

Tis true, that is unless you hit it on something and it bends back into the cladding lol, but in either case you'd probably be replacing it if you hit something that big :laughing: I kinda liked the machine look, looking forward to seeing it black.

[vt_maverick]

+1 - There's no need to clean it first! We understand! ;)

[vt_maverick]

I did, it looks sharp in black. Next time the weather's nice enough to warrant a wash I'll take some pics.

Alright dude, it's been four months, surely the weather has been nice at least one day, even in Canada? ;)

[Hiredgoon]

Okay, here we go. It was the last--unfortunately--in a 5 day string of above 0ºC weather so I decided to take her out for a bit of a bath. The highlights are a little blown but you can see what the black finish does to the push bar. I think it looks sharp, but it's definitely motivation to do something to the rest of the cladding. Waiting to see how the Gatorback wears on @mikenomy's rig. Hope springs eternal, right?

http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/DQP.jpg

http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/Front7.jpg

http://www.vehicross.info/gallery/data/500/PQP.jpg

[Mile High VX]

Fantastic...

:clap::clap::clap:

[vt_maverick]

Dude that is REALLY sharp. Great work! :thumbup:

[eternal21]

Are you planning on selling these? If not, would you mind shooting over the VW files(s) so I can talk to my fabricator? :D

[eternal21]

Speaking of hope springing eternal, where'd you pick up that wind deflector sitting on top of the roof?

[Knigh7s]

That does look pretty nice!


Speaking of hope springing eternal, where'd you pick up that wind deflector sitting on top of the roof?

It looks like a Thule Fairing (http://www.google.com/images?client=opera&rls=en&q=thule%20fairing&oe=utf-8&channel=suggest&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi) with the "thule" logo hiding on the reverse side...

[vt_maverick]

Here you go... $72 and free shipping.

http://store.mpgear.com/thulefairingmedium.aspx

[jhigareda]

Make some money and sell a few!!!!

[eternal21]

Who all would be interested in purchasing one? I dunno about the rest of y'all, but I'd like to see a Line-Xed version of this. I'll be talking to my fabricator this weekend to see what the materials & work cost will be.

[jhigareda]

im in! lmk

[Hiredgoon]

I had a LineX guy look at it when it was made actually. He was going to give me a sweetheart of a deal on coverage, but I wanted something a little less chunky looking, so I opted for the more expensive powder coat, also because I want to put lights on it at some point and I don't want to deal with scraping anything. I'm very happy with the results but I definitely understand that not everyone wants the same thing.

My brother in law had suggested that it would be around $500 for materials and fabrication (not including any finish) using this design which--it's very worth noting--needs to be slightly adjusted to fit every machine separately since they're not identical underneath. His suggestion was that anyone interested would send their fabricator a cardboard template of the locations of the bolt holes underneath, as they're on metal that's welded to the frame, and not the frame itself. As a result they are not perfectly true. When we built this we cut the pieces and after bolting the pieces that connect to the VX, clamped the pieces and tacked them in place.

He'd mentioned at the time that he'd be willing to make more for people at around that cost but shipping from his shop (on Vancouver Island) is pretty prohibitive.

[eternal21]

I had a LineX guy look at it when it was made actually. He was going to give me a sweetheart of a deal on coverage, but I wanted something a little less chunky looking, so I opted for the more expensive powder coat, also because I want to put lights on it at some point and I don't want to deal with scraping anything. I'm very happy with the results but I definitely understand that not everyone wants the same thing.

My brother in law had suggested that it would be around $500 for materials and fabrication (not including any finish) using this design which--it's very worth noting--needs to be slightly adjusted to fit every machine separately since they're not identical underneath. His suggestion was that anyone interested would send their fabricator a cardboard template of the locations of the bolt holes underneath, as they're on metal that's welded to the frame, and not the frame itself. As a result they are not perfectly true. When we built this we cut the pieces and after bolting the pieces that connect to the VX, clamped the pieces and tacked them in place.


Interesting that you mentioned the lights, as I was contemplating that, too. And possibly a license plate bracket that sits between the 2nd and 3rd "pipe", but pushed back closer to the bumper.

Given the information that you've provided about the mounting, it might be worth considering having the 2 mounting pads bolt to the rest of the assembly, and making slots to accommodate the variances from vehicle to vehicle. At that point, people could bolt it, then weld it if they so choose. If not, they'd still be able to use it w/out an issue.

We'll see how it progresses, and thank you very much for the file :)