| EF/EL XR Front Conversion | |
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Now the easy bit, get the Scotch Heavy Duty mounting tape and lay two rows of it onto the strips down the entire length. Then press it firmly onto your new bar. It will stick quick so you'll only really get one go at it. Step 1 First remove the black protective strip covering the headlight bolts etc held in place by a series of scrivets (Black plastic screw which spreads a plastic outer to hold in place). You may need to hold in place the surrounding plastic thread in order to remove these screws. Try not to break too many, as you will need these to re-fit the strip later! Remove the screws retaining the splashguards on both front wheels and remove the splashguards from the vehicle. There also scrivets holding the splashguards on which will be required to re-attach them so don't damage them too much. Some on the outside guard, two screws on the lower inside and 1 plastic scrivet high up at the front of the inner of the splashguard. Remove the screws and clips retaining the stone guard under the vehicle then remove that too.  Use a long thin phillips head and remove the screw containing the upper corner of the bumper on each side of the vehicle. See pic below "Screw to remove bumper". Then remove the screws retaining the parking lamps on each side of the vehicle. See pic below "Screw to remove indicator lamp". Partially remove the lamps and disconnect the wiring. Remove the spring bolt on each side of the vehicle noting for later that the gold coloured spring bolt goes on the drivers side and the silver coloured spring bolt goes on the passenger side. You can use a socket and long extension to come up in front of the wheel and undo the spring bolts. See pic below "Bolt holding bumper to 1/4 panel".  Now get under the vehicle and remove the nuts retaining the bumper to the support panel, there are two on each side. Then carefully withdraw the bumper from the vehicle remembering to disconnect the horn wiring. Remove bumper and put on a towel or something so it doesn't get scratched.  Disconnect the wiring from the back of the headlamp assembly and then remove the four retaining bolts on each light holding it to the radiator panel. See pic below where headlights bolts are, but of course you have already removed your bumper!  Once you have the front bumper off, the re-bar will also be attached. See pic below, the black re-bar bolted to the plastic bumper. Depending on which front bar you are replacing it with, you may or may not need to swap this to your new bumper. NOTE:If you are fitting an EL XR bar onto an EF front end, you will NEED the EL re-bar in order for the front-end to bolt on – the EF re-bar (your existing one) will not fit. As for fitting an EF XR front to an EL, I am unsure if this is the case, but I would imagine that you would need an EF re-bar to fit onto an EL.  Step 6 Once you have removed the front bar, your car should look something like this!  Some models will have the ABS unit, some wont – just don’t kick it around and damage it! Step 7 Now, the good stuff starts – you get to start fitting your XR gear and start making the car look good! First is to start fitting the headlights Not all bolts for the headlights match up you will only get three of the to line up properly. There is also a wiring harness that runs across the front of the car which makes fitting tricky, lift it up and allow it to run in between the inside upper and lower arms of the light brackets (see pic below). You can fit your new lights with 3 bolts, and it holds on very well, but you may find that the high beam light will vibrate and bounce while driving. At night time that is going to be bad mmmkaay. Some people have drilled a self tapper into the chassis (being careful not to hit anything behind) to hold it in place in all four corners. Or you can make a small bracket up which is very simple, it utilises the existing light hole left over and solves the problem of a bouncing headlight. See pic below for making bracket and fitting to headlights. You need one for each side, do them up nice and tight and it works a treat! It is just a bit of flat 4mm steel with a hole one end and groove cut into the other end to fit around the plastic without damaging it.   Step 8 Once the headlights have been fitted on, and the clips have been connected, it would be advisable to check the lights are working, so there are no surprises when it is all put back together. The clips on the wiring harness for the old headlights will connect perfectly with the new XR lights. Also, fit the XR indicators as well – remember these have the park lights on them as well, so ensure these are working too. The park lamps are 5watts. The XR indicators slot back into the guard, and have a screw holding them down at the top.  Step 9 Before you can fit the new bar you need to fit the re-bar to the new bumper. Remember, ensure that you have the correct re-bar for the bumper that you are going to be fitting. You'll need to remove the shroud holding the lower mesh on the air inlet. On the bottom of the bumper there are four rivets. See pic 1 below. Drill these out with the smallest drill you can use 3/16" is a good size. You will then fit this onto your new bumper and fit it with the stainless steel bolts noted at the beginning on this doco. The reason for the stainless steel bolts is so they don't rust. You won't be able to find rivets with a big enough surface area to grip the plastic properly, especially after you have drilled out the old rivets. I used two washers on the bottom, one sized properly for the bolt and then another twice the size so it has plenty of plastic coverage. See pic below.   Step 10 Now you will now need to re-fit the new XR bar. Lift the bumper up, and then install is the reverse of the removal – all bolts should line up correctly. Again, you will have the difficult task of putting the bolts back inside the guards. This job is easiest done with 2 people – one to hold the bar in place whilst the other fits a few securing bolts to keep it there. It may be easier to fit the bar with the indicators removed – its only a 2min job to take them off and re-fit, so no hassle in doing as such.  Step 11 Before you fit can refit your splashsheild (black protective strip) you will need to make some small cuts in it so it will fit the new bumper properly. Otherwise it will sit too high and block off air going to your intake. It is quite simple, use a small angle grinder or hacksaw to make two cutouts in the pic below. The driver and passenger side cutouts and then the final fitting.    Step 12 Now, just re-fit stuff such as inner guard protectors, underneath stone guard etc, and stand back, enjoy a beer, and admire your new XR front end! Note: Obviously you will also need to, at some stage, adjust your lights before you too much night driving.  Written by uglybob and azza. Revised and updated by Happy |
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| Document Summary | |
| Document description: | How to Convert your EF / EL to a sexy new XR Frontend |
| Document written by: | uglybob on 07 2005>, Copyright © 2006 uglybob, all rights reserved. |
| Document revised: | 20 2006 - Revision 2.0 |
| Document views: | 27348 since 07 2005 |
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