Hi all,

Thinking of using the bottom half of a fibreglass BA/BF GT front bar and I'm wondering what the cons to
fiberglass front bars are? Are they less resilient?

I plan to use poly glass to bond the bottom half of the bar to my EL XR top half and I'm wondering how that will go. Also, are any other cuts required other than the horrosontal cut where the two bars are merged?

regards

Frank

Last edited by frankieh on Sun Apr 05, 2009 6:31 pm, edited 2 times in total.

A well made fiberglass bar is ok, some that are getting around are dodgy so be careful. EFFalcon has Glassed Plastic to Plastic and I have done Fiberglass to Plastic so there is no problem if it is done well, check my thread on the construction of my TS50/EF Front bar and you can see what is possible. If you need help just ask, no problems from me and I am sure that Johm will offer advice.

Thanks mate... I just missed out on a real Te50 front bar for 100 bucks.. missed it cos my computer didn't know daylight savings had ended.

how do you tell a dodgy bar from a good one?

Thickness of the fiberglass is a good indicator as well as the quality of finish, but at the same time it doesn't was to be so thick that there is no flex at all

LOL, OK.... got it..

roughly how thick should it be If'n you don't mind my bothering you again..

Well, I'm going to see the fg front bar at 6pm tonight so will know then if it's any good for my purposes.

I hope so as I'm sick of looking around for one.

I have looked at the FG bars and I think you will find that the curves and angles are wrong to suit the EF/EL front bar. I looked at a G6 Bar and it was no good.

Sorry.. by FG I meant FibreGlass not "FG" as in the model.

It's actually a BA GT style bar.

Here it is:



And this is my EL XR top half... (sitting on the superchanged EL motor actually)



When I put them together, I currently get this:


But this is the sort of thing I'm actually chasing:

Yes, that is quite achievable. When you join the two parts I recommend Locktite Polyurethane Adhesive, miles better than Sikaflex, and lots of screws. The Urethane takes a week before it reaches complete drying but is worth it. As for the srew holes, they are easily filled later.

I've been thinking of getting a strip of something like aluminium and countersinking rivets into both pieces to lock them into place and then filling the whole thing up with poly resin.

what did you use the locktite to adhere to?

Is it just me or is the BA bar wider and deeper than the EL bar?

At first glance, it looks like I'll truncate the sides shorter so the guard doesn't hit the wheels in adition to the height... is that correct?

I've not done any measuring, but I stuck the BA bar in front of the EL and it fits around the EL bar.

I could probably do this by trial and error, but seems silly not to avail myself of the knowledge from the people that have already done it.

When I added the TS50 Bar to the Fairmont bar I onerlapped them AU over Mont Bar, this was done where the strip is on the Mont bar.

Problem is your top lip has been cut to high and you have nothing to attatch to. You also do not have mount points for the EF reo-bar, you will need to attach your bar to the Re-bar using long screws behind the number plate or buld up some mounts using aluminium or Stainless (neither rust). You could bond the re-bar to the finished bar with fiberglass as you will find that some of the EF/EL re-bars were fiberglass, some were ABS Plastic, but make sure you get it in the right position. If you decide to bond the bar to the re-bar, mount up your rebar and then postion the new bar on the car and run in a couple or four long screws. Then you can take it off in one piece, Glass it up and then go ahead with the finishing of the bar.

Recommend using a joining strip which is Adhered to the top section and then adhered to the bottom section. I would use Plastic or PVC strips as jointing plates but before gluing use a wire brush in a drill to prepare both surfaces, basicaly keying them to allow the Adhesive to bond. When this is "set", remove the screws, again run over with the wire brush in a drill and prepare to Fiberglass.

When glassing lay down a layer of resin and then place strips of Glass matting down. Make sure that you saturate each layer well. I put down 3 -4 layers blending out for strength. When the Glass resin is set, clean up the front of the bar and fill any joints with Fiberglass filler, a body filler containing Fiberglass strands, prep the area before filling the same as for glassing, wipe over with metho or thiners before filling to ensure good clean surface. You will need a power sand or disc pads to sand down the Glass Filler as you will not touch it with hand tools. When you are satisfied with the levels, skim coat with light weight body filler and sand.

Finishing from then on is as per any other panel job.

this thread might help ya
exterior-modifications-f15/ef-mont-bar-ba-gt-bar-now-painted-day-pics-on-page-11-t46964.html

thanks mate, reading it now.

Thanks mate,

I've printed that all out for when the time comes to do the job..

just started ripping the front of the EL for all the conversion to supercharging and XR x-member etc.. so put the EL bar on it to get an idea of the position..



Even my dog loves the EL XR bar.. I honestly think that it's like those chicken ads on TV.... if you don't like EL XR bar's, there is something very wrong with you.

The whole bar is going to be a project because the headlights are aftermarket Civic projector lights that I'm going to mod the existing headlight back to use as a base...

anyway, thanks for your help.. I will probably pester you with questions as I'm doing the work.