BACKGROUND STORY:-
I got myself a 1998 XH ute a couple of years back and its currently in the shop at the moment getting a new rebuilt motor and turbo fitted and the typical intercooler behind the front grill. I could go the option of keeping it stock looking and keep it as a bit of a sleeper but i went and brought myself a EF XR6 front bar inc lights off ebay.
NOW THE IDEA IS:-
The front bar is a little bit scratched up and needs a bit of cleaning and tlc. Some one has tryed to tidy it up and i think they have actually made it worse. Anyway what im thinking is a fully customised, modified frontbar. Keep the round eye lights from the XR6 bar with maybie some little vents and extra groves. The lower part of the bar i could open up huge to show off the intercooler and widen and rounding out the smaller vents down the bottom and some slim brace braket along the bottom of the bar to hold it all together. And then to finish it all off i was thinking of something like lowridder pint striping but instead of just painting it on i was thinking about actually engraving into the plastic.
THE QUESTION IS:-
How should i do all this, get different bumpers and cut and glue them to getther, fiberglass or make a mould and start from sratch????? any ideas of tips would be a good start and i will keep updating as it progresses but its not going to be a rushed job. the current frontbar is in good condition so i can just work on it my spare time

bought!

well the tope half of an xr bar is actually separate from the lower half if you have a look at it from the back. so theres a starting point for you to look at

when i got the front bar it was already seperated. like i said someone had already tried to tidy it up a bit. The bar and lights are still siting around at my parents for now so that why i havent put no pics up. My biggest question is what sort of materials should i be using if i want to modifi the bar like mentioned above. the top half of the bar could basicaly be anything cause it shouldnt need no flexing but the bottom half should proberly have some sort of flexibilty and especialy if im going to be cutting the bar up into pieces and adding bits etc. I have seen the full fiberglass one piece bars but they are always missing alot of the fine details and i dont thing the fiberglass would like my engraving idea hahahahahaha.

thankyou for responding. you have reasured me that the top actually is supposed to come apart lol

Seek out a local supplier of Spoilers, or preferably; a Pattern Maker who makes the moulds, and have a talk to them as they work in a wide field of different types of materials to suit each application...

I have a Mate up here who started out and did his Trade as a Pattern Maker, he used to do Spoilers and Body kits fulltime until he got whiplash a couple of years back and as a one man show with a stuffed back he had to close shop, but speaking with him over the years regards what it is he could do for me regards my background as an OldSKool Panel Beater Customiser since the 70’s, I learnt that there are many different types of Resin you can use when making Spoilers, or anything from an outdoor chair to a Truck Body and so on, anything from the Standard run of the mill Resin to Heat Proof Resin that can be placed into a Baking Oven and withstand heat in direct sunlight to just over 90*C (from memory) or even Crystal Clear just like Perspex, to Fully Flexible just like modern original Plastic Injected Bumper Bars...

Trying to take moulds from flexible plastic injected items can be a real PITA as when the Resin cures it builds up heat, too much hardener means a super hot cure, so hot it can self ignite at times and it can and will warp and melt the plastic, even if it is a mild mix so that heat is kept to a minimum, it is possible that it may/can still warp the plastic, meaning the final finish in the Mould is also warped, so a lot of hard work wasted...

You can buy Plastic Welding Guns, I am not sure of prices these days but when I used to work in a Conversion Business I watched the mechanic plastic weld a lot of pieces on the Dashboards and Air-con items. I never tried it myself but he made it look real easy, I would then sand the welds back and apply a very thin skim of filler (normal Bog) over the surface and sand to a smooth finish. it requires a very light touch to try and prevent the plastic from buckling under the weight of heavy sanding, so slow and steady wins the race when you are doing it this way...

I hope this helps in some way...

Pig (OINKS)

thanks bud the plastic welding does sound like the best way to go and that way i can acheive the look i want. i finaly got my ute back from the shop and it looks like the bumper will be put on the back burner for a long time cause i have a heap of work still to do before i can even worry about bumper

what about the Venom front, comes in a variant with the EL XR front (Molloy and PYROAY had this front bar)

not a big fan of the venom fronts sorry mate, there alot more rounded and im looking for something with straight sharp lines. the easiest way to explain the sort of look i will be aiming for would be to imagine slicing the front bar up and down into 100mm wide strips and slide every second strip foward 10mm and weld it all back together. that was one of my ideas and the other was to cut up million different bumpers and make one i like but i went down and picked up my ute from melb yesterday and it didnt take me long to figure out that the ef style front does not work for turbo at all. the intercooler cant legaly sit below the front bar so the only place to stick it is in the vent at the botom and thats the only source for air to the radiator and even without the intercooler there aint much room for airtake inlet for turbo. (its great for cooking eggs)

im going to take my ute around to someone local tomorow to get some 2nd opions on how i can try to fix up alot of the problems but im sure i am going to have to do alot of work before it would even be ready to start looking at the mechanical problems with the turbo. I think i might have to roll it into the shed over easter and completly take the front right off it and see what i can do about moving things around. im thinking that i will have to move the intercooler as far to one side as i can and then get some custom radiator made up and see if i can shift it to the other side and then get a new manifold made up to lift the turbo up higher and heat sheild it and then fabricate some sort of intake to come down threw the bonnet. and then when all that is done then i can start to think about trying to fit a front bumper to it. So i will still be riding the push bike for a while yet

and before anyone else jumps in and says it. i understand that the radiator most likly wont be allowed to be moved or changed to much but i will have to wait till i get the front off it all to see how it all goes to gether. thanks