Time to Protect the Safari

[Suza]

Well it has started. I have been thinking for a while about making up some protection for my Safari for a while and have been doing lots of research and looking at lots of pictures.

The plan is to start in the middle with sliders and then work out to the front and then swing round to the rear. The front bar will be joined to the sliders with some fender guards and the rear bar will be linked to the sliders as well with bar work protecting the whole rear quarter from the top of the arch down with one bar coming up just in front of the rear lights and then another one coming up at the wheel arch, all the side bars front and rear will be welded in place forming a solid barrier right around the wagon. Just like an exo but only going up to the top of the wheel arch's.

The front and rear bar's are going to be made out of 50mm med wall pipe and 40mm med wall pipe, the sliders out of 40mm med wall pipe and then mounted to the chassis with 80x10 flat bar sandwich plates

Last night and today I had a few spare hours spread around so I have managed to finish the sliders minus mounting plates
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[coxsy]

sandwich plates will catch stuff, better with c plate or u plate, as I will alter mine sandwich ones to u ones.

[Craydiver]

will be keen to see some of your pics.
im on similar mission , rear bar and sliders- see http://www.offroadexpress.co.nz/Forums/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=35908
I noted that tomsoffroad - he welds the sliders to chassis

[Suza]

Hi Craydiver
Yep I am still trying to post pics. I have done a search and thought I had it sorted but I haven't so will have to try again.

At this stage I am going to avoid welding the sliders on as this would then require a cert and although I will be going down that path in the future I am not ready to go there yet.

Hi Coxsy
Agree with your pint about the sandwhich plates. The main reason I am going down that path at this stage is that in the future I intend to weld some 12mm bar to the chassis and drill and tap it and then bolt them on to that, but at this stage I am not ready to go down the certification road

[eins]

Hi Suza
I recon defiantly go U or C type plate raped around with bolt at top not sandwich plate, not much harder to make only a little bit more metal and cut down on number of bolts (bolts might be free to you but if you are buying them they add up), I only used 1 M12 or M14 bolt at the top and worked fine.

For the front mount I used a fabricated mount to fit into body mount, idea behind this is it may strengthen body mount as have bent one of mine on rocks in the past.

[coxsy]

better idea for front mount


rear mount shape

my front mount




and sandwich plates I put up with for now

[Suza]

Cheers for the input guys. I have changed the plan and made up new mounts this evening. The rear and middle mounts are now folded up U sections and the front mount is a piece of 65x65 shs that goes up inside the body mount bracket. The middle and rear mounts will have 2 x m10 8.8 bolts at the top and the front will be held in place by 2 more m10 8.8 bolts.
Everything going well I will have them both painted and ready to mount by the end of the weekend.
My wife and eldest 2 daughters will be home for the weekend (they live in town during the week so that the girls can go to college), so with there help I might get some pics up

[Suza]

I have done it and I didn't have to resort to asking my daughters and being reminded that I am getting old ..............
Any way this is how they currently look

[Suza]

Got back on to the sliders again tonight redid the mounts on the drivers side and got it all ready for painting when I finish the passenger side.
[/img]http://s1286.photobucket.com/editor?image=http%3A//i1286.photobucket.com/albums/a604/russellferens/Angledslider_zpsfff1a298.jpg&detailUrl=http://s1286.photobucket.com/user/russellferens/media/Angledslider_zpsfff1a298.jpg.html[/img]

Spent some time playing around with angles and decided to add some slop to them

[coxsy]

Asked ya kids to fix ya last post

[Dirtydog]

There we go,

[wax]

Looks good, I am doing a similar thing on my navara at the moment

[Suza]

Cheers for the help DD are you able to tell me where I'd gone wrong?

[eins]

Looking good, I put a bit of angle on mine as lifts the outer bar giving more clearance and also help to protect door.

One thing with the front mount, is it going to completely close in body mount bolt, is so may be worth cutting hole so you can get to/check bolt without needing to remove sliders.

[Suza]

Yep was thinking about that as I was laying on the floor looking at it and instead of running 2 bolts right through I am going to use 4 smaller bolts - 2 each side so I will still be able to access it with a socket

[coxsy]

only thing with cranked sliders is you can slip of them getting in ya truck

[tgaguy1]

only thing with cranked sliders is you can slip of them getting in ya truck

I had the same problem. Bought a roll of 2" wide grip tape from Mitre 10 mega, same sort of stuff skateboard decks have on them. Works a treat.

[Dirtydog]

I think you were trying to share the photo while it was in the editor?

i just copyied the address in the line of text and went from there with img tags etc.

[Suza]

only thing with cranked sliders is you can slip of them getting in ya truck

I had the same problem. Bought a roll of 2" wide grip tape from Mitre 10 mega, same sort of stuff skateboard decks have on them. Works a treat.

Yep the tape is already sitting on my shelf

[Suza]

Made some progress, all painted and will be fitting them up on Thursday

[Suza]

Got some time today so I bolted them on


Heading down the West Coast this weekend with some mates so we should hopefully prove they work

[coxsy]

cant see in photo are they level with the tyres

[Suza]

Not quite they sit in by about 20mm

[coxsy]

ok mine in a bit with 33x12s on and level with the simexs on