- present

Defender 300Tdi

Fittig an a-bar and modifying the bumper

I had always wanted an a-bar to fit the spotlights to. When the German TUV made up their minds to halt the re-fitting of a-bars in August 2005 I managed to get one of the last certificates. Now, in June 2006 I finally managed to source an original LR-bar and fit it.
My mate Lars suggested to slightly modify the front bumper to improve the approach angle and as it was a nice day we decided to go ahead with it.

fitting a-bar and modifying the bumper:

		That's how it looked before. Straigt, factory-fitted bumper, spots attached to it.
		Line drawn where the cornes will have to go, this is already cut off at the front of the bumper.
		Lars cutting, me holding. Nice division of work :)
		This is how the bumper looked with the corners off.
		Me at work now. I am cutting the new bumper bottom out of a piece of scrap metal. Nice glasses, Lars, you could have told me!
		Yes, go an put them on, Lars. Lars' dad is always helpful and it's great that we can use his drive whenever we want to! By the way, his mum always feeds us well. A big thanks to both of them!
		The cut-out sheet metal before welding it on. The edges will meet the grinder later.
		The master welder just about to start.
		Holding the plate into place for the first welds.
		Some more welding action, this is already the finishing phase of the right end, and Lars is applying some nice welds to the outer edges.
		Welding the inner section of the left side.
		Giving the edges a smooth finishing touch with the angle grinder.
		The bumper is primed and then painted. As it is going to be galvanised after the summer, we did a quick 10-minute job emptying some old spray cans.
		The modified bumper and a-bar are fitted back to the Landy. The grille has to follow. Looks good!
		All back in place. A-bar, spotlights, and bumper look great! Thanks a lot for your help, Lars!
Well, it took us about 4 hours altogether, and that was with sourcing the sheet metal. This, by the way, involved a great bit of luck as it was Saturday and everything was closed down. Driving around we met another Landrover nut who happened to have some scrap metal in his workshop. It was just enough to cut the new sections out of! The bumper is surely the most flashy piece of kit on my Landy and I like the looks. Yet, I need to be careful that I won't end up with a pimped Rover like Lars ;)

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