The Iceman build thread

Hi all
Having spent a heap of money last week on gear for the truck i thought i would start a build thread that i can update as each job is done.
First to get done is the bull bar.
Its a MCC Falcon and for the price i am very impressed with the quality and fit of the bar. Delivery was so fast i had barley put the phone down when it arrived. Installation went without any real issues and it feels really solid. I prefere the look of these bars over the arb one and it dosent stick out the front as far which is a bonus. The only issue i have is the instruction could be a lot better but with a bit of thought it all worked out. The lights look to be of good quality and all the electrical fittings and a loom are provided. I chose not to use the loom and do the fog light mod for the driving lights instead. I have still to wire up the parkers and indicators as i ran out of oomph.

The before shot

Before

First thing to do is remove the under body protection where it bolts onto the bottom of the plastic bumper. Also undo and remove the strip of plastic that in in between the front mudflaps.

The bar comes with a cutting template for the plastic bumper.
The bumper cut marked out. Take your time doing this to get a cut the same on both sides. Measure at least Three times!

The bumper marked out ready to cut.

Sorry for the seperate posts but cant work out how to get more than one pic in a post!

Now to cut the bumper.
DONT do it with a saw!
Ill say it again Dont use a saw! You only need to remove the outer part of the bumper and a saw will cut both layers.
Top Tip: a sharp stanley cuts the plastic perfectly. Just take your time and its easy. Be careful not to cut the black plastic behind the ends of the bumper.

Next remove the cross brace from the chassis ends.

Have a beer to celibrate getting this far and then mount the reinforcing brackets to the chassis ends. Be careful doing this as the cooler is very exposed and one slip of the spanner and its toast!

And a front view

Dont tighten anything up yet as we will need to be able to move the mounting around to get the perfect fit.
Next fit the inner part of the bar. The bracket. This would be the time to fit a winch if your putting one on. I dont have one yet.

Once the bracket is on measure to as many points as you can to get it as close to centre as possible. More adjustment is available on the bar as well.
Fit the wing rubber guards.

Tighten everything up and check again it is straight!
I used an engine hoist to lift the bar up and hold it in place. Its too heavy to lift and hold without help. Push the bar into place and fit a few of the holding bolts and just nip them up so the bar can be moved around but will stay where you put it. Once happy with the fit fit and tighten all the bolts.
Easy!
As the bottom of the radiator is so exposed and i do alot of gravel driving i had to make up a stone guard to meet the stock sump cover. Its just a sheet of ally folded and tek screwed on. Its temporary as i will be doing proper underbody protection soon.

And the money shot

Nice work mate. A bullbar just helps make the look of the front of the ute