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PART 13
Tough Stuff
It’s a well known fact that dumping a sedan body on a 4WD chassis means that any body weaknesses in the sedan are transferred over too. Which is basically what Suzuki did when they built the X-90.
You are looking at a Swift-style body that has a nose with all the front-punch strength of an Orchy bottle. If the front bumper hadn’t been swapped out for a winch bar, it would have eventually ended up in the boot in pieces... but what would fit?
We considered getting a custom tube bar made up, but once the body-lift was done and we had the bumper off, it was surprising just how much of Oscar’s gizzards were now exposed. You could literally see what he had for breakfast... from either end. We had to have maximum strength and coverage to save his delicate profile.
After surfing the net and then deciding I would take the easy way out... I got in touch with Mark Lowry down at the ARB Head Office in sunny Melbourne. A bit of back and forth over fitting charts... spec sheets... catalogues... and a bit of Mark’s own experience with Vitaras, worked out that we need the 1991-1994 Vitara winch bar. As it turns out, ARB are the only ones to make these, so all was good to go.
Mark reckoned the ARB was the way to go as not only was it super tough, it offered the front end, daily-driver coverage we would never get from a tube bar, plus it would be easy to lob in a winch later on... when my other half takes the hint! Speaking of which, he had already come to the party (I get such nice pressies!) with a set of Lightforce 170s so these would be fitted at the same time.
Once the front bumper was removed, the first issue was to sort out some mounting brackets as the Vitara bar did not match up to the X-90 chassis. After much measuring and scribbling, the boys came up with a set of super-strong mounts that were welded to the chassis. This meant that if I buggered up the bar itself, another one could be bolted straight up, straight out of the box.
Next to tackle was the lack of indicators in the bar. This was due to Vitaras having the indicator setup as one unit in the headlight assembly. Stuart did some research and came up with a set of small Narva LEDs, which could be flush-mounted with the supplied rubber grommets. Once the holes were cut and the lights fitted, it came up looking like a factory job. With everything being sealed up and the Narvas being well priced, they are water tight and cheap to replace if I kiss a tree with them!
The custom mounts were painted up to prevent rust and the bar bolted on. Apart from the front guards needing a slight trim to match the line of the winch bar wing, it looked like an off-the-shelf X90 product... very happy! Everything was wired up and tested, and we were good to go.
As the ARB bar came with the spotlight holes pre-drilled, it was an easy task for Luffy (who now also goes by the nickname “Fluffy” due to unfortunate Googling incident by Stuart) to mount up the Lightforces. The kit came with a complete wiring loom, and the boys hooked everything up in a jiffy, installing the obligatory switch on the dash. Spotlights are only legal (at least in NSW) if they are wired up for high-beam-only activation, so if you are installing them yourself, keep this in mind. I tested them at home, edged up close against the back glass windows, and just about scorched my eyeballs. All good!
With the ARB winch bar and Lightforce spotties fitted, Oscar now looked the goods. But hang on, what’s that bloody-great hole under the bar? We still had plenty of exposed space, so Stuart got Stephen to fab up a you-beaut bash plate out of some thick chequer plate. It was bolted in to offer Oscar some radiator and general front-end protection from rocks, stumps and roos.
Now I can get out and play without the paranoia of having Oscar’s nose punched in like one of Mike Tyson’s dates!
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