Originally Posted by lasturbo
Hi KAT,
Forgive my ignorance but are you just doing these for looks or actual protection? Obviously they may protect from some types of brush but any type of impact may do more damage than just maybe losing a lens. Coming from my Land Rover dealer roots, those guards were weak and any type of impact and/or catching on something actually ripped from the body damaging the surrounding area requiring body shop and paint = $$$. The way yours are mounted could potentially be the same and more damage as a result......But we personalize our vehicles to our own desired taste and I applaude your persistence to make these work. I just hope they are not charging you an arm and a leg for fabrication. Good luck!Sad but trueIf I had to guess, I'd say that Ron was suggesting having those existing tabs made longer so they could then have additional 90 degree (or so) bends added that would follow the contours of the taillight lens...which would position the tabs the guards screwed/bolted into parallel with the plastic lens of the taillight.
Bosses could be placed on the back of those tabs (the sides facing the taillight) for use with the screws/bolts holding on the guards you're installing, but neither the tabs or the bosses would ever actually touch the taillight lens.
Granted, that would add an additional step if it became necessary to change a bulb in one of the taillights because those mounting pieces would then also have to be removed before being able to pull the taillight off, but, that's the price you pay for having custom $#!+....love the look....really want them....and yes maybe 10% is about protection from really tough chaparral around here.
I know 'zactly whatcha mean about the damage potential of all grill guards...the cowcatcher on our D90 was well known to damage the heck out of the front...I can see where the tail guards could get yanked off too and cause a real mess.
That's also why I favored the FLAT metal style (stainless but would get powdercoated)...as I thought they could be mounted a little more flush to the plastic lens....or dare I say....use 3M double stick tape? But they're so robust, nobody can bend them.
I asked if they could heat them up to soften the metal and just open them up a bit (the curvature angle)...but guy told me today because the horizontal bars had a larger flat top surface , it would be really difficult to get them to spread wider w/o damaging them (I don't know, is it like bubble gum and you stretch it and it gets real thin in the center??)I thought it was mostly re-shaping the metal, not stretching it. ANYBODY KNOW SOMEONE THAT COULD RESHAPE THESE?
TREK, thanks I do understand now exactly what you're saying (that Ron said...) Yes, they were already planning on making the tabs take a 90 degree turn to run parallel with the lens..... and then another turn outward to mate up to the guard. You can kind of see that 3D style of the Manik tabs in the pic...it's not just an "L" shape, it's 3D
Can see L-shape tab on wekilled's pic here: It's coming from that last cladding screw, then 90 degrees outward, and then another angle again to match up to the vertical tubing.
Stainless ones have flat top surface on the horizontal bars:
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