AndyTunn wrote:

True Ray, they do look good. And I can certainly see why people wanted your car - it looks fab!

Quick question - when you did drill the wings did you put a block or anything behind or just go carefully?

Actually fitting might be a bit of a project as ideally I'd like to re-spray the headlight surrounds and grill too (I'm thinking gloss black). And then of course I'd also like to run in wiring for some spots or a light bar...
Only don't tell the wife that bit as I've promised this is the last Defender-spending for a while

I painted my headlight surrounds and grill a while ago and had fitted spotlights on my old a bar so all was in place on mine before I got the rubber a bar. As for drilling the wings, I just wrapped a good few layers of insulation tape around the drill bit about 10 mm up so when I went through the wing it couldn't go through any further and the tape doesn't damage the paint I also put plastic washers at the back of the bolts in the wing with nyloc nuts instead of fitting rivnuts in the wing so it's easier to remove, and put insulation tape on the shank of the bolts which were all stainless to stop any dissimilar metal corrosion. Ray
My build thread
http://www.defender2.net/forum/topic17615.html

Grenadier wrote:

mk1collector wrote:

They do look good when on though. I've just been on holiday to France and people couldn't stop looking at the front of mine and a few people said they wanted my car

Lucky the ones who 'wanted' it, didn't ask 'nicely' with a gun.....!! Oh, that'd be Shepard's Bush

Have to say I love them too. Do they still make them?

They don't make the a bars with light surrounds anymore I was looking for about 2 or 3 years then 3 came up on eBay in two weeks in various states so I bought a couple and made one good one out of them  Ray
My build thread
http://www.defender2.net/forum/topic17615.html

TJ101 wrote:

My front bar has now been on its 4/5 Defender,, Never needed to "drill" the wings to fix the headlamp bars,, Decent double side tape works well

That's not a bad idea. Just got to weigh up the pros and cons - i.e. double sided tape great because no holes, but needs removing and refitting if you every have to e.g. change a bulb (not an issue on yours with those headlights! ) versus bolted on - great for taking on and off but... holes in the car!

TJ101 wrote:

Click image to enlarge

My front bar has now been on its 4/5 Defender,, Never needed to "drill" the wings to fix the headlamp bars,, Decent double side tape works well

Headlight surrounds and grill in Santorini Black, as the roof

PS Regards to Auckland,, But do a repeat visit

YOLO110 wrote:

Your 'eye-ometer' is spot on!

Looks great... actually suits your Defender really well!

mk1collector wrote:

looks great!!! Did you end up using riv nuts?

Thanks! No I used the nut and bolt method you suggested in the end - thanks for the tip. And the one about the plastic "rivets" holding the arches on - that's certainly easier than taking the headlights on and off. (Although I did lose one of the plastic centre pieces which was a bit stiffer than the others and has now pinged somewhere into the unreachable recesses of the wing! )