Fitting an Expedition Brush Guard/Nudge Bar to Explorer - anyone done it?

[JCUZ]

I am looking at fitting a nudge bar to me 2004 Explorer, and as had as it is to find parts and accessories for the Explorer in Oz, can can you believe that the nudge bar for an expedition is more readily available, and is cheaper, and Ford don't even sell the Expedition in oz?!

So.....I am just wondering if anyone has fitted an Expedition brush guard to their explorer, and if so, were any mods required to make it fit?

I'll use this thread to post results of my attempt if no-one else has done it.....

 

[SUL73NAZ]

Custom build one! If you are going to spend time modifying something to make it work why not make one that is perfect instead? Just my opinion. After having a custom bumper built for mine it is actually a good platform for building a custom bumper for. I have some ideas if you need any. PM me!

 

[JCUZ]

Custom build one! If you are going to spend time modifying something to make it work why not make one that is perfect instead? Just my opinion. After having a custom bumper built for mine it is actually a good platform for building a custom bumper for. I have some ideas if you need any. PM me!

Thanks- that could be an option, but I'll start with this nudge bar and see how we go.

 

[JCUZ]

Nudge bar arrived today. The bracket bolt holes are at between 830mm and 850mm apart, and the bolt holes in the chassis are at 800mm apart.

So I think with a 1" (25mm) spacer welded to the side of each mount, and 1" longer High tensile bolts, I can get this to fit, with some minor trimming of the underneath part of the plastic bumper bar where the tow hooks go (widen each side towards the sides of the truck by around 1").

 

[JCUZ]

All fitted up. In the end I made up 2 x 15mm (3/5") spacers from some 5mm metal plate I had. I probably could have gone 20mm each side but job is done now and the result is that the mounting tabs on the actual nudge bar have been bent in a little when it all bolted up to the mounts and spacers. I also trimmed the plastic bumper bar around the to hook holes, but I reckon I could have left it as is. The only blemish on it is the licence plate - but we have to display one on the front here so that the speed cameras can get you, so I pop riveted it to the "bash plate".

Front shot

Front 3/4 shot