Getting the AFN bar soon MCC bar coming off

[9magenta Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close 9magenta]

So my old MCC falcon bar that was badly fitted is coming off!!!!

I am getting the NEW AFN bar fitted at Ultimate 4WD in Perth.

The question is....... I have the Face lift Prado in pearl silver GXL. Should I get the new AFN bar colour coded to match or leave it black?

Why is the MCC falcon bar coming off????

So the problem I have had is that Sports range 4x4 totally stuffed up my front bumper and bull bar fit. Sports Range cut it wrong and there is a gap of 20mm to 50mm between the car and bumper. They also cut both side or the car totally differnt and then added some black door trim to try to cover it up.

But the real problem is, at one point the bull bar touches the car so that at idle and over normal road bumps this causes the whole bumper and grill to viabrate and making the fixtures come loose over time. And this was how they co called fixed it the second time!

[Digital Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Digital]

I can't decide either, I have a the same colour and will be getting the AFN bar next month. I am leaning more to keeping it black but I'll probably swap out the rims for some black and silver ones, I think that'll help balance the colouring a bit.

[mrwinta Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close mrwinta]

Hope this helps

Got mine fitted from the same guys. While I am happy with the end result it was more than one visit and fitting of spacers required.

I can never seem to figure out how to post pictures so hopefully this works

Winta

[mrwinta Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close mrwinta]

The bar that the spotties mount on is slightly curved which doesn't match the light brackets and the holes are barely large enough to get the required socket through- I suppose it makes it harder for thieves to remove them. The bars around the lights are high so I get a lot of glare being tall so I would recommend painting the inside with matt black..
The uprights are only stitch welded and after 6 months I get slight rust stains coming from the gap so mention that to the supplier and see if they can do something to prevent this happening.
As I mentioned above the first fit was terrible and the guys at Ultimate did a great job of rectifying the issue once I contacted them about it, however it did take 2 months to fix. Delivery was also appalling but that was a failure on Wolf 4x4 not Ultimate.

Not trying to sound negative just sharing my experience- I do love the look of this bar and I am very happy with it- it has great approach angle clearance and stays a lot closer to the vehicle than the other bars. The fog light cluster has been improved by adding bolts around it and the standard rated recovery points are an added bonus. Enjoy mate....

Cheers

Winta

[craigm Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close craigm]

Of the 150's that I've seen fitted with the AFN bars, all of them look to have very little gap between the bars and bodywork unlike all the other brands that seem to have at the least 12 & 20mm. I'd be very interested to see how it'd fare after a long run across a heavily corrugated road.

[Digital Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Digital]

Definitely the best looking facelift bar. Did you look elsewhere for fitting? I am well NOR and don't fancy dropping the car off at Bibra Lake.

[peter_mcc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close peter_mcc]

Of the 150's that I've seen fitted with the AFN bars, all of them look to have very little gap between the bars and bodywork unlike all the other brands that seem to have at the least 12 & 20mm. I'd be very interested to see how it'd fare after a long run across a heavily corrugated road.

It looks a little misleading as the edge of the bar is fitted with a rubber "seal" type material to take up the gap. We've done lots of corrugated roads in ours (Flinders -> Simpson -> Birdsville -> Cameron's Corner -> White Cliffs + Vic High Country + Mt Isa -> Lawn Hill -> Savannah Way -> Darwin -> Kakadu & back the same way) without any problems (at least any problems caused by vibration - the last kangaroo on the other hand...)

[peter_mcc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close peter_mcc]

The bar that the spotties mount on is slightly curved which doesn't match the light brackets and the holes are barely large enough to get the required socket through- I suppose it makes it harder for thieves to remove them. The bars around the lights are high so I get a lot of glare being tall so I would recommend painting the inside with matt black..

Could you please measure the distance between the back of your lights and the grill for me? I'm looking to change lights when the bar gets changed. Also the distance between the back of the "light mounting bar" and the grill?

As I mentioned above the first fit was terrible and the guys at Ultimate did a great job of rectifying the issue once I contacted them about it, however it did take 2 months to fix. Delivery was also appalling but that was a failure on Wolf 4x4 not Ultimate.

Do you know how they fixed it? Gavin from AFN told me that sometimes the body isn't centred exactly on the chassis so they have to move the body around on the mounts to get it looking right.

[mrwinta Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close mrwinta]

Hi Peter_mcc
They used spacers to help align the bar, there was about 30mm difference from one side to the other. I find it hard to believe they move the body of the car to centre the bull bar but if that's what they say then ok...
Anyhoo- I asked the wife to measure the gap behind the lights and she sent me the measurements as I am away with work. Gap from lights to grill: 4cm. Gap from light mounting bar to grill is 7.5cm (lights are Fyrlyt 5000).

Cheers

Winta

[peter_mcc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close peter_mcc]

Anyhoo- I asked the wife to measure the gap behind the lights and she sent me the measurements as I am away with work. Gap from lights to grill: 4cm. Gap from light mounting bar to grill is 7.5cm (lights are Fyrlyt 5000).

Thanks!

[Bugswatter Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Bugswatter]

Do it yourself Digital it's not hard.

[9magenta Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close 9magenta]

So here it is all done and looking the part

[OzDriver Member Find all posts View Profile Close OzDriver]

I am going to wait a while before deciding on whether to fit a bull bar - but I think that the AFN is the best looking steel bar for the face lifted 150. It is one of the few that looks like it belongs to the car (the ARB alloy bar is perhaps the next best looking). Can front parking sensors be fitted (moved from bumper)?

[DWBN Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close DWBN]

Looks good mate! Can you share a pic of how far underneath the car the bar continues on? I'm looking to get one shortly, and have seen some with what look like bash plates but I'm not sure if it is just standard with the AFN bar.

Do you mind sharing what you paid?