Nissan Frontier Light Bar Install

[bigdog]

This is a relatively new product from whiterhinofab and seemed to be the piece I was looking for. The part arrived the other day from whiterhinofab and I began prepping it for install. So I figured I'd document the process in case others choose this bar too. This first post will cover the mechanical install. I'll do another with the electrical, but ran out of daylight so hopefully that will happen tomorrow afternoon.

It is slightly different then the original version. The lights now mount upright on lower plate and the upper brackets are gone. IMO this is a much cleaner look. Here as some shots of the install:

Bar as it arrived


Test fit lights


Primered up


Flat Black


My original plan was to paint it flat black and seal it, but once I got it to this stage I was not feeling it. So I went to buy some ham-r paint. But when I got to the store I found some cool textured paint so I went with that instead.



Once I got it all painted up and let it cure, I remounted the lights and tore my front end off for easy access to the mounting location.



The bar mounts to these brackets which are fairly thin and you will need to drill some holes so "measure twice cut once" In my case the bar did not fit. I removed the nuts that mounted the brackets but it was still too tight. I noticed that one bracket had a slight twist to it (probably happened in shipping) so my 5lb rubber mallet got to play.

There is no hardware provided for this install so I went with some M10x30mm bolts, nuts, and washers. My son had to mark the drill locations while I held the bar in place, and then I drilled a couple of pilot holes. I drilled out the two back holes and mounted the bar, then I was able to swing it up into place and verify the location of the front two holes. There's not a lot of extra metal in this area so I really wanted to make sure I was dialed in.




I experimented with a couple different ways to run the wires from the lights and ultimately opted to feed them through the seam between the chrome and painted facings. This seam happend to be at the same height as where the wires came out the back of the lights.



The next trick was to reinstall my lower billet gille. To do this my sawzall got to play. I took the entire top row off and then marked and cut gaps in the next two fins to allow for the light bar brackets to protrude through the grille. Then after lots of filing and little touch up paint, she went right in.


All that was left then was to reinstall the license plate mount, winch mount...


and the front grille.


So there it is. Will post up the electical install once that is completed.

[Servinhimonly]

Looks great! I'd definately love to see a pic of stock lights vs. hella & stock lights!

[bwarren228]

Glad you like it. I went up to the shop and designed the bar, and he built it for me.

[bigdog]

Originally Posted by bwarren228

Glad you like it. I went up to the shop and designed the bar, and he built it for me.

Yea its real nice. When I orderd it I made sure Chris new I wanted one like yours with the lights mounting upright.

Originally Posted by Servinhimonly

Looks great! I'd definately love to see a pic of stock lights vs. hella & stock lights!

thanks, yea I'm looking forward to getting them wired up. These lights are for setting tents up in the dark

[06_footy]

thats a sweet light bar wut did it cost ya by anychance.

[mike]

Looks great man.

[bwarren228]

Hit up whiterhinofab.com and they've got it on there.

[StormFrontier]

I love that light bar, but I've tried mounting stuff to those same brackets and said forget it. They are too flimsy, and don't give you much clearance since they hang just below the front bumper opening. It does look good though!

[stevet47]

Originally Posted by StormFrontier

I love that light bar, but I've tried mounting stuff to those same brackets and said forget it. They are too flimsy, and don't give you much clearance since they hang just below the front bumper opening. It does look good though!

It mounts to the bumper also. It is a very strong setup.

[bigdog]

Originally Posted by stevet47

It mounts to the bumper also. It is a very strong setup.

Yea, so as Steve indicates there are four more mounting bolts that I failed to include in my original post. These connect the light bar to the front bumber. The light bar has 4 slots that line up with 4 holes in the bumper that contain plasitic body screws and hold a piece of plastic trim to the chrome bumper. So I removed these 4 connectors



and replaced them with 4 bolts (M6-1.0x 20mm) washers and nuts


I actually used 2 of these bolts for the ground connection on the lights


and here is a picture of the connection between the harness and the lights.


I've still got to run the rest of the lights and install the switch, but I wanted to complete the work behind the grill so I could get the front end back together one last time (I hope).

BTW - Here is a close up of the modification that I made to the billet bumber grille.