Review - aftermarket S30 guards

[RLY240]

This post is a review of the aftermarket S30 guards available on eBay. I have no affiliation with the seller and this review is a summary of my experience.

 

S30 front guards are getting thin on the ground and thinner in the metal so when I needed a set to repair my damaged 240 rally car I got tempted by the aftermarket items popping up on eBay.

They certainly looked good in the photos but no one could give me first hand knowledge of the fit and finish or whether much work was required in getting them fitted and prepped for painting so I put in a call to the company selling them and spoke to the owner.

He was pretty helpful and told me they had sold something like 50 sets so he figured the fit must be OK.  Based on this phonecall I ordered a pair.

 

The guards arrived within a week and came wrapped in fitted cardboard and packed together in one box and while not the greatest the packaging was good enough to prevent any shipping damage.

 

 

My first impressions were good, the panels were straight, painted black and had all the right brackets and mounts.  Dropping them onto the car also suggested that the fit was OK and the initial signs good.

 

But when it came time to bolting up the guards some gaps started to appear in the alignment. 

The two main areas of concern were the headlight mount and the gaps at the top of the door.

 

 

There were two major issues with the door gaps.  Firstly, it was obvious that there was a section of the outer skin that had not been folded around the inner pressing and this fouled the scuttle under the windscreen.  There was a section of about 100mm that simply had not been folded and it was the same for both LH and RH guards.  Checking my old guards confirmed this and a few minutes with a body hammer sorted this. 

 

 

Secondly there was trouble with the inner skin fouling the seam at the top of the inner guard and no matter what I tried the gap at the top of the door was too big.  Again checking my old guards showed the inner pressing was welded badly and needed to be changed.  Drilling the spot welds out and repositioning the inner skin made enough clearance to get the guard sitting down low enough to make the top of the door gap OK.

 

 

I then needed to make some changes at the headlight mounts.  Again it looked like the headlight pressing had been welded too close to the outer skin making it difficult to bolt up the guard and very hard to make the scoops sit flush, this also effected the fit at the bottom of the door as the whole guard had to be twisted to get the holes aligned.

The fix again was to drill out the spot welds and then offer up the guard, fit some bolts and then tack and weld the sections back with the right alignment.

 

 

With a bit of trial and error it was possible to get some reasonable gaps all round.  The one last issue is with the section where the bonnet and the inspection covers meet at the corner of the guard, again the outer skin is badly folded leaving a sharp edge and a small gap that you can't fill.

 

The one part I couldn't fix however was the section that curls around the bottom of the screen.

On the RH guard (the LH one was fine) the curved section at the base of the screen had the wrong profile and didn't match the curve of the body.  The door is made up of four main parts, the main outer skin, the headlight mount and two sections that make up the brace at the rear of the guard.  Each of the separate pressings look accurately made but the manner of assembly leaves a little to be desired and in this particular case the folding of the outer skin around the inner skin at base of the screen was done badly and meant the alignment was out and it was beyond my skills to rectify.

 

 

I was able to tweak to the section to fit around the screen and make it look OK but it certainly isn't a great fit and where the guard should come to a point it now comes to a flat end which isn't a great look.  Lastly, I had to slot the mount holes where it meets the inner guard along the bonnet line. For me it will be OK as it's a rally car but for a road car it probably wouldn't be acceptable and would need some expert hands.

 

In the end I have to say that I'm happy with the outcome, I didn't really expect to fit up some aftermarket guards without any mods but it was still easier for me than repairing the mangled rusty ones available otherwise.

 

But if you want a perfect fitting guard you will probably be better off repairing a factory one.

Roger

 

 

[dat2kman]

From bloke in Lawnton Brisbane? Also known as Phils4Rotaries? He also does all panels for early Munro's, XWXY Falcoons and some Torrie stuff.

Yes he knows they arent quite right, hes been told, but it is too late to fix the stamping dies up, he bought a rather low budget full stamping set up in Thailand, and is now doing whole Falcoon body shells!

 

You will need some body finishing skills to get tjese right, but at least we can get them

 

BTW i am coming down in March 2012 from Brissy to Melb, if anyone or a few want these delivered a little more carefully, i can pick them up and transport to Melb. A carton or a bottle ish nieshe!!