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Posted by: 76-914 Jan 20 2017, 03:11 PM

I'm finally posting my experience of what should have been a relatively easy peasy task. Let me say early on the Mark's bar is a work of art but my car was not. When I tried to mate the bar up with my car I immediately noticed it wasn't going to fit. Two problems were evident. 1, the spread between the attach points was about 9mm too short on my car and 2, the drivers side front attachment area as about 20 degrees off. I'll explain. Where the covers and/or bar mount you will notice the are not paralell to the ground but have a slight angle. The R side appeared to be normal but as I mentioned the L side was about 20 degrees greater.
I debated as to whether I should try to bend that area to match the other side and then trim Mark's bar to match or return the bar and make my own. I attached the left side of the bar to the right side of the car and attempted to "pry" that area down. No way. It wouldn't budge!



Next I drilled a hole in the R front reinforcement piece which allowed me to place a piece of pipe directly on the raised area. I gave a few good whacks with a 12 lb sledge and still no love.





Then I attached some blocks to pre-load the bar while I again whacked it. Nothing.



Finally, with the blocks still attached I put a big foot on the bar as well then whacked it again. This time it moved and with another 10 or so whacks I was able to move the piece down enough to match the angle on the other side.
strangely enough, once that angle was correct the distance between those attach points spread out enough that the bar now fits perfectly. I thought I would have to trim it to fit but I it wasn't necessary. I remembered reading some other posts where Rick suggested to others that they correct "X" before they tried to relocate "Z". I'll bet I accidentally got it right. The spot welds did separate below but I welded those back up and everything is Kosher now.

Posted by: green914 Jan 20 2017, 03:44 PM

Only took about 20 minutes to install mine - haven't used it yet, but I'm ready.

Posted by: rdauenhauer Jan 20 2017, 04:00 PM

Not an atypical situation.
I've encountered a few cars where the attachment of the this style bar wasn't easy or possible due probably to "curbing", or hitting the front A-arm covers (yes behind the valance) hard enough to move the F. mount points.
Rust is another .....
Ive been advising those ordering the bar I offer to remove those covers & inspect the mount points for just this reason.

Posted by: NeunEinVier Jan 20 2017, 05:55 PM

If somebody has a nice length of heavy-wall tubing (square or round and perhaps 48" long), they could drill two holes through one end and use a pair of long bolts to attach it to the attachment points, and straighten the mount with the tubing lever instead of the tow bar bracket.

Call me paranoid, but I try to avoid using parts as tools. At least you know Mark's welds have good penetration, lol.

Posted by: Mikey914 Jan 21 2017, 10:47 AM

I guess any damage or distortion would make it difficult to install. These were made to dot the factory mounts so if yours have somehow moved. It may be difficult to install. On the bright side. Once installed you now have an additional support..

Posted by: pjhaun Jan 21 2017, 04:54 PM

QUOTE(Mikey914 @ Jan 21 2017, 08:47 AM)