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Possible bull bars


beachbum101
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I've been looking for a ARB style bull bar for my 91 model wd21, and I just cannot seem to find any for sale. Are there any other cars with similar mounting points that could fit on mine? Thanks heaps, I am desperate as I do a lot of country/bush driving and I'm worried I'll hit a roo

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AFAIK ARB stopped making their bull bar for the WD21, but not the D21 which is slightly higher body wise (3-4cm), but otherwise the mounting points are the same (or close enough) so it would be minimal modification to make it fit.

 

B

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AFAIK ARB stopped making their bull bar for the WD21, but not the D21 which is slightly higher body wise (3-4cm), but otherwise the mounting points are the same (or close enough) so it would be minimal modification to make it fit.

 

B

Just wanted to say that this information is correct to my knowledge as well
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  • 9 years later...

Let me get this straight, if I want the ARB bull bar, simply order the one for the D21 and trim the Pathfinder as needed for fitment? As in I probably just need the grille and lights and should be good? If so I like this already

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The sealed-beam D21 grille and corner lights are no different in size than their WD21 counterparts. The D21's bumper matches up to its body the same as the WD21's bumper matches up to its body. The D21 bumper sits higher off the frame because the body does, too. So your options are raising the body to match the D21 bumper (which I know you don't want to do), or lowering the bumper to match the WD21 body.

 

B posted some pictures of the mounts on his WD21 ARB, which should give you an idea of what you're up against. The top mounts look pretty easy to work with, but those lowers would need some thought. All things are possible with a welder, provided you don't mind cutting up a brand new $1100 bumper, and provided you're confident that your mods will be strong enough to take a winch. Take pictures if you do. I've read posts like this one saying that it should be possible, but I don't remember seeing anyone actually do it.

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You are not wrong about me not necessarily wanting to do a body lift. With that said it also seems like no one has a definitive answer on how much higher the body is on the D21. Is it 1 inch? Is it 2 inches? Is it 1.5 inches? Who knows(and the search function sucks). Also I was kinda against the body lift mainly for the fact I thought it replaced the body mounts. Since the factory mounts are retained it may not be a bad idea to consider, I would just need to figure out the rear bumper adjustment since I have yet to see anything about that 

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Aftermarket body lifts replace the rubber body mounts with thicker ones. Nissan lifted the 4WD D21's cab by modifying the body mount brackets on the frame. This thread on Infamous has pictures showing the difference. The 4WD D21 brackets sweep up, while the WD21 and 2WD D21 brackets sweep down. The bushings themselves are the same (I confirmed one of them by part number). I have not confirmed that the D21 cab and WD21 body have the same spacing from the top of the bushing to the floor, but I don't see why they wouldn't, so I am assuming that they do, and that the difference in body height is entirely due to the brackets on the frame.

 

Finding the height difference of those brackets took longer than I expected, but as usual, the service manual had the goods. All info below is from the BF section of the '95 service manual. I did not cross-check this information against other years because I've already spent far too much time in this rabbit hole and I would very much like to come out now.

 

The BF section has coordinate measurements for a bunch of different points on the frame, including the body mounts. Each point has an X, Y, and Z value. I'm not sure what sets the zero point for the Z axis, but I know it's in the same place on either frame, because the front-suspension droop-stop bumper holes and the compression rod mounts match perfectly. (The front shock mounts do not, but neither do the part numbers for the shocks, so I guess that's just a D21 quirk that I was not aware of.) This means that we can directly compare the height of the body mounts between the two frames. I'll spare you the math--each one of the 4WD D21's cab mount points is exactly 50mm higher than the corresponding mount points in the WD21 and 2WD D21.

 

In freedom units, that's 1.96".

 

TL;DR: the D21 ARB bumper should fit a 2" body-lifted WD21.

 

And yes, a body lift would leave a gap over the rear bumper, but you could fix that pretty easily. Slice the brackets, lift the bumper 2", weld the brackets back together. Even if you half-ass the welding, they'll still be stronger than the bumper they're bolted to.

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A solid answer indeed for differences in body/cab height. Not something I could figure out easily myself even when looking at the factory service manual for my 93.

 

As for the body mounts I guess it will technically depend on where you get them. I spoke with FlatOut OffRoad in New Zealand where I got my OEM replacement mounts. They also have body lift components in 25 and 50mm kits. Both are simply metal puck kits that rest in-between the body and body mounts. Perhaps other companies are a bit different.

 

As for welding, yeah not up my alley since I do know have the know-how, but I know some individuals.

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Huh. Now that I'm looking closer at the kits, yeah, those are just spacers! I had assumed that they were entire mounts. That makes it easy then! Especially if they offer a 50mm option.

 

There's all kinds of good info in the service manual, but yeah, they don't make it easy sometimes.

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On 10/10/2014 at 2:46 PM, beachbum101 said:

I've been looking for a ARB style bull bar for my 91 model wd21, and I just cannot seem to find any for sale. Are there any other cars with similar mounting points that could fit on mine? Thanks heaps, I am desperate as I do a lot of country/bush driving and I'm worried I'll hit a roo emoji26.png


LN106 Hilux or RA Rodeo fit with some slight modification. You need to make your own mounts though. 

I have an LN106 one here I am slowly getting around to fitting

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