N70 Hilux Guards

What you see here is some candid, behind the scenes build pics of the build process for our N70 guards… the process isnt pretty, but gives you an idea of the process myself & Phill took to bring these into life.

Phill’s 25+ years’ experience as an aircraft engineer proving invaluable throughout the process, while the labourious, non-fun, dirty work was all yours truly.

Starting with a new aftermarket N70 facelift front guard, timber offset blocks were screwed along the length at specific widths, designed to have 4.5” of wheel cover at the center & tapering off to the factory steel. The use of a factory guard ensures as close to factory fitment as possible. The whole structure was then pinned down to marine ply at the factory mount points, to ensure the guard stayed flat and true throughout the modelling process as the factory guards on N70s are pretty flimsy.

From there, the basic shape was formed from a fibreglass guard from another model was cut, chopped, pushed, pulled, pinned in every direction, to set out the basic foundation for the shape… This basic shape was carefully measured and mirrored on the opposing side.

From here, it was a lot of bog and a lot of sanding, graduating the wide flares down to the steelwork along each edge.

The design consideration was a larger wheel opening to suit 35” tyres, maximising clearance at the firewall, as well as the tough, aggressive trophy truck styling. Once the basic shape was together, reinforced to ensure the many kilo’s of bog stayed in one spot, they were unscrewed from the formply and the start of many test fits began, with none other than Nic from SEQ Fabrications, N70 guru and creator of the Muzzbar who perfected the final design you see here.

 All going to plan we’re expecting final bodywork to be completed mid 2018 & moulding later in the year, stay tuned!!!