How thick is this?

[hademall]

Gotta say, I suspect that alloy bar is part of the crash protection and if so it shouldn’t be drilled or stuff bolted to it.

You can see the VE crash structure below

http://[URL]http://youwheel.com/home/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Holden_VE.pdf

[/URL]

Not sure how different the VF is crash structure wise but it’s an improvement over the VE.

During production, you can see the alloy crash bar is installed at the same time as headlights, then the front bar is added.

PS: video below talks about repairing VF and its crash structures. Haven’t watch it but it may say more,.. or say not much… I’ll chuck it here anyway.

Watched the VF production vid. Reminded me of the six mind numbing years I spent at Ford Motor Co.

Once again…..killjoy.

 

[Skylarking]

There's a big crash repair establishment not far from me. I'll run it past them in the morning.

All panel shops have to go by are Holden‘s crash repair methods and I doubt such docs would talk about the safety of drilling the crash bar and mounting stuff to it.

In any case, panel beaters aren’t motor vehicle body structural engineers but who else to ask

Didn’t police cars mount extra lights on the front of their car? Maybe you’d be better to ask the mob that modded those police cars but I don’t know who they we’re?

May be I’m over thinking it cause you’ll never crash your car

 

[vc commodore]

The worse thing that can occur drilling that panel to fit a nutcert is create a slight weak point for it to fold around in the event of an accident.....

I very seriously doubt it will be a massive issue, if any should you have a accident.

If you wanted to drill it, use plenty of lubrication whilst drilling....ie WD40, CRC, oil etc etc and don't push really hard on the drill bit...This will help prevent the drill bit from getting blunt and also help drill through the panel to fit the nutcert.....

I drilled through spring steel using the same process...It did take a while, but was succesful.

Unfortunately I'm unaware of the thickness, but hopefully the advise I have given can help with creating the hole required

 

[axemurderer101]

Drill and tap it instead of nutserts, what are you fitting to it?

This is my car when i fitted a lightbar
https://forums.justcommodores.com.au/threads/my-led-lightbar-install.288949/

 

[Poor old Dad]

panel beaters aren’t motor vehicle body structural engineers but who else to ask

Indeed.

Once upon a time I would have just gone ahead and replaced the aluminium bar with a piece of 3 x 2 and nailed the bracket to it.

Times change...

Anyhoo, to answer a few other q's that have popped up in the thread, my original plan (6 years ago) was to mount a lightbar behind the grill but the Calais front bar and grill don't lend themselves to that idea.

So I bought one of the Narva Explora number plate frame mounted lightbars.

In truth it's pretty good but as we're keeping the car (too few K's to be rid of it and what do I replace it with, these days?) and are getting back into road trips (Tassie in a couple of weeks) I want a bit more light out front.

So, after looking at specs, sizes, reviews ad nauseum, I settled on a pair of Hella which among the specs had a package weight of 1 kg.
0.5 kg each was doable.

Plan was to adapt existing Narva mount to accomodate Hellas.

Lights arrive, I realised I had an issue when I had to get a forklift to lift the box off the truck, checked specs elsewhere and found that lights are 1 kg each. Too heavy for Narva frame.

So, here we are.

I'm not really concerned about nutserting the bar. It's gotta be better than a bit of 3 x 2 but it sounds pretty solid and I didn't want to attempt a nutsert if it was too thick.

Oh yeah, there's the added complication of a carbra to work around (or more likely - through)

Thanks to all who joined in. It's an interesting read.