SRT-4 Crash Bar

After 220,000 miles my trusty saturn finally decided not to start. So, here I was facing a dilemma. I could put a $250 fuel pump in it or I could buy a new car that I would be needing eventually anyhow. Well I decided in these trying economic times I was going to do my part to contribute to revitalizing the economy. So I decided to start looking at new cars. I just kinda stumbled across this beautiful blue SRT-4.

When I purchased my SRT it already had a couple mods done to it. So, I decided to just go with it and have some fun.

As with everything. I have a terrible time leaving well enough alone.

The first thing I noticed was the fact that the larger intercooler took up the entire area behind the front clip. This really wasn't a problem till I realized there was no protection for this very expensive intercooler.

I live in Bristol New York. Every day on my way to work and on my way home. I have a whole slew of animals that insist on racing me. Sometimes I win, sometimes they win.

Seeing as how the smaller animals generally don't win, I became concerned for the well being of my intercooler.

I was doing some looking around on the intarwebnet, and found a few options. Unfortunately , I was not impressed with any of them. they all seemed to offer structural support, but no real protection for the intercooler.

I decided I was just going to build my own.

This is what the front of the car looked like without the front clip.

As you can see one slow possum = Bye bye Mr. intercooler.

Front clip removed exposing the unprotected intercooler.

This is the view of the front clip with the crash bar installed.

Test fitting it in the front clip to make sure it fit the way I wanted.

I had some 1" square stock laying around. So I decided that would have to do.

I used the intecooler for my jig and marked all my pieces, then cut them with the correct angles, and tacked them together.

Once tacked together. I placed the crash bar into the front clip. I did not want any more restriction, and I also did not want it visible from the outside of the car.

Crash bar tacked together for test fit.

Crash bar installed.

Top view of crash bar.

Top view of crash bar showing the perfect 1/4" clearance.
I was happy with the test fit so I full welded everything together then painted it a nice satin black. Unfortunately it was getting dark and I had to get my car back together so the following pictures aren't that great.

Crash bar painted and installed.

Crash bar painted and installed.

Crash bar installed under front clip. only 2 small pieces are visible.

This is all you can see of the crash bar.

In the design process, I wanted to make sure the crash bar was strong enough to handle hitting small animals. I chose not to make it to stout. If I do get into a front end collision, with something more than a possum, the bar will collapse and not bend the unibody of the car. Reguardless of what happens, the front clip will be history so that was not a concern to try and save.

If you are interested in acquiring one of these let me know we can work on pricing and schedules.

crusarius at google mail . com <replace google mail with gmail and remove spaces>