[RedneckInTraining]

I live up in northern Idaho and the headlights on my 2005 dodge grand caravan absolutely suck for lighting up anything other than what is directly in front of it.My biggest worry is tagging a dear with it and totaling it out because its just on liability insurance.Around here its not a matter of "if" you hit a deer but when,I had a deer run into the side of my 87 dakota, and I smashed a deer with my 84 nissan 300zx "rally car", were it not for the bash bar I built on the front of it the car would died or the deer would came through the windshield and took me out. my mom hit a deer with her 98 town and country and did 3K worth of damage to it and it needed towed,my 2005 isnt much different.So I plan to modify a grill guard I got at the junkyard to fit my caravan but I need to take the plastic "bumper" off as well as the headlights to find something solid to mount it to so obviously I'm gonna lose my reference to the car.Any ideas for something I can mock up to get the general shape of the front of the van?I plan to attach supports to the structure of the car and punch through the plastic cover and the grill guard will mount to those, but I am gonna try to make it as professional as I can so it actually looks like it belongs there. Any tips or tricks to mock up the general shape of the bumper and headlights?

 

[dodge82273]

rally car ? and a q about headlights ?    leds come in different lighting widths from spot to flood , hit a 150 # deer at any type of speed , and while it may not bend the heavy duty push bumper you hang on there , it will bend the auto the bumper is attached TO ..... here its dark country roads, woods , W/deer as well , I find the 30 degree or wider amber leds light the shoulders . remember brake , but don't swerve , that tree / ditch can kill ya , better the auto and deer than you .  moose ? cow ?  duck under the dash as well .

 

[RedneckInTraining]

I know the grill guard wont prevent all damage but if it can save the radiator and allow me to limp back to town than its done its job.

I bought my 84 Nissan 300zx "rally car" after a carport collapsed on top of it from too much snow on the passenger side rear 1/4 panel.I knew it would never be as pretty as it once was so I decided to turn it into a car I could drive fast in the woods with. So I built a bash bar into the front end to protect against road based hazards...I also put a 30" curved combo spot/flood light bar on and it lights up enough of the road on either side to see if deer are moving or bedded down within 150 ft of the road,but when your following traffic and using the stock sealed beam headlights it came with-not so much.

 

[RedneckInTraining]

When I got it most of the glass and all of the trim under the rear hatch was destroyed.Here is a picture after I built its front end but before I fixed the glass,along with a pile of parts no longer needed.

 

[Mad Max]

Any ideas for something I can mock up to get the general shape of the front of the van?I plan to attach supports to the structure of the car and punch through the plastic cover and the grill guard will mount to those, but I am gonna try to make it as professional as I can so it actually looks like it belongs there

...if the guard is going to be attached to supports that will come through the bumper then I think I'd pull the bumper, find a good place to attach the supports and go ahead and attach them leaving several inches of extra length, then slowly modify the bumper to clear the supports, then put the bumper back on, then with the supports 'poking through' the bumper and with both in place I'd then modify the guard to fit the supports, then when it's all done take it all back off for final cleaning/painting, the reassemble for good.

The supports poking through the bumper will 'be' your reference