I finally got around to installing the OEM snorkel I got from Jeff (Whosethecoolguy). Install was pretty straight forward, but I'll mention a couple things.
1. I found the opening in the exterior piece to look somewhat restricted. It seems that during the moulding process, the flange around the narrow part of the opening partially collapsed. I thought about cutting back the flange, but left as is because the flange locates/ aligns the exterior piece with that which fastens to the fender.
2. I cut the opening in the fender using a jigsaw with a fine tooth metal blade along with 1 1/8" Milwaukee hole saw for the radius on the corners. I found the hole saw would wander a bit, so extreme care is required. If I was to do it again, I would center punch the center of these radius holes. After cutting out the hole, I used a die grinder with a flat sanding disc to finish the edges to the lines in the tape applied to the fender. I also found the hole to be larger than expected, as the fender piece would move around quite a bit once installed. This may be a good thing though to allow for any misalignment. I applied some galv paint to the steel edges and let dry overnight.
3. To install the fender piece you just need to remove the right front signal light. There is just one philips screw holding it in on top. I have long arms so reaching into the fender was no issue. I wanted to silicone this piece to the fender with some Permatex black gasket maker, but after letting it sit overnight, I found that it did not stick to the plastic fender piece. I did use the gasket maker between the joint of the fender piece and flex tube.
4. Instead of using the supplied rivets I decided to go with rivet nuts. I picked up the POP Metric Rivetnut kit. I used M5 nuts for the two fender brackets, and M6 for the A pillar bracket. I used the scrap metal cut out to do a couple test rivet nuts. I purchased some button head stainless steel hex screws to fasten everything.
5. For some reason, I still can't get one of the plastic clips in the exterior piece to snap into one of the holes. I'll probably take it apart and try again.
6. Since there is no template to locate the bracket on the A pillar, a trial fit is required. Even after several trial fits the bracket ended being about 1/8" too high. I checked out a friends install yesterday and his was installed about 1/2" too high. I didn't actually snap the exterior piece into place for fear of breaking them to get the piece back out to allow for room to dril the two holes in the A pillar so this could explain the slight misalignment.
7. Overall, I am very pleased with the install and looks. I prefer the cyclone hat to the Safari scoop, and I like the smaller "footprint" of the exterior piece vs that of the Safari. The only thing I don't care for are the two exposed openings for the two mounting brackets.
1. I found the opening in the exterior piece to look somewhat restricted. It seems that during the moulding process, the flange around the narrow part of the opening partially collapsed. I thought about cutting back the flange, but left as is because the flange locates/ aligns the exterior piece with that which fastens to the fender.
2. I cut the opening in the fender using a jigsaw with a fine tooth metal blade along with 1 1/8" Milwaukee hole saw for the radius on the corners. I found the hole saw would wander a bit, so extreme care is required. If I was to do it again, I would center punch the center of these radius holes. After cutting out the hole, I used a die grinder with a flat sanding disc to finish the edges to the lines in the tape applied to the fender. I also found the hole to be larger than expected, as the fender piece would move around quite a bit once installed. This may be a good thing though to allow for any misalignment. I applied some galv paint to the steel edges and let dry overnight.
3. To install the fender piece you just need to remove the right front signal light. There is just one philips screw holding it in on top. I have long arms so reaching into the fender was no issue. I wanted to silicone this piece to the fender with some Permatex black gasket maker, but after letting it sit overnight, I found that it did not stick to the plastic fender piece. I did use the gasket maker between the joint of the fender piece and flex tube.
4. Instead of using the supplied rivets I decided to go with rivet nuts. I picked up the POP Metric Rivetnut kit. I used M5 nuts for the two fender brackets, and M6 for the A pillar bracket. I used the scrap metal cut out to do a couple test rivet nuts. I purchased some button head stainless steel hex screws to fasten everything.
5. For some reason, I still can't get one of the plastic clips in the exterior piece to snap into one of the holes. I'll probably take it apart and try again.
6. Since there is no template to locate the bracket on the A pillar, a trial fit is required. Even after several trial fits the bracket ended being about 1/8" too high. I checked out a friends install yesterday and his was installed about 1/2" too high. I didn't actually snap the exterior piece into place for fear of breaking them to get the piece back out to allow for room to dril the two holes in the A pillar so this could explain the slight misalignment.
7. Overall, I am very pleased with the install and looks. I prefer the cyclone hat to the Safari scoop, and I like the smaller "footprint" of the exterior piece vs that of the Safari. The only thing I don't care for are the two exposed openings for the two mounting brackets.
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