The Mechanic
Guest
There have been a number of GSer's that have posted their ways of making an oil cooler stone guard, all very accomplished and well worth following suit.
Actually getting the right sort of material could prove difficult to some, so here are a few suggestions as to where you can easily acquire, purchase the material(s) to make a reasonable guard.
B & Q sell expanded aluminium sheet in blister packs, but it ain't cheap at £10 for some dubious looking stuff to £20 + for some really good anodised material.
The Touratech oil cooler protector....very nice looking....is approx. £17.00 plus snail mail.
BUT...but... B & Q also sell disposable barbeques for about £3.00 each. The cooking grille on these is ideal for utilising but the finished article will need painting or lacquering to stop rust.
There is a Barbeque anti-flare contraption that retails for £3.99 at Sainsbury's Homebase made from what looks like stainless wire mesh, this would make a perfect (when cut to size) protector.
The other alternative is to buy (Morrisons) metal waste paper basket 2 for £4.99, use one for the purpose intended and cut the other one to provide from the material a useful sized chunk of perforated mild steel sheet. This would proved enough for 2 possibly 3 GS oil cooler guards.
There is another option and that is to use an old/ new fireguard, not as daft as it sounds because there made from the same stuff that the spotty oiks use to put on the fronts of there Pugs, the stuff they get from the car shops is horrendously expensive, costs about 3p to make and then its sold for £25+
You can guess what I do when I'm shopping with the other half, hope there's scope here for you lot to make a less expensive alternative to the other options.
Me, I made my guard from a heating ventilation grille, you can find these on fridges, er heaters and air-con. units.
To fit your guard you need to remove the screen and top cover, take out the headlight (unless you want to use force and risk damaging something). Now you can measure -up as the cooler is much more exposed- but you need the guard to cover all the front of the cooler as it protrudes down underneath the beak (1150 GS). Make a thin cardboard template (cornflake packet) and allow at least 1/2 inch (13mm) extra at the top as this will be bent at 90 degrees back over the oil cooler top to provide anchorage.
The expanded aluminium/mesh can probably be cut with some heavy duty scissors. You will need to make a small allowance for the headlight aim adjuster (white nylon right lower of h/l when viewed from the front) so aim to remove a bout 3mm more on the top right hand edge to allow easy fitting.
You must use something to prevent the guard from chaffing against the cooler body otherwise it kind of defeats the reasons for putting a guard there in the first place. I used fairing screen strip, but you could use draught excluder strip or cut some plastic tubing (screen washer tubing....nick it of the car) length ways and slide that onto the ends of the guard. Other fixes are silicon sealant put onto the cooler body ends and then fix the mesh into it, super-glue some pieces of rubber onto the cooler body ends. I'm sure there are more ways, you find them. Good tip now is to thoroughly clean the oil cooler vents use a soft paintbrush to tease out those coppers buttons and dead flies.
Do not worry, the mesh cannot fall out because (on the 1150GS) the beak has a lug on its rear leading edge so the mesh sits on this, it can't come out at the top because the 90 degree back bend holds it nicely under the headlamp. It can't come out sideways either because once again the beak is in the way.
NB to ease fitting you can reach under the beak (mind its teeth) and gently push against the oil cooler..GENTLY..I can see the comments now...this alllows a litle more space for the guard. OR...you can undo the beak and cooler lower mount screws/bolts if you must but it is not really necessary.
Refit everything back, stand back and..... prepare for wack on back of head from the missus, "wheres me fireguard gone then/".....admire your handy work. Mine looks good, anodised gold. Must be good because she who must be obeyed said so!
Actually getting the right sort of material could prove difficult to some, so here are a few suggestions as to where you can easily acquire, purchase the material(s) to make a reasonable guard.
B & Q sell expanded aluminium sheet in blister packs, but it ain't cheap at £10 for some dubious looking stuff to £20 + for some really good anodised material.
The Touratech oil cooler protector....very nice looking....is approx. £17.00 plus snail mail.
BUT...but... B & Q also sell disposable barbeques for about £3.00 each. The cooking grille on these is ideal for utilising but the finished article will need painting or lacquering to stop rust.
There is a Barbeque anti-flare contraption that retails for £3.99 at Sainsbury's Homebase made from what looks like stainless wire mesh, this would make a perfect (when cut to size) protector.
The other alternative is to buy (Morrisons) metal waste paper basket 2 for £4.99, use one for the purpose intended and cut the other one to provide from the material a useful sized chunk of perforated mild steel sheet. This would proved enough for 2 possibly 3 GS oil cooler guards.
There is another option and that is to use an old/ new fireguard, not as daft as it sounds because there made from the same stuff that the spotty oiks use to put on the fronts of there Pugs, the stuff they get from the car shops is horrendously expensive, costs about 3p to make and then its sold for £25+
You can guess what I do when I'm shopping with the other half, hope there's scope here for you lot to make a less expensive alternative to the other options.
Me, I made my guard from a heating ventilation grille, you can find these on fridges, er heaters and air-con. units.
To fit your guard you need to remove the screen and top cover, take out the headlight (unless you want to use force and risk damaging something). Now you can measure -up as the cooler is much more exposed- but you need the guard to cover all the front of the cooler as it protrudes down underneath the beak (1150 GS). Make a thin cardboard template (cornflake packet) and allow at least 1/2 inch (13mm) extra at the top as this will be bent at 90 degrees back over the oil cooler top to provide anchorage.
The expanded aluminium/mesh can probably be cut with some heavy duty scissors. You will need to make a small allowance for the headlight aim adjuster (white nylon right lower of h/l when viewed from the front) so aim to remove a bout 3mm more on the top right hand edge to allow easy fitting.
You must use something to prevent the guard from chaffing against the cooler body otherwise it kind of defeats the reasons for putting a guard there in the first place. I used fairing screen strip, but you could use draught excluder strip or cut some plastic tubing (screen washer tubing....nick it of the car) length ways and slide that onto the ends of the guard. Other fixes are silicon sealant put onto the cooler body ends and then fix the mesh into it, super-glue some pieces of rubber onto the cooler body ends. I'm sure there are more ways, you find them. Good tip now is to thoroughly clean the oil cooler vents use a soft paintbrush to tease out those coppers buttons and dead flies.
Do not worry, the mesh cannot fall out because (on the 1150GS) the beak has a lug on its rear leading edge so the mesh sits on this, it can't come out at the top because the 90 degree back bend holds it nicely under the headlamp. It can't come out sideways either because once again the beak is in the way.
NB to ease fitting you can reach under the beak (mind its teeth) and gently push against the oil cooler..GENTLY..I can see the comments now...this alllows a litle more space for the guard. OR...you can undo the beak and cooler lower mount screws/bolts if you must but it is not really necessary.
Refit everything back, stand back and..... prepare for wack on back of head from the missus, "wheres me fireguard gone then/".....admire your handy work. Mine looks good, anodised gold. Must be good because she who must be obeyed said so!
