Chevy & GMC Vans

I have a 2003 Chevy Astro AWD and found a clever way to make a nice looking light bar for the front bumper. Since there are no Westin or WAAG bars to fit an Astro you need to improvise.
Basically, go to your neighborhood Lowes or Home Depot and get one of the nice new curved hotel style shower curtain rods in brushed nickel finish or chrome or stainless finish. Get the adjustable one and push it together to the shortest total length and then mount it to the top surface of the front bumper. The kit is about $59 or so and if you get the nice one the mounting bracket is oval shaped. Just use stainless steel hex bolts (about 5/16 inch diameter by 2 inch long. It is easy to drill just 2 holes on the top edge of the bumper to mount the shower bar brackets. These shower bars are very strong and can easily support the weight of 2 driving lights. I used Hella 500 round lights since they have a plastic case and are slim package. The lights sit up nice and high near the hood release too so they project the off road beam pretty well. The curve bar includes The 1 inch OD. of the curved bar so you can use the plastic Yakima or Thule cross bar clamps to attach to the shower bar. Put an extra strip of bicycle inner tube to make a tight fit with the clamp. Then you can bolt on a 12 to 18 inch long piece of aluminum U channel as a horizontal mounting bar to mount driving lights or fog lights. I will post a photo of the install next time.

submitted by member "Astrophysics"

Look forward to the pics

ihatemybike wrote:

what he sad

I found the picture of the light bar and the Part number of the stainless steel curved bar.
The shower bar is great. It is made by Zenith Products Corp. the brushed nickel Curved rod is Part number 35601BN. There are other curved shower bars, but the Zenith Products one from Home Depot has the best end cap design for the purpose of mounting to the bumper.

NOw I need to re save my high resolution photo to lower res and post it.

Astrophysics

No pics? whats the point?????????

Sounds good I will check this out. I have been wondering how can I add a light bar to my AWD van for a while.

I took some new photos of the light bar mounted to front bumper of 2003 AWD Astro.
The curved shower bar is brushed nickel finish stainless steel and it is surprisingly strong, especially when the extension is minimized.
Use stainless steel 5/16 inch bolts to mount clamp and nylon lock nuts, etc.

Wow, that came out pretty nice!

Yeah that looks good. Hmmm will have to think about that for real!!!!

i dont personnally see the need for fog lights, and dont really like the off road jeep style look some go for, but i gotta admit i expected this to look pretty gaudy for what you chose to use, but if thats the style your into it definitely looks nice. i would have never been able to guess that was a shower rod. looks far more durable than i would've expected too.

if i had fog lights a few weeks ago i might of had the chance to see the deer that was infront of me instead of hitting him. I am going to put some on. how much does that help with visibility. any pics with lights on vs off

definately a neat way to do it. turned out a whole lot nicer than I would have imagined...

Looks Good Dood

Van fans,

The front light bar with the higher mounting position is actually intended for longer range driving lights.
The spot beam of the driving lights is intended to extend ahead even further than the high beams. We have to be careful with the driving lights and not use them in the city. Fog lights can be mounted lower; either just above the bumper or even below the bumper as was done with the Astro factory fogs. The fog lights are popular since you can use them all the time if you want since the beam is low to the ground. Fog lights can help with cornering. Fog lights are also nice when driving thru camp grounds etc. after dark so as not to disturb the other campers one can run parking lamps and fogs.
If anyone installs driving lights, I have found that the 55 Watt bulbs, H3 are fine. the 100 Watt bulbs use more power and get hotter and burn out faster. If you do run driving lights make sure the on / off switch is easy to reach and turn them off when approaching traffic nears. Driving or off road lights are often covered with the tell tale white plastic covers, since off road lights should not be used in traffic. If one assumes that the driving lights will be used only when the high beams are on, you can wire the new relay in the auxillary light kit so that the aux drivinig or off road lights can only work when the high beams are on . Then when you dim the brights for on coming traffic you automaitcally turn off the driving lights.

Fog lights are a better idea for in town use.

Astrophysics.
PS
The stainless steel shower rods are indeed a lot stronger than I would have expected.

I actually installed a fixed length curved stainless steel shower bar in our bathroom last summer. I had to shorten it by 2 inches or so. Wow , it was very tough to saw thru it with hack saw.

Looks great. You've got vision. May I be so bold as to request a wider shot that includes the whole front, and maybe a full 3/4 front as well.