Nissan GU winch & bullbar

Until recently, I owned a 1999 model Nissan Patrol GU wagon 4.5litre petrol with a genuine Nissan polished aluminium bullbar. The car was bought by me second hand and when I purchased it (from Govt auction), there was a good Warn winch installed in this bullbar. I have been told that it is not "legal" to install a winch on this bullbar as it was not designed for a winch. The car has a drivers airbag fitted and I was told that as the bullbar was not designed to have a winch fitted to a non-winch bullbar and that I may void any insurance claim in the event of an accident, and the airbag may not engage when required to do so. Is this all true or a lot of hogwash ?

Anyway, I recently traded this car in on a 2003 model Nissan Patrol GUII 4.8 litre wagon which is also fitted with a genuine Nissan polished alloy bullbar. Thinking that the cars are virtually identical, I removed the winch from my 1999 model, so that I could fit it to the 2003 model. I removed the bullbar of the 2003 model to discover that there is much less room between the radiator and grill in the 2003 model, than in the 1999 model. To fit the winch to the 2003 model, I would need to replace the mounting bracket on the winch and/or cut the car front frame (which I am not keen on doing). Even then the winch will be protruding significantly from the front bumper - to the point where the winch would be the first contact point in the event of any nudge. I am not sure if this is legal. I do not wish to break any laws or void my insurance policy.

The black steel bullbars which are deisgned for winches, in my opinion look ugly, they rust and it would cost me more to buy this bumper than it would be worth.

Faced with all these difficulties, I have not installed the winch at all. The winch is now gathering dust waiting for some good advice - or maybe I should just sell it.

I would be interested to hear from anyone who has successfully installed a winch into a genuine Nissan alloy bullbar to find out how it is done properly.