Ok... So I've put off posting about my bumper for some reason or another, but want to kind of give some feed back as to how I built it.
I built my bumper back in 2010ish maybe first of 2011 I didn't like how the bumpers that were out took the stock tow hooks away which to me didn't seem like the best idea. I wanted something that looked good but didn't take to much away from the truck. I came up with an image i wanted to go with that flowed well and added on from there. I will have to give my father some credit for helping me get this thing going and added a few ideas on how to get started.
I only used a few tools that are pretty easy to find and fairly easy to use.
Some of them include: welder, plasma cutter, grinder, wire brush, drill, drill bits, wrenches to take stock bumper off and put the new one on, tape measure, some cardboard, a few sharpies, quarters, string, pipe stands, ply wood, cheap pipe bender, black tape, and some synthetic sand.
Ok for the start and yes I pretty much suck for write ups.... I'm a little scatter brained.
Here is what the original idea was going to be:
Then after that look I tried to closely match it. Not having a little welding or plasma cutter at my personal house I started this project back at the parents.
This is where the ol' man comes into play for helping me with starting off. I took off the stock bumper and found what I was going to be working with. So I made plates to work off:
The easiest way I could think of how to "jig" up haha was with stands and ply wood. I used one of my HID lights and put on the ply wood where I wanted it placed compared to the rest of the truck. I then took a string and quarters and marked where I was going to put bends in the pipe with my cheap harbor freight bender.
Like this:
Then once I had it marked out I started bending the top pipe to fit the line:
Once the top pipe had all the correct bends in it to match the line that was made I took out the ply wood and had the pipe stands hold the pipe in place for attachment points to be made:
Then cut out some cardboard for a template to make the actual plate metal for the attachment point:
Ones your pipe is welded to the the attachment plates you can fill the side plates in. I used more cardboard to get a good match to the rest of it:
Once they are all on there thats when I put in a draw bar to hang the lights from on the back side of the 2" main frame pipe:
Then after that I drilled holes for the lights, but making sure I had room for my upright 1" bars I started on the top baja looking bar:
This is the bender I used and to make the bends not deform I filled it with bauxite due to sand was crushing on the 2" main bar and the angles weren't near as much. The 4130 chromoly pipe was that strong:
Here it is tacked up to the 2":
After that is attached I started to finish it out with the support 1" bars to the upper loop:
I welded in tabs for the skid plate and cut it out to fit flush but don't really have good pics of that. Also, I put in a brace bar from the outer edge back to the frame to really add strength to the front end. Once that was all finished I sanded it down and just spray painted it before powdercoat just to make sure i didn't want to change something about it.
Here it is before paint:
I built my bumper back in 2010ish maybe first of 2011 I didn't like how the bumpers that were out took the stock tow hooks away which to me didn't seem like the best idea. I wanted something that looked good but didn't take to much away from the truck. I came up with an image i wanted to go with that flowed well and added on from there. I will have to give my father some credit for helping me get this thing going and added a few ideas on how to get started.
I only used a few tools that are pretty easy to find and fairly easy to use.
Some of them include: welder, plasma cutter, grinder, wire brush, drill, drill bits, wrenches to take stock bumper off and put the new one on, tape measure, some cardboard, a few sharpies, quarters, string, pipe stands, ply wood, cheap pipe bender, black tape, and some synthetic sand.
Ok for the start and yes I pretty much suck for write ups.... I'm a little scatter brained.
Here is what the original idea was going to be:
Then after that look I tried to closely match it. Not having a little welding or plasma cutter at my personal house I started this project back at the parents.
This is where the ol' man comes into play for helping me with starting off. I took off the stock bumper and found what I was going to be working with. So I made plates to work off:
The easiest way I could think of how to "jig" up haha was with stands and ply wood. I used one of my HID lights and put on the ply wood where I wanted it placed compared to the rest of the truck. I then took a string and quarters and marked where I was going to put bends in the pipe with my cheap harbor freight bender.
Like this:
Then once I had it marked out I started bending the top pipe to fit the line:
Once the top pipe had all the correct bends in it to match the line that was made I took out the ply wood and had the pipe stands hold the pipe in place for attachment points to be made:
Then cut out some cardboard for a template to make the actual plate metal for the attachment point:
Ones your pipe is welded to the the attachment plates you can fill the side plates in. I used more cardboard to get a good match to the rest of it:
Once they are all on there thats when I put in a draw bar to hang the lights from on the back side of the 2" main frame pipe:
Then after that I drilled holes for the lights, but making sure I had room for my upright 1" bars I started on the top baja looking bar:
This is the bender I used and to make the bends not deform I filled it with bauxite due to sand was crushing on the 2" main bar and the angles weren't near as much. The 4130 chromoly pipe was that strong:
Here it is tacked up to the 2":
After that is attached I started to finish it out with the support 1" bars to the upper loop:
I welded in tabs for the skid plate and cut it out to fit flush but don't really have good pics of that. Also, I put in a brace bar from the outer edge back to the frame to really add strength to the front end. Once that was all finished I sanded it down and just spray painted it before powdercoat just to make sure i didn't want to change something about it.
Here it is before paint:
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