So I'm going to be making a thing.

[Killer223]

i wonder if he'll cut me one, i'll weld it up here at home.

[The_Hammer]

15 hours ago, Mopar1973Man said:

 

This might be true but the strength of the bump will not be as strong. 

 

Less cuts and welding is going to produce a stronger bumper. But what am I say the OEM bumper is so weak you can dent it just pushing firewood rounds out of the bed. 

 

I’m going to add several internal gussets for strength and rigidity.

 

 

12 hours ago, Killer223 said:

i have to disagree Mike, the more cuts and gussets the stronger it should be. but it also makes for better change to be twisted when welding it together unless you have a jig to hold everything straight. lots of tac welds before stitching and finish welding. 

Are you going to incorporate any steps? how about backup lights? or D-ring attachments points?

 

 

The internal gussets I’m adding will prevent any distortion so long as I don’t go nuts when welding it up. I will also be using a lot of tack welds on the smaller, more intricate parts.

 

The plan is to mount four, 4” square LED lights in the bumper as backup lights. I however will NOT be using Rigid brand lights as there is no way in hell I’m spending $400 on four small lights. 

 

I’m going to be using a receiver hitch D-ring like this instead of adding them to the bumper. 

 

1 hour ago, Killer223 said:

i wonder if he'll cut me one, i'll weld it up here at home.

 

I’m sure he would. I can find out what he would charge if you are serious. 

Edited November 14, 2017 by The_Hammer
My grammer suck, my spelling suck.

[Killer223]

 

10 hours ago, The_Hammer said:

I’m sure he would. I can find out what he would charge if you are serious. 

 i am serious, but what i'm not sure of is will they fit a 3rd gen truck, both of my trucks need rear bumpers.

[The_Hammer]

8 minutes ago, Killer223 said:

 

 i am serious, but what i'm not sure of is will they fit a 3rd gen truck, both of my trucks need rear bumpers.

 

I’m sure with the correct measurements I can modify the design to fit a 3rd gen.

 

Hopefully I will have everything finalized this week and the parts cut and shipped to me sometime next week. Once I know for a fact that my design is sound and all the kinks are worked out we can go from there. 

[Killer223]

good deal.

[Dieselfuture]

For d rings, make your mounting brackets go through the bumper. So I used 1/2"  on mine and then made another short piece to but up to main one, ended up being 1" total for d rings hook up. And very strong as you're not relying on welds to hold that tab on face of bumper. 

[SilverMoose]

3rd one looks real nice.  You are getting addicted to that 3D stuff aren't you?  Can't blame you & I'm glad I get paid to have fun with it.  Nice work

 

L8tr

D

[The_Hammer]

3 hours ago, Dieselfuture said:

For d rings, make your mounting brackets go through the bumper. So I used 1/2"  on mine and then made another short piece to but up to main one, ended up being 1" total for d rings hook up. And very strong as you're not relying on welds to hold that tab on face of bumper. 

 

I’m going to use a receiver hitch d-ring instead of mounting anything on the bumper. 

37 minutes ago, SilverMoose said:

3rd one looks real nice.  You are getting addicted to that 3D stuff aren't you?  Can't blame you & I'm glad I get paid to have fun with it.  Nice work

 

L8tr

D

 

Thanks and I definitely have. The real test will be welding it all up without making it look like crap lol. 

[The_Hammer]

Mock-up of the redesign is complete. It fit the truck great and measurements were dead on.

[The_Hammer]

I will be using 4 of these gussets along with the two mounts.

 

[The_Hammer]

Well, the guy that was going to cut everything out for me is bowed up for the next couple of months now so I had to look for an alternative method to get this done. It turns out a grinder and cutoff wheel will do the job quickly and cleanly.

 

 

 

This is just a test piece to see if it was feasible or not to use an angle grinder for the cuts. 1/4” plate was pretty easy to cut so 10ga will be no problem. The clean, crisp edges make this somewhat complex design easy to weld up while keeping the lines aligned.

 

 

[Dieselfuture]

I've used that method for a long time, cut half way and bend. What I do afterwards is used a regular grinder blade and trace all the cuts trying to keep straight lines, then set welder up so it flows like lava kinda basically fill the gap without bunching up. You can always grind some off too. Looking good though I love doing this kind of stuff, just not time.

[The_Hammer]

10 hours ago, Dieselfuture said:

I've used that method for a long time, cut half way and bend. What I do afterwards is used a regular grinder blade and trace all the cuts trying to keep straight lines, then set welder up so it flows like lava kinda basically fill the gap without bunching up. You can always grind some off too. Looking good though I love doing this kind of stuff, just not time.

 

 

I was actually thinking about trying to bend them like that but wasn’t sure how well it would work. 

 

I’m kind of torn between using 10ga or 3/16” plate at the moment.

[Dieselfuture]

I used 1/4 on mine if that helps 

[The_Hammer]

10 hours ago, Dieselfuture said:

I used 1/4 on mine if that helps 

 

I found out that the place in town uses 10ga for the shell and 1/4” for the braces and mounting. Their bumpers hold up fine to deer impacts so 10ga it is. 

 

My thought is if I over build the bumper the next thing to give will be the frame. 

[Dieselfuture]

6 of one half a dozen of the other

[The_Hammer]

I’m off today so it’s time to start on the rear bumper 

 

If this turns out ok I already have an idea for the front bumper lol.

 

This design is only about 50% complete.

 

 

[The_Hammer]

Got a late start today but so far so good.

 

[The_Hammer]

More goodies showed up.

 

[The_Hammer]

Made some more progress today.