Hey everyone,
I'm new to this forum, and I thought I would share what few pictures I have of the front bumper construction that I built for my truck. I am planning on building a rear bumper over my spring break in March (college student who doesn't get enough shop time), and I am planning on posting that as well.
I began my build with the idea that I wanted the ranch hand bumper look by using pipe as my main construction, but didn't necessarily want the additional length a ranch hand bumper will add to a truck. Parking is tight here in Indianapolis as is with my crew cab long bed, and the less cars I can bump during a 5 point turn the better.
I started with a quick model of some basic dimensions that I took off of the stock bumper. I used SolidWorks to let my mind guide the model, and this is initially what I came up with. Of course, a few things changed as I actually built it.
I bought some pipe from a good ole boy down in Kentucky I met off craiglist who made his living as a pipe fitter. He had an endless amount of metal racks and piles of old pumps that set off along a trail in the woods behind his place. Apparently he would buy out extra material from a job for pretty cheap, and I wouldn't doubt that he could make a good amount of income on the side just by reselling it all. So I picked out some 4" I.D. pipe he had back there in the woods, and we drug it out with the skid loader. I told him I was gonna take 30' of the stuff off his hands (leaving plenty room for error in my cuts), and he even cut it down into sections on his band saw that I could wrestle in and out of the truck.
This was my first time working with pipe. I had bought a small horizontal band saw recently and decided to take what I thought was the easy way out to cut the angles I wanted. However, I quickly learned that the tool is only as good as the man using it, and that there was a huge learning curve before me.
Here is the truck when I started after removing the stock bumper, and also the first piece of pipe to start my build. Unfortunately I have no pictures of the mounts that I made out of some quarter wall box tubing I had lying around.
Next, it was time to cut each side piece to run along the remainder of the front end.
Once everything was tack welded together, it was time to burn it in.
This is what it looked like on the truck the next day when I finished welding. I should mention that I used a Miller Dynasty 200 tig/stick machine to weld with.
Now, my lady said that I ought to paint it before I went back to college after my summer break, so I just asked her to do it instead. The next day I got new tires and took this picture in the car wash after spraying the blue paint off of them.
I drove around for 5 months with only the pipe construction on the front end of my truck. I study Motorsports Engineering two hours from home and my garage, so I had to get by with what I had accomplished thus far until my Christmas break gave me time to finish.
After a short trip to Texas to visit family at the start of my break, I drove into town to buy some 0.25" tread plate to get on with my build. I know that the material thickness I chose was a little bit of overkill, but I didn't mind the weight that I measured in my SolidWorks model with a mild steel material applied to it.
Once I was satisfied with a very rough cardboard mock-up, I stocked up on some cutting wheels from harbor freight and bought an extra angle grinder (I went through three of the cheap ones in total on this build) and I let the sparks start flyin'!
I do apologize for my lack of picture taking during this build. I regret every second I didn't pull the phone out of my bibs to snap a photo of the next piece that I tack welded into place to better document the process.
I cut the chain off that I was using to move the bumper around with my engine hoist, and called on my pretty lady again to add the finishing touches. She even bought the license plate as a surprise for me to top it all off (sorry to the red fans).
ALSO, don't be fooled by the angle of all of my pictures. I did in fact cut plates to fill the gap and follow the front end profile of the truck from the top of the pipe all the way around from side to side. I built these plates to fit just under the headlights and fenders, leaving no gap between the bumper and truck when looking down from above. Also, for the grill, I tapered both sides all the way in to the middle so they follow just along the contour of the grill. My methods might not be perfect, but I like to have something that will be on my truck for a long while look good!
You know what they say, hindsight 20/20. There are so many things that I will do different on my next bumper project like this. To name a few....
The good news is that I will soon be building a rear bumper from the same material as well, and I am already planning the build/documentation process out to make sure that I have more to show for my work!
Thanks for reading, hope everyone enjoys! I would love to hear any inputs or feedback in regard to what everyone thinks, good or bad! A man's worst critic is the one he wants to hear from to become better at whatever it is he does.
I'm new to this forum, and I thought I would share what few pictures I have of the front bumper construction that I built for my truck. I am planning on building a rear bumper over my spring break in March (college student who doesn't get enough shop time), and I am planning on posting that as well.
I began my build with the idea that I wanted the ranch hand bumper look by using pipe as my main construction, but didn't necessarily want the additional length a ranch hand bumper will add to a truck. Parking is tight here in Indianapolis as is with my crew cab long bed, and the less cars I can bump during a 5 point turn the better.
I started with a quick model of some basic dimensions that I took off of the stock bumper. I used SolidWorks to let my mind guide the model, and this is initially what I came up with. Of course, a few things changed as I actually built it.
I bought some pipe from a good ole boy down in Kentucky I met off craiglist who made his living as a pipe fitter. He had an endless amount of metal racks and piles of old pumps that set off along a trail in the woods behind his place. Apparently he would buy out extra material from a job for pretty cheap, and I wouldn't doubt that he could make a good amount of income on the side just by reselling it all. So I picked out some 4" I.D. pipe he had back there in the woods, and we drug it out with the skid loader. I told him I was gonna take 30' of the stuff off his hands (leaving plenty room for error in my cuts), and he even cut it down into sections on his band saw that I could wrestle in and out of the truck.
This was my first time working with pipe. I had bought a small horizontal band saw recently and decided to take what I thought was the easy way out to cut the angles I wanted. However, I quickly learned that the tool is only as good as the man using it, and that there was a huge learning curve before me.
Here is the truck when I started after removing the stock bumper, and also the first piece of pipe to start my build. Unfortunately I have no pictures of the mounts that I made out of some quarter wall box tubing I had lying around.
Next, it was time to cut each side piece to run along the remainder of the front end.
Once everything was tack welded together, it was time to burn it in.
This is what it looked like on the truck the next day when I finished welding. I should mention that I used a Miller Dynasty 200 tig/stick machine to weld with.
Now, my lady said that I ought to paint it before I went back to college after my summer break, so I just asked her to do it instead. The next day I got new tires and took this picture in the car wash after spraying the blue paint off of them.
I drove around for 5 months with only the pipe construction on the front end of my truck. I study Motorsports Engineering two hours from home and my garage, so I had to get by with what I had accomplished thus far until my Christmas break gave me time to finish.
After a short trip to Texas to visit family at the start of my break, I drove into town to buy some 0.25" tread plate to get on with my build. I know that the material thickness I chose was a little bit of overkill, but I didn't mind the weight that I measured in my SolidWorks model with a mild steel material applied to it.
Once I was satisfied with a very rough cardboard mock-up, I stocked up on some cutting wheels from harbor freight and bought an extra angle grinder (I went through three of the cheap ones in total on this build) and I let the sparks start flyin'!
I do apologize for my lack of picture taking during this build. I regret every second I didn't pull the phone out of my bibs to snap a photo of the next piece that I tack welded into place to better document the process.
I cut the chain off that I was using to move the bumper around with my engine hoist, and called on my pretty lady again to add the finishing touches. She even bought the license plate as a surprise for me to top it all off (sorry to the red fans).
ALSO, don't be fooled by the angle of all of my pictures. I did in fact cut plates to fill the gap and follow the front end profile of the truck from the top of the pipe all the way around from side to side. I built these plates to fit just under the headlights and fenders, leaving no gap between the bumper and truck when looking down from above. Also, for the grill, I tapered both sides all the way in to the middle so they follow just along the contour of the grill. My methods might not be perfect, but I like to have something that will be on my truck for a long while look good!
You know what they say, hindsight 20/20. There are so many things that I will do different on my next bumper project like this. To name a few....
- Create a more accurate computer model with true dimensions and drawings to follow during the build
- Run FEA (Finite Element Analysis) in Solidworks with some calculated forces to examine different material thickness selection
- Redesign much better mounts and mounting locations
- Lower the pipe profile 3/4 - 1" lower
- Cut all pieces at once per my part drawings and tack one by one to the truck (like a true manufacturing process). This would have saved me a lot of time
- Remember that what gets cut on the backside of a piece of tread plate is not going to be oriented the same way when you flip it around to the side you want showing!
The good news is that I will soon be building a rear bumper from the same material as well, and I am already planning the build/documentation process out to make sure that I have more to show for my work!
Thanks for reading, hope everyone enjoys! I would love to hear any inputs or feedback in regard to what everyone thinks, good or bad! A man's worst critic is the one he wants to hear from to become better at whatever it is he does.
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