Doing something sneaky for christmas.
 

So I have a friend who has been a damn good friend to me, I actually owe him quite a bit. He has helped me through a pretty bad time in my life. Well, This year I am being afforded the opportunity to give one back to him.

The past couple of years I have been going to welding school, and he and I have frequently discussed me making a new bumper for his truck since he had a little fender bender about 8 months ago and in the process messed up his bumper pretty good.

Well, here a few weeks ago when I sold my blazer he loaned me the use of his truck until I get my 89 blazer going so I can drive it. Well I sat down a few days ago and started designing the bumper for his truck while I have had it here in my possession.

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e2...IRKBUMPER1.jpg

I presented the design to him a few days ago, and he really liked it, so I told him merry Christmas, that is what I was getting him this year, a set of prints for a new bumper. Well little does he know I have spent the last 2 days blowin and goin building said bumper, and tomorrow night when I go over to his house for Christmas dinner, It will be mounted on his truck.

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e2.../75percent.jpg

Above you can see where I am at so far, it has taken a ton of work to get here, a lot of measuring and cutting, and measuring and cutting and you get the idea. Right now it is all just tack welded, and I still have quite a few pieces to cut and add to it.

Tonight I am trying to have the bumper its self all tacked out, and start welding on it, then tomorrow I can finish welding it, and get the brackets built, and install it on the truck.

The truck it is going on is a 2001 dodge ram. Now I know I know, I posted this in the 67-72 Chevy trucks board, why is it pertinant? well this one is practice, I am getting used to using my new Millermatic 212 MIG

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e2...A/IMG_3409.jpg

and I will be building a new frame for my 72 C/30 as I convert it to a 4x4, and also it is going to get a bumper of similar construction.

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e2...ngineutned.jpg

In the picture below you can see the sag in the frame if you look close.

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e2...newtrailer.jpg

As well my 89 blazer is going to get a custom set of bumpers too.

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e2...alTA/blue4.jpg

But first things first, I need to finish this bumper out, and then get the blazer running again so as that I have some wheels.

Am I a busy frickin little elf or what? :metal:

Re: Doing somthing sneaky for christmas.
 

That is one nice looking rig welder!
s/t

Re: Doing somthing sneaky for christmas.
 

That is a tough looking bumper. I am sure your friend will be happy, thats a great gift.

Re: Doing somthing sneaky for christmas.
 

Make sure you post pics of the finished product!

Re: Doing somthing sneaky for christmas.
 

Richard you are doing pretty good with that CAD aren't you? Pretty good with the fab tools in your hand too. That's a nice gesture to build your friend a bumper.
That's a real nice lookin Blazer. Gas or diesel? What does it need?

Re: Doing somthing sneaky for christmas.
 

I like it. Is it all flat metal?
Take Care
Ron

Re: Doing somthing sneaky for christmas.
 

Its actually Nick, (my last name is Richards) And thank you, I have been to school for welding, and I am now going for CNC Machining. It has been my lifes dream to have my own fab shop where I build hotrods and what not for people.

The blazer is a Gas, I have a 350 sitting on the engine stand, check out my blazer build thread for the full story.

Also I will mention that the guy I am building the bumper for is the guy I am buying my place from. The people he had in here before me are the ones that tore up the blazer after I sold it to them. Also while they were here, they had 22 cats, 3 dogs and a rabbit living in the house. They completely destroyed the place. Its been a pretty bum deal all around.

Re: Doing somthing sneaky for christmas.
 

Thanks Ron, it is all constructed from .250 plate, and 2x2"x.250 angle.

Re: Doing somthing sneaky for christmas.
 

its looks nice man

Re: Doing somthing sneaky for christmas.
 

So the face of the bumper is complete less the light holes.

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e2...A/IMG_3437.jpg

Doing the bottom edge of the bumper was a nightmare, Every cut was a compound miter cut, and my saw isn't a compound miter saw, this means for every different angle, I had to build a jig.

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e2...oundmiter1.jpg

This is VERY time consuming, but I got it done. Tomorrow should go realitively fast compared to today. I am going to whack the old bumper off the truck first thing after snaping a few photos of it. Then I am going to get busy with it. First order of business will be to build the brackets, and get the bumper mountable, then I will build the end plates, and contour them to match the wheel well. Then I will add some gussets to the back side to make it way stronger, and I need to cut the holes for the lights in, and weld in the pipe rings and brackets to mount the lights.

Need to do all of this by like 4:00 or so and have the bumper mouted on the truck to go over to dinner and suprize him. Time is going to be ticking. Speaking of which, its 3:10 am, and I desperately need a shower.

'Night all!

Re: Doing somthing sneaky for christmas.
 

For the record I hate, I repeat HATE using a torch in the wind... /that is all.

Re: Doing somthing sneaky for christmas.
 

Looks good. You should powdercoat it

Re: Doing somthing sneaky for christmas.
 

Nice work!!

Re: Doing somthing sneaky for christmas.
 

Either going to get bed liner, or painted body color.

Re: Doing somthing sneaky for christmas.
 

so....any installed pics?

Re: Doing somthing sneaky for christmas.
 

Oh that will look good too. Bedliner is a good idea, it would be easy to take care of

Re: Doing somthing sneaky for christmas.
 

im working on the bracketry right now, got the old bumper off, cutting the new pieces as we speak.

Re: Doing somthing sneaky for christmas.
 

Looking forward to pictures of it installed

Re: Doing somthing sneaky for christmas.
 

:thumbs:

Re: Doing somthing sneaky for christmas.
 

subscribing just to see pics of the finished project... looks great so far!

Re: Doing somthing sneaky for christmas.
 

Subscribing to this one.

Re: Doing somthing sneaky for christmas.
 

Thats a neat bumper

Re: Doing somthing sneaky for christmas.
 

Got it mounted for a test fit.

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e2...A/testfit1.jpg

To my horror, it went on crooked, I yanked it back off, the bumper is straight, the dodge is bent. Oh well, I have a quick fix that I am going to do tomorrow that will make it right as rain again. Then I can get on to finishing it up.

I showed it to him tonight though, he was pretty tickled.

Re: Doing somthing sneaky for christmas.
 

Great bumper it kicks ass. Good job!

Re: Doing somthing sneaky for christmas.
 

That is gonna look GREAT when your done.
Ron

Re: Doing somthing sneaky for christmas.
 

Thats a big a** bumper! You did an awsome job.
How does it look from the side?

I'm going to have to check back in to see it cleaned up and painted.

Re: Doing somthing sneaky for christmas.
 

It doesn't have any sides! lol

That is tomorrows job. I need to finish that, and work on getting the light buckets built, but the first order of business will be to get the brackets adjusted so as that it will fit on the truck right.

Re: Doing somthing sneaky for christmas.
 

that is cool!
how much do you figure it weighs?

Re: Doing somthing sneaky for christmas.
 

About 125-150 lbs, it is getting hard to pick up. I can barely pick it up with one hand so its right in there somewhere.

Re: Doing somthing sneaky for christmas.
 

looks fantastic!!! he'll just LOVE it!!!

and i'm excited to see the boss all said and done ... cute how my 4runner snuck its way into the pic ... stupid little rig ...

Re: Doing something sneaky for christmas.
 

So... the driving question, how do you do dual miter cuts on a piece of 6 1/2" OD pipe on a 4.5" capacity band saw?

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e2...TA/PIPEJIG.jpg

You measure the entire saw, load it into autocad, then you build a jig of course!

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e2...A/PIPEJIG1.jpg

I just got the drawing done, will have completed pics in a bit!

Re: Doing something sneaky for christmas.
 

Looks great so far.

Re: Doing something sneaky for christmas.
 

Another drawing, showing the arc of the saw cut and the clearances.

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e2...lTA/sawarc.jpg

Re: Doing something sneaky for christmas.
 

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e2...talTA/pipe.jpg

WERE CUTTING PIPE!!!! :metal:

Re: Doing something sneaky for christmas.
 

That bumper looks scary just the way it is. I know it will look better painted, but man I would be tempted to drive it just like that for a while. Can you imagine driving your Honda Civic down the interstate and looking in your rear-view mirror and seeing that huge rusty bumper in your mirror?

Re: Doing something sneaky for christmas.
 

You know that is exactly what I was thinking when I designed it, I wanted an aggressive looking bumper that was built out of fairly healthy plate, and considering if you ass ended said Honda, if it is built out of 18 gauge sheet metal this bumper is 52X thicker than the back of the Honda.

I am actually going to call this model of bumper the "Commie Stomper" :metal:

Re: Doing something sneaky for christmas.
 

I don't think he'll have to worry about denting that bumper:metal:


Nice gester on your part

Re: Doing something sneaky for christmas.
 

Wellllllll I have advised him that he might not want to try playing chicken with an 18 wheeler or Diesel Locomtoive... but other than that he should be pretty good to go. :smoke:

Re: Doing something sneaky for christmas.
 

That's kinda like that movie back in the 70's Duel with Dennis Weaver as a guy in a mid sized car who was traveling in the desert southwest and being dogged by an old, grundgy semi truck with dark windows and constantly ramming the back of Dennis's car trying to run him off the road.

Re: Doing somthing sneaky for christmas.
 

That bumper looks like it came from a Mad Max movie:chevy:
I like it!




http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e2...A/testfit1.jpg