Louisd75
Adventurer
So, I was getting ready to back out of my parking spot at the local hardware store when I saw a car coming into the lot. I stopped and let him go by, then started backing again. I was part way out of the spot when suddenly I see the car that just passed me reversing towards me pretty quick. I had time to stop and hit the horn before the inevitable:
It was the icing on the cake for an otherwise crappy week. The water pipe to my house was broken, I'd run my neighbor's cable over with a trencher (thanks locator service), then discovered that the gas fireplace insert that was installed before I bought the house was done so with electrical tape on the pipe threads. It got even better after his insurance company tried to pin 30% of the responsibility on me. That was a fun conversation. After a week or so of fighting I finally managed to get them to accept 100%. It helped that I was able to get a copy of the store security camera footage of the accident. With that they cut me a check to fix the body and replace the tail light and bumper. Apparently a new stock bumper runs right around $650, so I decided to have the body work done but nix the new bumper. I had a bumper lying around that I had made with a friend years ago after seeing Willman's. It's made of a piece of 2x6 tubing that's 3/16" thick. The tow points are made of 2 1/2" x 1/2" flatstock that runs through the bumper to the frame.
I had wanted to do some swingouts and side protection but, since I didn't have a welder or much in the way of tools, I had someone else work on it. It went south. Way south. Finally wound up pulling the plug on the project and cutting everything off til it was back to original sans paint. I was pretty annoyed about the whole project and that's when it got buried under my work bench. Time to drag it out and go back to work.
First order of business was a way to mount a license plate. I went simple and just drilled and tapped right onto the face of the bumper. I found some motorcycle license plate lights that double as mounting bolts. I ran the wiring through the bumper and out the forward side. Only downside was that I had to notch the top two bolt holes so that I wouldn't have to redo the wiring every time I wanted to take the plate off. I also added a couple of pieces of 1/4" flatstock to the top of the bumper to use as steps (a 2" deep bumper is hard to step on) and to also protect the license plate lights:
There's also a piece of 1/8" flat stock that fills in the gap between the forward edge of the bumper and the tailgate.
Next up was buying a stick of 1.75" x .120 tubing from the local steel shop. Beefier than what I need, but it's the same size as on the ARB bumper and the CBI sliders. Then I had to find someone who could bend it. Jeverich recommended that I get in touch with Bell Offroad, right up the highway from me. I stopped in and the owner took about an hour of his time to talk with me about what my goal was and bend up the tubing I brought him. I got the side pieces on before the rain really started:
Then notched and added the bracing underneath:
I got a break in the weather today and was able to get a few coats of paint on it early enough for it to dry and get installed on the truck:
I'm currently on the fence about leaving it Box Rocket style with the single tube or adding another tube above it and copy Willman even more. It's probably going to sit like this for a while now.
It was the icing on the cake for an otherwise crappy week. The water pipe to my house was broken, I'd run my neighbor's cable over with a trencher (thanks locator service), then discovered that the gas fireplace insert that was installed before I bought the house was done so with electrical tape on the pipe threads. It got even better after his insurance company tried to pin 30% of the responsibility on me. That was a fun conversation. After a week or so of fighting I finally managed to get them to accept 100%. It helped that I was able to get a copy of the store security camera footage of the accident. With that they cut me a check to fix the body and replace the tail light and bumper. Apparently a new stock bumper runs right around $650, so I decided to have the body work done but nix the new bumper. I had a bumper lying around that I had made with a friend years ago after seeing Willman's. It's made of a piece of 2x6 tubing that's 3/16" thick. The tow points are made of 2 1/2" x 1/2" flatstock that runs through the bumper to the frame.
I had wanted to do some swingouts and side protection but, since I didn't have a welder or much in the way of tools, I had someone else work on it. It went south. Way south. Finally wound up pulling the plug on the project and cutting everything off til it was back to original sans paint. I was pretty annoyed about the whole project and that's when it got buried under my work bench. Time to drag it out and go back to work.
First order of business was a way to mount a license plate. I went simple and just drilled and tapped right onto the face of the bumper. I found some motorcycle license plate lights that double as mounting bolts. I ran the wiring through the bumper and out the forward side. Only downside was that I had to notch the top two bolt holes so that I wouldn't have to redo the wiring every time I wanted to take the plate off. I also added a couple of pieces of 1/4" flatstock to the top of the bumper to use as steps (a 2" deep bumper is hard to step on) and to also protect the license plate lights:
There's also a piece of 1/8" flat stock that fills in the gap between the forward edge of the bumper and the tailgate.
Next up was buying a stick of 1.75" x .120 tubing from the local steel shop. Beefier than what I need, but it's the same size as on the ARB bumper and the CBI sliders. Then I had to find someone who could bend it. Jeverich recommended that I get in touch with Bell Offroad, right up the highway from me. I stopped in and the owner took about an hour of his time to talk with me about what my goal was and bend up the tubing I brought him. I got the side pieces on before the rain really started:
Then notched and added the bracing underneath:
I got a break in the weather today and was able to get a few coats of paint on it early enough for it to dry and get installed on the truck:
I'm currently on the fence about leaving it Box Rocket style with the single tube or adding another tube above it and copy Willman even more. It's probably going to sit like this for a while now.
