smithe213

Recently decided to make a heavier front skid plate. It is nearly the same as the factory one. Started with a sheet of posterboard and cut and bent it until it fit to my liking. Got a piece of 3/16" plate 24x32 from the local scrap metal place and also a piece of 1/2" expanded metal. After grabbing some cut-off wheels and a 5 pack of jigsaw blades I went at er.

1st pic- posterboard traced onto steel sheet and steel cut to size, bends scribed, ready to bend
2nd pic- Skid plate bent, ready to fit. The rearward part behind the diff and behind the crossmember on the left side were left 1" extra long and this was then bent on an upward angle so it would be less likely to fetch up in reverse.
3rd pic- A few places were trimmed for clearance, mounting holes were located and drilled, drain hole for the front diff (can't see in pic) was cut, and the beginning of the logo was traced and cut...All with a cheap jigsaw.
4th pic- Fox head cut out, all edges were ground smooth with a die grinder at this point.
5th pic- Expanded metal cut to side and sitting as it will be in the end. After this pic the expanded metal was tacked to the skid and the center fox head in lots of places, then I cut the heads off of 4 3/8" bolts and they were welded in at 4 places inside the skid plate to give the fox head more support. I then cleaned it with a wire wheel in an angle grinder, wiped it down with varsol, and gave it 2 coats of primer and 2 coats of satin black.
6th pic- installed with 4 3/8" grade 8 bolts and the spread metal painted silver.

All in all pretty happy with how it turned out. The fox head took a lot of strength out of the plate but it still passed the "jump test" of jumping on only the head with the plate sitting on the floor without bending. It wont see any serious rock bashes up there (I hope anyway) but the plate will still help trees and stumps glide underneath. Looking back the silver was probably a waste of time since its gonna get scratched and touched up with a spray bomb but oh well.

Green93

Very nice work, and quite creative. But for me it lost a lot of functionality when you cut the logo out of it.

Yamiryder

sweet advertisement

andersej

I agree that it sucks to lose the strength but it does look way cool. Nice job all around man.

Besides I'm a very dedicated rider myself so how could I not like it?

rattlewagon

You guys ride foxes?

andersej

I've once ridden a white pony but no foxes....

87-SR5

Very accurately cut out logo. Love it!

Kkd2424socal

Nice work!!! Big time Fox Racing fan. Awesome idea!!

Dakotaneu

EDIT: i bought a road closed sign at a garage sale from a lovely old couple who LEGALLY purchased it on the INTER WEB for 25 euros. so i want to use this grand old road closed sign as a skid plate

dropzone

iTrader: (6)

So you admit to being a thief

andersej

Dakotaneu

no i admit that i took some of my tax money and put it to good use.

dropzone

iTrader: (6)

Your edit contradicts your statement above...

You stole a public safety device. You put other's at risk.
Your tax money paid for about 0.00000002% of that.
Your raised other people's taxes because now a public entity has to take time and resources to replace what you took.

WODAYODA

deff bad ass, if your hitting your bash guard that hard to destroy that, youll probably have bigger problems ha.. looks sweet