I finally got started on mocking up a new steel bumper for my '83 Pickup. I drew up the plans in CAD and printed them out to scale on a wide format plotter. I then mounted the blueprint on foamcore and sliced it up, folded and taped it together. The way I created the plans allowed me to cut out one large piece that I can then bend into shape. This will help assembly and reduce welding when I fab it up with steel.

It looked good when I mocked it up on my truck today. The design also allows me to retain the lower valance and doesn't require any modification to the frame or body. It will be a bolt on bumper with holes cut for turn signals (haven't decided if I want to use the factory turn signals yet), top mounted fog lights and tow hooks. It can also accomodate a winch as well.

My question for you guys is what gauge steel should I use? I was thinking that 3/16" steel would be adequate, but wasn't completely sure - especially considering that I could bend the steel using the tow hooks. With 3/16" steel, I can buy a 2'x8' sheet for about $80 at my local metal yard so it should be an economical fab job.

Also, if anybody is interested in building the same bumper, I would be considering selling the plans.

 

Very nice! I can't wait to see it in steel.

 

1/8" for the bulk of the bumper otherwise it will weigh way too much.
Where the winch sits I'd use 1/4" and brace it well.

:wabbit2:

 

Looks great. What are your plans for mounting to the frame?

I would think the winch plate and brackets would need to be 1/4", especially where it looks like you have D ring mounts, those you are probably running straight through from the frame..

 

Thanks for the input. The hardest part was trying to figure out the proper angles and dimensions on the geometry. I don't have 3D AutoCAD so I actually cracked open an old geometry book from college to figure out the angles on the lower half of the bumper. Looks like I finally got a good use out of those expensive college books!

I was thinking that using 1/4" for the front plate would be best too, but I wanted to check with some others with more experience in this field. Weight doesn't concern me too much, but I don't want it to be a PITA when I mount it so I believe I'll take Wab's advice and go with 1/8" on everything except for the front plate. I won't be mounting the winch right away, but when I do, it will either be mounted on the 1/4" front plate or if I remove the valance I would have enough space to bolt it directly to the frame and hide it behind the bumper with a fairlead.

I'll have 4 mounting points. I plan on beefing up the front cross member to provide two high and two low mounting points. Like Dropzone said, two of the mounting points will be at the D-ring mounts. I'm going to slot the bumper and fab the d-rings mounts so that the actually d-ring mounts run through the bumper directly to the frame as two of the mounts. Then I'll weld them into place in the slots in the bumper.

I have the general ideas for the mounts, but I don't have them drawn up yet since I wanted to make sure the actual bumper design would fit into place first.

I appreciate all of your input on this. I'm not expert at any of this stuff, but I know enough to get the job done right with the help from you folks.

 

Here are the drawings. Makes me wish that I had access to a CNC machine, but I should be ok with my band saw, mitre saw and cutting wheel. The pieces around the side are gussets for reinforcement. I haven't designed the mounting brackets since I need to do some more measuring and mock up.

 

I LOVE IT!!!!!! Sweet lookin bumper dude I may have to copy it in the future let us know how it goes building it.

 

man that thing is sick can you send me the auto cad file