Lincoln Electric did get a life long customer. I even told them I got it second hand. One of the parts was the shroud inside the gun and cable where the wire feeds through. It had a feed issue and the tech they had me speak to (they called me to boot) said it gets gummed up and I could use a new one. Didn't look like it would have been a cheap part either.


I'm sure as long as you get good penetration on your first wleds you can make em look pretty with a grinder.

 

Oh man. Gotta admit this looks really sweet. Lol


Close-up.


Side view


And just incase you're wondering how is it able to keep holding its shape. I didn't only use glue. I used a bunch of little angled brackets for support on the joints. Like so...

 

lookin cool prototypin was always fun

 

Alright guys. I got the sides done. Only thing it would be needing is a couple more armor coverage on the underside but aside from that n the tire carrier I'm done.

I had to shorten the width of the bumper by 3" because this thing was way too long. Stuck out really bad before. I decided to remove the license plate part for the middle. I'm gonna end up mounting the license plate onto the tire carrier. So I'm set there. Will just need to run lights to light it up so I don't get a ticket out here in CA.

Front view



3" thick maybe 2&3/4 once I fit the bumper correctly under my tailgate.


Was a lot of weight so I had to add some tabs on the outside as well on both sides. The glue wasn't very strong on the corners.


If say I have some good coverage and clearance. Mind you the bumper will be slightly closer to the mud flap once under the tailgate.


I'm thinkong about putting a small triangle corner on the very end where my hanf anf mud flap is. I think it will look like it fits to my truck more.


Here is a view of the underside. I plan to add a 90degree angle onto both corners of the bumper on the bottom side. Not only will it give it better support but it will also stop more things from clinging onto the corner there and causings it to tug. I would imagine at least.


Anyway. From this point on all I need to do is find a place to buy the metal at and get started with making my cuts. Exact to the cuts on these cardboard mesonite ones.

Of you're still wondering how I plan to mount this. I decided to just build off the hitch. I'm gonna weld brackets from my stock hitch cross bar to the bumper. And also have a few coming from the frame to the bumper (sides). I'm still thinking about whether I should raide that hitch 2-3 inches or not though. I gotta forst see about raising that hitch first before I go through with chopping it to shorten the length. if I don't do this then I'm just going to leace the hitch where it is. And say 'oh well' whem it hits and slides off the stock hitch lol

 

that looks really good rich! and with some no slip on the top easy access to your rack

 

Wow, so freaking stoked for ya! Nice mocking and all!

Are you not gonna run it straight across in the back, under the gate? OR, are you leaving that curve? Curious.

Love the design man....... gonna be cool!

 

Non slip will be good to have. Especially for when it comes to washing the truck.

Mark that curve on the top side is supposed to be straight lol was never intended to have a curve. It just curves down due to all the weight on the sides lol. It bends down like that even more now that I cut straight down the center to shorten the width.

 

Looking great. Any ideas on what material will cost? It will be great to see how much you cam save doing things yourself.

Nice work.

 

Ahhhhhh! I was wondering, and I like all of the lines and curves... But that one was kind of throwing me off! Hahahahaha... Totally makes sense, and so: you will be having a flat and level surface all the way across? They got this new grip tape stuff that is really awesome... It looks more like a pattern and evenly spread out and is more like a coated grit...? Anyway if I see it again all shoot you a picture or the info or link or whatever. What did you think of that ARB setup? I posted it on my page... Holy crap that thing looks heavy! Lol. I guess they all get heavy once you start adding the hinges and reinforcement for said hinges and such. Get yourself a horseshoe of the DOM.... You could probably have Scotty send you a piece already cut to weld on the flat bar like you have on the wrap around portion. Or if you have somebody to bend it that would work as well... Just measure out how long of a piece you need and then you could cut it someone like my corners are? You know like a trapezoidal shape that matches the lines a little bit. It could protect your corners a little bit better.

SoCal 85 isn't far from you if he has the time I'm sure for a reasonable price he would do some bending for you. You could also go original and use 1 inch box tube for the corners... That way you could just cut the angles you want of that and well them together... It would be more of a squared off work but it certainly would protect you. Definitely want those corners covered like when you back up and touch on a tree or something and its kids you along to the corner... Usually from there it will drag a few inches and then hit the tire, then hit your sliders,... Hopefully stop getting along the tree at that point right? Haha.

Hope you guys have a great time this weekend man! ( careful til you get all your armor! )

 

PS, make extra extra extra sure on the clearance of the tailgate, especially since you are adding hinges and so forth. Obviously you're going to do that I know... But trust me as you get up into that half inch gap between the tailgate cover it gets really close!

 

You guys have the 4th of July next week, if you take the Friday off work too that's 4 days of tinker time!

Canada day this weekend here but I'm painting and scraping ceilings. We damaged the popcorn and now it's all going. What a mess.

 

flat blade scraper wide as you can find and a shop vac = fast work of popcorn roofing

 

Its horrible stuff eh. Why do people even put it up?

 

cheap way to hide poor tape an mud in a production cookie cutter house is most often cause full skim coat of plaster is time consuming an labor intensive

 

Is supposed to help with acoustics as well as it was a cosmetic thing. .... have you had it tested? If not, careful! 90 percent of that stuff is loaded with asbestos! I really hope you guys are wearing very adequate masks... And I don't mean the little crappy ones you get at the doctor... Please be careful guys! Lost a family member to that stuff. Yes, he was exposed to brake dust for quite some time... But from everything I've learned even a little amount of exposure is not good. Sorry, I'm sure you've already thought of this... Just making sure.

 

depends on the age of the house for asbestos though it was applied into the 80's when stocks ran out, newer stuff is an expanded polystyrene or a paper (celios) product

apparently the best way to remove it is dampen it an scrape it off

info including asbestos warnings
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popcorn_ceiling

 

Thanks fellas.
Ours is the styrofoam stuff in pretty sure. The living room is done now. Funny thing. The ceiling was taped and mudded. I think it was even painted as I've never seen plaster board so bright white!

Then someone came along and sprayed that crap on....

Don't worry Chef, I bought respirators. I thought ot may contain asbestos. I've already been exposed to that crap in iron ore mining. They hit pockets of asbestos. Its supposed to be tolerable levels but we didn't always wear air tester so how the hell do they know its "tolerable"?

Sorry for the thread hijack Redeth.

Oh and wetting works a treat.

 

Excited to see the progress and then pics of the sunday adventure!

 

Hi guys. As you guys know today was supposed to be the Big Bear trip with a couple of buddies and new rigs that i havent posted. Let me tell you this was a pretty sick group we had going. It was the usual Me, Ruben(85 tan toy pickup) and chris(89 chevy sas'd axle 4runner) Today we brought along 2 new guys. One guy had crazy Izusu Rodeo. SAS'd front and rear. This guy made his own kit since nothing is offered for sas on these rigs. at least not local. Everything suspension and axle related was all custom made from Jeep, GM(axles and more) and a couple other stuff. I gotta admit that thing was BEASTLY looking. The a 70's Jeep which he modified the whole body to be stretched out about 1ft more to get some extra leg room. This guy built this jeep from ground up. all he had was a shell. Not a big fan of jeeps but this guy's was pretty cool. Anyway we got off to a late start. WE decided to leave about 1hour later then when we left last on the last trip. We all met up at one of the guy's house(with the rodeo) and we were waiting on the jeep guy to arrive so Faby, my lil bro and i decided to get some supplies from a local CVS pharmacy store and on the way back, MY CLUTCH WENT OUT! i pressed it down and it never came back lol I thought OMG OMG it finally went ouy no.... Why today! I honestly thought it was gonna be the slave cylinder. becuase it was empty. i figured for sure that was the problem. i called Chris(white 4runner) for help and we inspected everything and i sent my little brother to step on my pedal as i added more fluid. and up came squirting cluid out of the passenger side. and after a thorough inspection we seen that one my very old rubber clutch line was punctured. My turned out one of those "sqeeze clamps" that hold the hoses tight off another hose had been rubbing and rubbing on my clutch line for some time now and eventually wore in a small hole. and that is where my problem was coming from. Well turns out my slave cylinder was good so i felt happy but soon after finding out the problem everyone else had shown up to the guy's house and was now waiting one me. Now that we knew waht the problem was and knowning it is such an easy fix we told them. We're gonna buy a new hose. shouldnt take more then 15 minutes to install. its very easy. But i didnt take into consideration the tight space on the passenger side of the 3vze with the spaghetti soup of hoses and everything else there. We bought a replacement hose and drove back to the store parking lot where my truck is. (by this time it was about 8:30am and already about 90* out.) everything was oily and engine was still hot. lol So you can only imagine how much of a cluts i was i dropped my flare wrench about 6 times due to butterfingers and being nervous for having all these new guys that have never met me and now theyre waiting one me lol. So i was trying to get stuff done fast and in that process i cut up my pointing and middle fingers on my right hand and burnt my arm on the hot engine components a couple of times. Luckily for me i got the job done but something that would normally take any average person to install in 15 min took me about 45min, just due to, oily hands(and i kept wiping down, blood, burns, nervousness in trying to hurry up, and that hot hot weather!

Anyway we finally drove back to the house and met up with everyone and we were on our way. During the approx 40-50 mile drive to where we met up to have breakfast for the day before hitting up big bear i realized. (˟˟˟˟˟ i didnt bleed my clutch lines after installing the new line) but i wasnt about to stop them again lol. So i made the whole drive to the Denny's restaurant having to pump my clutch constantly to get enough pressure built to be able to change gears. We arrived, ate, then i started to bleed the line. (mind you this was the 2nd problem of the day already, and it was only about 10-1030pm) After bleeding the brakes we were on our way. We were heading up the crazy hills that lead to Big bear and then i see my temperature gauge going higher and higher and higher(still under red) i see everyone pull over. Chris's 4runner had overheated to the point where antifreeze was pouring out as well for the Rodeo. We let our rigs sit for a while not only for them two but mine was on the verge of overheating soon too. We already knew that the 110-115* weather out there was one contributing factor to 3 of 5 rigs overheating. Not to mention Chris's truck needed a new radiator cap. and luckily he had one in hand. So after allowing the trucks to cool for about 40 minutes we added water to the 4runner and Rodeo and swapped out caps on chris's runner. We figured if it over heats again we'll go home. We left again and made it about 7-8min down the road and then everyone pulled over again. this time, My truck and Rodeo were fine. but chris's truck overheated so bad that his radiator cracked on the top side.

Talk about rotten luck right? We let his rig cool off again, then one of the 2 guys riding in the Jeep brought out some JB Weld and we patched up that radiator crack. From that point on we made the bummer decision to head back home. It just wasnt meant to be. started off with bad luck on my truck. Then 115*ish weather with 3 trucks overheating due to that weather lol You think that is disappointing...? Thats not the half of it we were only 15miles away from the trails!!! we were almost there. Talk about a huge tease lol

But in the end we didnt let that kill our fun for the day. Faby and i went to my parents house where we showered off the crusty sweat and then we all met up at Chris's new house and had a nice BBQ with some Carne Asada, grilled chicken, beans rice tortilla's chips dip, beer, and lots of water to hydrate. Oh and by the way, my guests and i drank 17/24 bottles of water already from the 24 pack i took. Just goes to show how much water we lost in ourselves during this trip. i must had had 10 of those bottles myself.

Anyway since there were no wheeling pix i just took some pix of the 2 rigs you guys havent seen yet.

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And this is a picture of that Rodeo next to Chris's rig. Just to show you the size difference in that Rodeo's massive lift!


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Here is my truck before we left. I was fixing thar clutch line.

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Even with all the Drama that we had. Im very happy none of this stuff happened on the trail. that would have really sucked. Also happy that that JB wled held off long enough to get chris's truck driven home. Even though we didnt wheel, im grateful that we still had a great time over at chris's house for about 5 hours.

 

All i know is that this trip made something very clear to me today. I know how bad I've been wanting a working AC in my truck but i am pretty set on not getting an air conditioner on my truck anymore. I am gonna sacrifice my AC for an extra radiator fan. I'm gonna use the space behind the grill where the condenser would normally go and add in an electric fan. This is a must have. And honestly i think it is much more important to not overheat then a little sweat during the summer time. my truck was about 2mm under redline today. and I do understand that the high 115* temperature was a major contributor. And maybe i could have driven slower then my 55mph speed on those up hills but honestly i think getting an electric fan would be much a better investment. Honestly don't mind loosing something that that I've never had 'working' in my truck to begin with anyway. This way i wont have to bother with overheating again.