Sorry to hear about your overheating problem. Atleast now you know you have a weak link in the system that needs attention and will eventually be one step closer to making it that much more dependable after you decide which way you want to go about correcting it.

I like how you are setting up about making your bumper. I always like seeing people create their own parts when possible and looking forward to seeing it finished.

Even with the little bad news recently that you are experiencing, your truck is starting to turn into what you have been wanting. Just got to keep chugging along.

 

Omg you gotta be kidding me my replies were deleted in the post..... I jusr spent 30 minutes typing! Why....

Well ill try to reply to these messages one at a time throughout the rest of my day in an edit.... jeez I hate when that happens.
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Wow looks like I missed out on the whole conversation yesterday. Thats what I get for taking a 3 hour nap! Lol gotta admit it was worth it cause I was exhausted.

Thank you all for chiming in to give your 2cents I really appriciate it guys.

A couple of things I've decided to do is to grab a new thermostat. Its not a super expensive fix so I think that'll be worth swapping out for a new one. I did find a lot of silicone chunks in my radiator so It might be possible that it is clogged. Install some new radiator fluid. Will probably have the radiator checked or replaced all together idk yet. I'm limited to money due to still paying off the last $1500 of my credit card. I can drive the truck as is for a few months. The truck drived perfectly fine on and off the freeway with no over heating issues. But I would say that the high temp and incline was pretty bad enough to make the truck get as bad as It did.
Maybe if I were to change the radiator, thermostat and antifreeze my problem would be fixed. I don't know. But like I said the condition of my entire truck was crap. And the internals of the engine were in horrible condition so who's to say the radiator wasnt in just as bad condition. I only had the radiator flushed and rodded but it is still the same radiator. It is possible that I jist need to replace the darn thing. And if I do I think I might as well go new or custom like Chefyota. If I can have one built with enough of a gap to fit an e-fan on the front of the radiator then why not go that route. Can't go wrong with another fan. Wont hurt one but. And ill still have an AC. I think that's a good idea it ita possible to build one like that.
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I just called Penske Toyota of Downey CA and they are selling the stock toyota thermostat for my engine at $39. Seems a bit much. and he couldnt give me a straight answer to what the temp engage would be on this thermostat. dunno if it would be 170* 180* or 180* i just know that the stock one is about 183* for the 3vze.
I think i will have this radiator checked. I'm fine for now. It drives good atm. but i have to use my $$$ on paying off the remaining $1500 off the off road upgrades. Then the material for the bumper.
What is the name to that Radiator shop in Gardena CA? if they built a radiator for you out of scratch then maybe its possible for them to do the same thing for me and possibly build one thin enough to be able to fit a fan in the front of it. How much did you pay more or less?

I agree. Much better to buy the pure antifreeze and mix it yourself. After all it costs about the same.


Hi Jason, The fan i would be getting if i went with an E-Fan would be the same type the guy with the jeep(on our last trip) had. His rig doesnt have a clutch fan. it only has an electric fan and he was one of the only guys who didnt overheat. He says theres a swapmeet on weekends called Veterans Swapmeet. and he says there's always a guy there selling new auto stuff and this is where he bought his off of. and like you said it does come with the switch and the relay already so all you would need to do is run the wires and find a way to mount it.

As for the coolant mix. Maybe i should just add a little bit of water to my mix then. Because i am running pure antifreeze on mine.

Mark I never overheated the times we went to Angels crest
As far as having it checked. I guess that woudlnt hurt to look over. do you have the information to the radiator place you're talking about?


Just wondering how mine would be overmixed if I'm running pure antifreeze and 1 small bottle of lucas redline water wetter.

Hi Terry thanks for dropping by. Havent see you around here for a while. I'm liking the progress in my bumper too. I just need to buy the metal now and I know the next part in this job is gonna be much much harder to do because cutting plate that is 1/4" thich is gonna take a while. Lol I'm still considering going 3/16" thick but I want something that will take a hard hit lile a champ and I don't think 3/16" is cut for the job. Then again 1/4" is gonna be a hell of a lot more expensive that's for sure. We'll see.

 

That's why I do the first one post it then go in and edit in the next quotes one by one. I also copy and past so if it get's deleted ctrl+V and its back.

 

Yea i usually do the same, but my boss was walking around the corner and i panicked so i clicked post to hurry up and get it on the thread but the stupid 'private browser' logged me off too soon and i lost everything.




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Well guys ive got a great update for you all. I called a metal vendor today. one that is pretty popular in my side of town. i always see people going in and out of there. and i asked for 2 estimates on plate metal sheets.
first estimate was for a 6'x3'x1/4" and that cut will come out to $120

the 2nd estimate was for the same size only as 3/16". and that one came out to $110. After thinking about it i think i'd much rather go for the heavy duty 1/4" plate steel to ensure that my rear bumper can take a beating if that time ever came. 3/16" isnt as thick and would probably bend much easier. So Today im gonna take apart my mesonite bumper and measure the sq ft so i can tell the guy tomorrow morning the size i will be needing.

This guy said he can have my sheet ready by the time i get off work tomorrow so im super anxious to get started on this.

One thing id like to see if they can do for me is make all the cuts i need so all id have to worry about is welding the bumper together once i get it back. But I'm sure that would cost more to do too. My dad told me he has the acetylene torch (like what we used when we did my SAS) and he can make the cuts for me to save some more money. then just use a couple of grinder wheels to smooth it all out. he has 2 different size torch tips one for thin 1/16 to 3/16 and the big one that can cut my 1/4" steel like butter. so i think i will take him up on that offer.

Here is the website to the place im going to tomorrow/
http://www.bobcometal.com/

 

if youve got the masonite pattern all cut an ready richard ya might want to ask see how much for them to cut the pieces out

cant hurt to ask

if they cut it with a plasma cutter less waste and cleaner cuts as well just an idea

 

I agree William.... Lasar cut is best of you have really thought out measurements, yeah?

 

have them rough cut it to size at least and that way you have smaller peices to work with, my guy does it for me all the time. 1/4 inch is gonna be HEAVY honestly with the cool angles you have designed into yours 3/16 would be plenty heavy and much lighter just my opinion.

 

Hey guys. I know I didn't mentuon this before. But the reason I don't want to hace it laser cut or cut exactly to my masonite pieces is because the cuts I made aren't 100% perfect. Some were off by 1/8-1/4" so due to that I'm doing what Jason just said and get a rough size of my cuts and I'm just gonna make the more exact cuts using the saw and then grinder to get closer to the exact size I need.

Jason you're right. 1/4th thickness is gonna be really heavy. I decided to go with 3/16. After all that is what Warn, ARB, CBI, 4xLabs, and many others use on their bumpers. So I'm sure it'll get my job done just fine.

 

I just called the metal shop and they said that for all the cuts that I wanna have done for each individual piece I was looking at approximately $300-360 worth of cuts on top of the metal price.

Well looks like I'm gonna need to bust out with the torch, metal cutter, and grinder and make the cuts myself. Because I can't spend that much for them to fab it all up.

 

Just spoke with the guy at BOBCO metal and we decided to hold off on the metal to save me some money. He told me rather then buying the full sheet of plate at full price that they can have the bigger pieces cut for me and that I should drop in the store today after work to look at all their scrap metal for the smaller pieces because the scrap cuts are all sold for only 55cents a pound. He said that it will save me a ton of cash vs buying the full sized 3'x6' sheet of plate.

So I'm gonna drop by the shop after work and buy the scrap pieces and just cut those myself. And then he said if I get lucky they might even be able to cut the sheet metal piece for me there for the 3 larger pieces. That is if they have time to sqeeze those larger cuts in for me. If not then I will have to wait for friday on those. But I will definitely be getting the smaller scrap pieces today. So ill have work to do today and tomorrow in cutting those smaller shapes on the bumper. Woot.

 

there is a lot a geometry that goes into figureing how to cut peices with minimal waste, and I suck at it lol. a lot of times I will hold off on a project if the shop I buy from is going to have drop off from one of ther projects so i can pick up small peices cheep. however I have bought 10 foot sticks when I only needed 3 because it was cheeper in the long run and I have no issues with some clean steel laying around the shop. I really look forward to seeing you bring this together, in my opinion theres nothing better than being able to say "yeah I designed and built that, not another one like it" . just take your time and it will turn out awesome.

 

we made a lawn airaiteor (big heavy drum with spikes) with scraps from a local welding shop maybe 45 bucks and some old bed frame lol

 

AHHHHHHHH!!! All this talk of jagged metal pieces and drums full of spikes hazme flashing back to the road warrior days! Hahahaha... I actually had a buddy with a javelin do his best to make it just like the one in the movie!

I too am very excited Richard, going to be sweet! If I can make one recommendation it would be to take a look at Toyo's rear bumper. To have one piece of L flat bar at eight feet and then weld the 45 degree angle plate underneath would be sufficient and hard as hell, and not too bulky... Plus it would allow you a flat platform on top totally sufficient for mounting A pivot piston with bearings on each side for your swing out. Not trying to make you change tracks just a look at it because like the 4 by 4 labs stuff, it is heavy but it is as minimalist as possible because they knew as they added more and more it would get more and more heavy. I just think his is really cool how it wraps around the corners and covers all that stuff and is a perfect platform even on the sides to add some DOM to protect the quarter panels behind the wheel well. I think with that stuff you could literally make a cut out and weld it right to the trailer hitch assembly minus the mounting brackets. Then just make one square cut for the hitch to stand inside the 45 degree angled plate on the bottom most part. I'm sure you got something figured out I'm just thinking out loud cause its fun! Hahahahaha

 

That's awesome of them to help you get this project done on budget like that. Have fun buddy.

 

I didn't get any cuts made like I had planned. I just ended up getting a whole bunch of scrap metal pieces instead. They didn't have very much of a selection of 3/16" scrap. I mostly found 1/16, 2/16, 1/4 & 3/8 thick. And the majority was 2/16 &1/4. So I got a couple of 1/4" pieces for the main face and under bumper plate and some 3/16" for the top and sides of the bumper.

The only downfall is that I needed at least 64" wide amd the widest cuts of scrap was about 60". So for the long width pieces of the truck I had my dad weld on another 4" of plate to complete the width I needed. You'll see where the welds are in a few of the pix down below.

Dad working the torch. Yea that's a big torch.



All the bumper cuts are finally made.


Now you can see where the scrap pieces were welded together.


Tomorrow and friday I'll begin with grinding down the remaining milimeters and making the edges clean with the few grinder wheels the construction guys from work donated to me.

 

lookin good your dad does some great gas cutting!

 

Woohoooooo! Nice, Mr. G!

 

Wow, nice cuts with the oxy torch.

 

I hope you guys all had a great 4th of July. Yesterday was a very busy day for me. Started out at about 11 o'clock in the morning and begin grinding down the jagged nasty torched ends of my cut out bumper pieces. Then I met up with a couple of friends at a pool party / BBQ . Stayed out till about 10 p.m. went home to shower then met up with Faby at her place where we spent the rest of the day watching movies. Then knocked out only to have to wake up extra early because I forgot my work uniform at my house. Lol

Anyway it's not much of a big update but here just a bit of the cleanup work I did.
Bottom not done yet.


Top not done yet.


That's pretty muvh how all the pieces were that needed to be cleaned up some.

All the smaller pieces that I got to yesterday.


This weekend ill get to the main 3 bigger pieces to the bumper


Like I said not much of an update. But it is some definitely one step closer to having the bumper finished.

 

Looks like you should go after an apprenticeship too! If your going to get good at something might as well get paid for it.