Actually Brother, I stole the idea from a guy I met a long time ago, back before they were making them commercially. All I used was my own bracket for the license plate attached to two Maglite clips... they fit perfectly over the fairlead!

As for bending 1/4" steel, what I do is kind of "score" the backside of the bend with a cut-off wheel (really straight line), then bend the steel exactly where the scoring is. THen I run a quick bead of weld down the inside of the bend where the score was. Works like a charm without a lot of heating and pounding with a BFH.

Good luck on finishing your bumper and please post pics! I wanna see.


James

 

Those are some awesome looking sliders..I especially like that they are out of square tubing..you should think about selling sets of these

 

Thank you.

I have built winch-mounts, spare tire carriers and all kinds of other stuff for friends of mine out of the goodness of my heart. I had to stop because it became "all-consuming" of me. It is amazing how you can start a project and literally spend 9 or 10 hours per day for 3 days solid on it and forget to eat, shower or even remember you have a wife and kids!! (At least that happens to me) So... the wife said I can build my own stuff, but no more for others for now.

Maybe someday, when I can afford an actual "shop" with "real" metal working equipment (tube bender, sheet metal break, plasma cutter, etc.) I will use my old plans and start building to sell.

Take care,

James

 

I bet your wife won't complain when you start bringing home the cash.

I wouldn't worry about that gap. I really don't think it looks bad at all. It will give the bumper some room to flex if you hit something hard.