well i just finished bending, welding, grinding, cursing, painting and halfway installing my new homemade tube bumper. its made of 1.75 od tube 11 gague hrew. i bough 24' for $52.

i now realize why bumpers and fab items in general cost as much as they do. this is my first time bending, and i am by no way an experienced welder- but i thought id give it a go.

i used a harbor freight tube bender and some POS chinese notcher. i wish i had taken more pictures but here is the end result.

i did all of the welding at my friends house but after i took it home i did all the grinding and painting.


here it is after primer


with backup lights mounted and temp mount. (clamps and wood)


it's shaped with one step and one open slot for a reason- my next project is making a rear tire carrier out of my tailgate. i'll use a spindle hinge attached to the bumper and reframe the tailgate to make it sturdy enough to hold my tire and the new tailgate will swing out. anyway this is what i've been bleeding on what do you guys think? i'd say not bad for under $75

p.s. i have shackles that i'll be hangin soon

 

Thats a pretty sweet bumper!

When you mount the bumper, make sure up mount it a bit lower down then you have pictured above. The first rock you slam down on, it will push those tubes that wrap around the back right into your body.

 

Looks Hoss man. Very nice. I don't really understand the tire carrier part though. Is it going to mount to the bumper or the tailgate? Very nice bumper though.

 

I like the bumper on that sweet T/A or Firebird there.....hehehhehhe

 

the firebird is a 1970 FORMULA 400- but that's in a different forum. thanks for the advise on moving the bumper down... about how far would you suggest? and my idea of the tire carrier is mounting the tire to the tailgate and making the whole tailgate swing out.

 

Looks really nice. Not to shabby for your first attempt. More pics please.

 

I would say have it atleast 3/4" minimum from your body in all places. I have never built a bumper like this so I dont know exactly. (I wish I would have now!)


What kind of notcher did you use? Was it kind a rigged up on a drillpress?

 

dont know the name of the notcher, just know that it was a handheld drill with a holesaw at the end of it. it was a little rig that got clamped to a table to hold the drill at whatever angle. didnt have any degree marks on it either so it was all notched by eye, and than grinded on forever just to get the damn things to fit right.

i wish i would have taken some more pictures during the making of the bumper, i have a few but they have to be processed, not digital.

here are some more of the lights (and an el camino) the wire that runs the power source between the lights is fed through the pipe so it's really clean.

 

are you still able to use the trailer hitch?

 

That is an awesome looking bumper. A little sweat and tears, you got a professional looking bumper.

Make one for me will ya? I'll even give you a cool C-note for it!

 

I'm sure the trailer hitch can be used since it is on the elcamino

Nice bumper. you are goingto love he tail lights. I have some on my rig ( wired for reverse only) and they light up the area behind me very well!!!!!

 

Wow! txtoy, great work on the bumper!

Not too bad at all for a first timer and it'll surely look b**chin' on your rig.

I am a little curious about the configuration, i.e., why did you run the top tude out to a return on one end and merely capped it off on the other ?

Is that for the tire carrier (although you've mentioned mounting it on the tailgate) or fuel can or something ?
And do you have anymore pics ?!?

 

haha the problem when you post something like this is people like me will say


wanna build me one for a nice price?

 

What kind of tube bender did yu get from harbour freight to bend that size tube? They look like they were mandrel bent. And what does the notcher do?
Thanks

 

ok, maybe this will clear up some of the confusion. when i mount the tire to the swinging tailgate my goal is to mount it as close to the body as possible and also keep it from being too high. by creating the cutout in the bumper i will be able to use the space to fill in with the tire. here's a pic



the harbor freigh bender is just a set of dies and a bottle jack. its orange and works okay as long as you use the pefect size tube for the right size die. also go very slowly and it turns out better.

the notcher creates a little 'c' cut at the end of a pipe to allow the pipe to set inside of another pipe (to make it easier to weld.

 

I see, said the blind man. That new bumper of yours looks pretty hot on your rig, waskilly had better watch out for the competition!

You know, you could "tread plate" the two upper frames and have a step on either side.

Is it necessary for the license to lay out like that at the bottom? Just curious.

 

no plans to build any bumpers...yet...it ain't near as easy as it looks guys

a drill press notcher works much better and a tube bender...not a 12 ton press thingie like HB sells...which they call a pipe bender...works better cause it is made for tubing

 

Just kidding wabbit, you know you're da bunny!!

 

Awsome job! Did you also make the softtop for your truck?

 

that is a very nice looking truck! nice bumper too.