There's a brace on the inside of the frame rail as well. The outside support you see will mainly be where the side bracing will be located, once the bumper is completed, I'll go back and cut out all unneeded material.

 

Ok, I guess that sounds a little better. I could just picture that one section folding like paper.

Jim

 

I finished my shackle hangers today. They are copys of the RockStomper ones made from 2x1 solid instead of 3x1 solid. When I finished I think they look scetchy and might be ripped off with a hard tug, but look good. I might build a reciver shackel for extractions and keep these for the look, hell it might add 10hp like Vtec stickers.

 

Come on Steve! Let's hear what you have to say on this one. I think his looks awesome, but I can't wait to hear your comments on functionality, because I don't want to make any mistakes either.

Chris

 

BruceTS, I have to say you did a great job on those side pieces man! Can you give me some pointers on how you made them up simply becuase I'm going to be doing it this week too for mine. Did you use cardboard, math, what? I think this is going to be the hardest part for sure. Did you bend those pieces or did you make the cuts on flat sheet and weld them together? Also, how much gap both horizontally and vertically from the body do you have?

Chris

 

Steve, any comments on my pics I've posted so far? I'd love to hear your comments since you been beating yours up for years now.

Chris

 

I have a hunch, but we'll only know after aftershock.

 

How can you have a hunch just after seeing those far off pics? Come on and spill the beans man! I need to know for this weeks mock up of my side pieces.

Chris

 

Steve, the bumper is still very rough and I have to do a lot of trimming. It's easier to make the pieces a bit longer and then cut them back, than making them too short. As for the side panels they'll hold up just fine, considering the skid plate is the same thickness.

To prevent the bumper from contacting the body, there will be a 1" gap, but with the use of weather stripping, it'll hide it quite nicely, also I'm gonna add a few bumpstops to the body, for those extreme conditions...

I made cardboard templates before cutting out the sheetmetal and to make the bends, I took my 4 1/2" angle grinder with a cut-off wheel and made a groove where I wanted the bend, then simply bent the plate by hand to the desired angle. I will run a bead of weld in the groove and grind it flush.

Doing compound angles isn't as easy as making everything at 90 degrees, it took the better half of a day to get them the way they are. The main 2x4 tubing has 2 separate angles just to get the plates to fit flush.

As for any problems on aftershock, I can't think of any place there, that will contact the bumper, considering my stock bumper and trailer hitch made it just fine the last time I went, well almost, I got a ding in the left rear corner...

BTW if your wondering about the exhaust pipe, I've got that covered too, but you'll have to wait and see the outcome

 

Did you grind a bevel on the sides where you welded them to the frame?
If done correctly and you get good penetration you'll have a total of 6" of weld holding the hanger to the tubing. Unless you tear out the actual tubing, they shouldn't pull off.

 

Here's the latest pics of what the side pieces are going to look like. It really became a simple process after beginning to mock up the side pieces as far as angles, etc. The first bend is going to be 90 degrees and the second bend is going to be 45 degrees down to the bottom of the tubing, which will also be cut at the 45 degree angle and capped by the side piece. Here the pics:





















I experiemented with the backlight feature on my camera to see which pics came out better. As far as spacing from the body, I'm 1" out horizontally and 1/2" out vertically from the inside of the lip. On the inside of the side piece, there will be additional bracing, but will maintain at least a 1" clearance with any point of the body. But, I'm going to utilize the pinch weld for additional strength (just like my sliders) by running a 3/8" flat bar stock from the bottom of the tubing forward directly underneath the pinch weld, but at least 1/2" lower leaving enough space for some flex before it makes contact. It should be pretty strong!

Chris

 

Got more done today, but still only 75% complete, I need to wait for a few parts to show up.

 

After some welding and a lot of grinding, paint added, just to keep from rusting. It'll be another week before I'll be able to do more.....

 

Here's a back view, next weekend I'll make the brackets to hold down the stock plastic shroud.

 

Damn, you must be really quick with all this fab stuff, because I know it takes me forever.

Today, I grinded everything down, sanded the tubing, and then primed it so I could at least install it since I'm going wheeling this next weekend. The side pieces aren't done yet, so all I have on is the main rear tube.

Chris

 

Not as fast as I wanted, my welder's duty cycle is something like 20% so I had to wait between long welds. I used to be the body man for a NASCAR Winston West and Southwest tour team. Sometimes I've spent long nights putting a car back together for the next days race. Learning to do things fast was the norm......

 

That looks great Bruce!

Nice work.
G

 

Hey thanks for the kind remarks!!

Chris

 

Thanks!



Sorry for hijacking your thread ravencr, but I figured one thread with all the 3rd gen bumper build-ups is easier to keep track of....


Update on my bumper, I've got the shackle hangers, tralier hitch welded in place and added the weather stripping:



I still need to fabricate the retainers for the stock plastic shroud, but I was also fitting my tires today. Having 1 day off to work on my rig is a PITA! I added paint and I'm going wheelin next weekend, so it'll be a few weeks before I finish the bumper.

 

Dayum!! That's SWEET!!!