‘Dad Shred build thread’ double locked & 5:29’s SOLD, now 2014 tundra cm TRD OR

I wish I had the ability to cut and weld this shit in

 

YouTube, harbor freight & reading paired with desire & you too can get Er done!

 

Seriously. I look back at some of my early stuff and think wtf is this shit lol. Pretty sure my old mottos must have been if you can’t weld good weld more lol. It worked as my old stuff held up to some serious abuse and there’s still some of it lingering on the truck. But practice practice practice makes a world of difference.

good work and progress these first few weeks @singletrack_ftw

 

Thanks Ryan!!!! It’s really fun - I’m hyped

 

Wowwwww. Welding is so much fun, I am so stoked on it. Learning a ton, working on my warfab kit. Absolutely LOVING this $60 welding table. It’s adjustable and really solid. Also I’m never pre painting anything again before welding. What a pita

 

That's looking good.
Do you need to do any tubing for the 37s?
I'm curious how hard it will be to work with thin metal like the firewall and inner fenders.

 

The answer is YES. always yes. Tubbing 100% mandatory requirement (to wheel the truck) with 37’s. The inner fender project will be next on my list after this bumper / crossmember chop !!! And thank you!

 

Small wire low and slow no need to rush the sheet metal

 

Yeah I’m going to buy some 025 wire for the inner fenders project specifically

 

Don't forget to make sure your tips, rollers, etc also to do 025

 

Yes great TIP thanks Fred. I have already swapped out wire like 5x in a few weeks so I’m getting pretty proficient

 

Finished welding up my 1/4” winch tray with 1/4” gussets & fancy clevices from ballistic fabrication. I wish I took a little more time with some of the welds but overall it looks really solid. I’m going to chop my crossmember next and really get a nicely tucked front end. It’s 29” from ground to winch tray which is pretty sick. Will be cleaning it up a little and painting it ASAP. Also I drilled 3 holes behind each clevice and drilled into the clevice a little bit & plug welded the clevice from the backside - which should help provide a good amount of strength to those pieces. I won’t be able to do bar/tube work for a while so this will be “my bumper” for a bit. I can’t wait to tuck the front crossmember next. Gonna be such a rad improvement. Did some beveling on the joints where there was no gap to help penetration

 

Here are some better pics, threw some steel it on there last night

 

Didn't take you long to learn how to weld.
Looks

 

Thanks Mark!!!!

 

Guys I am having so much fun with metal fabrication. I’m so hooked. It is literally unbelievable how many things you can accomplish with a grinder and a welder. Both of mine are from harbor freight and both work just great. I notched my grille for the control box & started working on the additional bolts for the mounting plate. Also was able to keep my center grille mount hole thingy after trimming the rest of that bracket.

Also, so far my bumper weighs 42lbs. And my winch with line and all wires is 52lbs. Also made some rosette’d frame plates for the front of the frame up near the frame horns

 

More front end progress!

 

How does your winch only weigh 52 lbs???? Mine weighed a lot more than that. Closer to the published weight of the winch at 90lbs. That's the reason I switched to the Warn 9RC

 

Holy crap, 90 lbs? Do you have steel line?

 

No trickery here. Smittybilt x20 synthetic 12000k winch with all cables, right there on the scale, 52lbs. Really happy with that