Long Travel BS Thread

Hell yeah, race truck noises

 

Yes they are the most annoying things on the planet especially if you have a roll cage. When you get to the point where you can’t take it anymore give me a call and I can explain to you how to weld the check valves shut.

 

Internal bypass

 

Eh I think my dual 2.5” exhaust with only race mufflers is more annoying… lol. Plus my stereo doesn’t work so I just roll around with my pci headsets on since I have the phone hookup option.

 

Got my pivot kit installed and everything is fresh on the front end with new boots for 934s, new tie rods, new springs, new bumper. Anyone know where or how to get cheap aluminum for a skid? I was looking at 5052 3/16” for the bumper.

also gusseted some spindles for a friend and got some used long tubes on the truck. Inner fenders and gears going in next.

 

Didn’t your pivot kit come with the skid plate? You had a choice between aluminum or steel from what I remember.

 

Yeah it’s on, I just meant for my bumper

 

Anyone in SoCal got the hookup of a good fabrication shop who can work with aluminum? Hit up a few places so far and they hear aluminum and say nope. Have a bumper I wanna get done. For how much it cost it’s proving to be more trouble than I thought it would.

 

aluminum bumper?

 

Did you ask Harry ?

 

Correct, aluminum plate.

I did in fact. Harry said he could do it, but told me it wouldn't be cost effective for me for the time needed. He looked over the bumper, and I recall he said he'd need to outsource it due to the style of welding needed or something like that. I could be wrong. 1+ for him looking out for the customer. I opened the boxes up a few days ago and could see how it would be tricky. The material is super thicc, I was surprised.

 

You could try Sick nick fab in anaheim. DMZ or Demello in the Corona/Norco area.

 

Thanks, I forgot about Sick Nick. I'll try Tim at DMZ first since I live 15 mins from them. I doubt Demello would be interested.

 

Coastal OR

 

Yeah need to find someone who does aluminum mig welding. A good marine welder is probably your best bet.

 

Correct it wouldn’t be cost effective for me to do it. With aluminum you can either tig weld it or mig weld it with a spool gun. Tig welding obviously takes a lot more time between all the necessary prep, the actual welding and all the time needed for it to cool in between welds... tig welding puts WAY more heat into everything. While I do have a spool gun it’s not set up on my machine and doing so takes time between going to the welding store and buying aluminum spools of wire and swapping over to an argon tank. Then you factor in that I’ve never put one together so there will be additional time in that too. And without a jig taking your time to move the heat around and have things clamped down is even more important so it doesn’t turn into a pretzel. After all that then you have the labor to sand out all the visible welds and DA the bumper smooth to achieve the seamless look.

The bottom line is I cost $1125 per day and the bumper could easily take me a few days start to finish for a quality job. Honestly buying a fully welded one is a better deal unless you have the time, tools and skills to do it yourself. Personally I’d probably just buy a welded one because I don’t enjoy building bumpers and sanding aluminum is miserable.

 

Whats your experience with MIG welding aluminum with a spool gun? Can you get a nice finish weld out of it, assuming the material is thick enough? I’ve always been curious to play with the process but not enough to want to invest into the setup.

 

Yeah exactly all those issues, on top of the $1800 cost of the bumper itself, Im past where im comfortable spending on just the front bumper. You’re still the only one whose given me a ball park number so far though. So I appreciate it truly

This was an experiment since I don’t see a lot of people running aluminum bumpers, I see why now. And on top of the cost, the weight savings doesn’t have me convinced either. I think this bumper is supposed to be 3/8”, to the naked eye it looks very robust. I’ve seen some aluminum bumpers weighing in between 60-70lbs. I figure this one will be closer to 80-90lbs. In a perfect world it would be nice to have the looks and utility of plate with the lightness of tube.

 

Done a decent amount, the problem with a spool gun is you don’t have heat control so the welds always start out cold and end up too hot. Tig welding is leaps and bounds superior but to do anything thicker than .120 you need a bad ass machine. The same holds true for anything thinner than .065 as you really benefit from the control a high dollar machine offers.

 

.090 chromoly and tonsa gussets could get you there as well. Thats how i did much of my tube bumper and skid plate. That thickness is usually a good price point too