BLACKnBLUE's Rear Bumper Build

That makes two of us!

 

In my last posting, I kind of jumped the gun, so-to-speak, by showing you the completed license plate cut-out. However, that was the best picture I had to show the bottom piece that we attached.

Here, we're creating the side pieces, which angle or taper in towards where the license plate will be attached.


^Here, the bumper is ready for those angle pieces...

^Cutting one of the angle pieces to its approximate size...

^Coming along...


Unfortunately, our hands became preoccupied, and we didn't get any good pictures between this stage and the next picture, below...


^This picture, while showing the angle pieces attached and in place, also shows some of the lengths we had to go to, to get the bumper, in alignment. Unfortunately, this wasn't quite enough....

"TA-DAAAA!"

 

It kinda looks like a heavy duty 1st gen bumper. I like it!

 

That bumper looks sick! Will it work with the hitch? and have you figured out how to mount it yet? Really awesome idea.

 

"Will it work with the hitch?" Yes. We've specifically built it to accommodate the hitch. Essentially, it will sit just like the stock bumper does in relation to the hitch. If anything, we may need to make a couple slots or notches in the backside of the bumper to have it sit as snug as possible.

"...have you figured out how to mount it yet?" More or less. We are going to use the stock mounts (two via the hitch and two via the stock mounting brackets which slide into the bumper. We haven't gotten to making the mounts yet. The two via the hitch will require drilling two holes through the license plate recess area, just as the stock bumper does. 'Should' be pretty straight forward, but I've said that before and been dead wrong.

Great questions, keep 'em comin'!

 

sub'd. cant wait to see it mounted!

 

are you going to cut the bed sides or make the bumper wrap around to protect them? Because right now it looks like the side are ver vulnerable.

 

If you're talking about the rear quarter-panels, yes. The plan is to cut them up, basically even with the bottom of the tail-lights.

This is what it will (hopefully) look like in the end (sorry, this is the best I could do with Paint...).

 

Ya, thats what i was talking about.

 

Sorry it's been so long since I updated (it's school's fault!). I got together with my buddy last Saturday and did some simple stuff.

First, we swung by our local 4WheelPart center (Lynnwood, Wa) for some D-Rings/Shackles. I picked up two shackles as well as two of those rubber things so they don't "clink" against the bumper when I'm rollin' down the road or trail. I took a sanding block to em and roughed em up pretty good. After cleaning them up, I sprayed on Rust-oleum's bedliner for a rough flat black look. Today, I took em to work, and using industrial grade epoxy, fitted the rubber fittings on. After 3 hours in the drying oven they were all cured up! They look pretty sweet. As soon as we get the mounts attached on the bumper...



Here's a picture of them drying, prior to attaching the rubber fittings. Sorry, I don't have a picture of the finished product yet.

Between applying coats of spray-on bedliner, my buddy and I worked on getting the license plate mounting holes drilled. The same holes will be used to mount the new license plate (12 LED) light that I purchased off ebay about a month ago.



I know it's a small picture, but if you look close at the bottom of the license plate you can see the light. (No, we're not from Colorado!)

Here's a better picture (below)


For some reason, this picture turned out huge... oh well.

And here's with the light all lit up!





It's about the time I need to be swinging by Lowe's once a week to buy a can of the spray-on bedliner so that by the time we finish the bumper we will have enough to paint the whole thing!

 

Finally, if anyone is still sub'd to this thread, I have some new pictures for you guys!

Since my last posting, a number of things have been accomplished.

1. Mounts for the D-rings have been made and attached.
2. Bolt-holes have been made for where the bumper will attach to the trailer-hitch brackets.
3. All the remaining side pieces have been sorted out (used the cardboard to mock it up and finalize measurements).
4. All but one side piece has been cut-out for where the bumper will wrap around to the wheel-wells.
5. The quarter-panels have been cropped up to just under the rear tail-lights.

Here are the pictures that I have for you!


^Notice the shackles?

^Here, you can kind of make out that I still need to crop up the quarter panels slightly, but it's better to have not cut them enough than to have cut them too high up!

^Another perspective...

^Here, you can see one of the new mounts for the shackles!

Hopefully we'll be getting a lot done in the next couples weeks. We plan on making some brackets to attach to the OEM mounts located near the rear corners of the rear frame, as well as making some supports near the rear wheel-wells.

After we have everything finalized we'll be using a sand-blaster to clean the bumper all up and prep the surface to accept spray-on-bedliner.

 

you probably know this already, but just incase leave some space between the light and the bumper so they don't contact when you flex.

 

Actually, that thought hadn't occurred to me! Thank you for mentioning that! I'll make sure to leave about 1/16" gap between the light and the bumper. Think that'll be enough?

 

it should be, you can look at the stock bumper spacing also.

 

Okay, I'll have to take a look at that the next time I go out to my truck.

 

Impressive! +1

 

Well my buddy and I got together on Monday to start piecing together the side pieces... when our grinder died. It was well used before our project and definitely got extensive use during our project. So that's stopped out progress this week.

My buddy swung by Harbor Freight and picked up a cheap one, hopefully that will get us through the final stages of this bumper build.

Please observe a moment of silence for our DeWalt grinder... JK

I'm sure ready to get this bumper fabrication done, get it cleaned up, painted, and attached to my truck! Stupid school. Stupid work. Stupid family... wait. Probably shouldn't have said that last one...

 

looking real good!!

 

Thank you! It's been a lot of hard work but it's been a fun process!