Bored Clerk's Rear Bumper Build

Morning progress!

I got the two hinge mounts welded in place. Next step is to pull the rear bumper off the truck, mount up my frame plates, test fit the bumper, and Mark the weld locations for the frame plates to the bumper.







There they are. I even showed you my mad welding skillz. Haha.

 

Man your welds aren't that bad, you're too hard on yourself lol
Here's some of mine to make you feel better, I too am a professional welder...

 

If only all of my welds looked like the ones I posted this morning! Those are the best of the best for me.

Your welds look like good consistent strong welds to me.

 

Thanks man, I've found that if it's on a bench or other flat surface, it's easy to get a nice weld by just slowly dragging the rod tip back and pushing in slightly as you go. Instead of doing the side to side motion. Might not be correct but that's how I got the welds in that pic.

 

Bumper is set in place. Looks pretty good so far! I learned that the frame rails taper in toward the back. I didn't realize that. I'll have to massage some of my reinforcement plates to fit the new angle. No biggie. I also have a slight left to right droop. I think that could be due to the frame being tweaked out of shape due to being parked on the driveway Ina funky manner as well as the tons of extra weight on the left side of the truck (31m battery, and 34 gallon fuel tank...with a lot of gas in it). I'm just going to level the bumper to the mounts and call it good.

Enough talk, picture time!





Keep in mind that this design isn't possible if you want to be able to open your tailgate. My ultimate plans have me removing my tailgate which is why I built it this way. FYI.

 

Interesting. I've been trying a lot of different methods with my mig welder...speed, feed, volts, pattern, push/pull, just trying to get it dialed in. Pretty much every weld on this bumper looks different! Haha, that's part of the point in building my own stuff; getting some new skills!

 

Only way to learn. You should see some of my early stuff..
Bumpers looking good man

 

Frame mounts all welded up and hinges installed for tomorrow's work! I'll be starting the swing outs in the morning.

 

Well, the bumper is on hold for a bit. I knew this would be the case but I let my occasional cheapness get in the way: notching tube by hand super sucks and is not near accurate enough without spending a ton of time. So, I'm ordering a tube notcher today. I'll get back on it when that shows up. I still have a couple of other things I'm going to get laser cut. So, it's no huge loss and this will save me a lot of time and effort when I build the tire carrier and bumper wings.

Peace out for a week or so.

 

Something I learned when doing my sliders is notching is easy.
http://www.metalgeek.com/static/cope.pcgi

Print off the size you are looking for. I went 1 size bigger. IE for 1.75" tube I used 1.9" template. This could also be from print settings, so do a trial scribe to find exact size after printing to make sure you have right template. Once I did that it was as easy as cutting the tube along the lines with a grinder. Well actually the welder cut the tube for me. But it is the same nontheless. He said that it was the easiest he has ever done for matching pipe/tube up.

Another method is to cut the tube at increments. I have to look it up again and there is a lot of info on pirate 4x4. You can cut the end of the tube to look like /\ (a point). The angle of the cut lines change depending on size of tube. 33deg vs 45deg vs 15deg..... This method does really work. Try it on a few toilet paper rolls and you will see that it works great. It is just a matter of getting the right angle.

No matter what you use, when welding you will be able to fill in a small gap. Weld is stronger then the adjoining steel so this will not cause any weakness issues.
On an aside. When designing pipe fittings I often speck a Weld-o-let. These are designed for a variety of pipe sizes. A 2" pipe weld-o-let will also fit a 2.5". The welder fits it up then welds it. They do not need to grind them down. Any extra opening is simply filled in. BUT you can not use a 8" pipe size on 1". The difference is too great.

If you have any questions or want more info send me an email and I will talk you through it better.


Some light reading http://www.jockeyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=88261

Also look up fish mouthing.
http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/shop-tools/456800-chop-saw-notching-101-pictures.html post 1 is info, post 2 has angles

 

Very cool! That's a lot of helpful info for sure! I may get back to this and forgo the notcher.

Feeling the forum love tonight!

 

Thinking about what I needed to do to make these notches accurately in square tubing, I had a big DUH moment. I can easily do that...I have no idea why I was having a mental issue over this. Haha.

I'll be back on that as soon as I get the new caulking done around the bathtub. I'm hoping to get the caulking done as soon as I get home then head out to the garage to notch a tube!

 

Well, it wasn't glorious, easy, or smooth, but I did get one notch done!


I started by marking a center spot on opposing sides of the square tubing at an equal distance from the end.


Then I drilled a pilot hole through each side at my punch mark.


Then I used this...


To do this. Now, this would work really well if your tubing is smaller across than your hole saw is deep. I was able to get 1.875" through a 2" x .120" wall piece of square tubing. This meant I had to flip the steel over and start from the other side. It was grabby and sucky but it worked...sort of. The hole was crooked a bit. It only took about 10 minutes of filing and checking with a square to get it whipped into shape.




It all fit up pretty well and is square. So, it wasn't a raging success from a perfection with ease perspective but it was a success in that I got a notch done in relatively little time in relative ease. I'll take it!

 

looking good

 

A little more success!



Got the first hinge welded in place!

Once this cools off and we have some dinner, I'll take it down to work and cut the arm to length on the horizontal bandsaw. I have such low tolerance for cutoff wheels, hacksaws and the like when there are perfectly good bandsaws 6 blocks away!

 

Just a swingin'



I'll be back at it tomorrow. I decided to take my lovely wife out for dinner then hang out a bit. Tough to do on weeknights with her crossfit habit. Haha!

 

One step at a time...


Got the other hinge welded up.


Hmmm...might need a trim.



That's better!



Just a note: remember to mark the keep out zone for the hinge! My hinges have mounts that are not concentric with the center hole. (For a spring pin...which I may or may not use) I could have easily encroached on the area I need to fully open my swing out. That would have been a bummer! The sharpie is a nice reminder.

Next on the list is to get the De-sta-co clamps mounted and other clamping hardware figured out. Basically, rubber bumpers of some sort and some UHMWPE.

I won't likely be able to do that tomorrow but I can get it done on Saturday for sure!

Now that I have something real to measure to and look at, it's time to work on the design for the tire carrier and Jerry can/license plate carrier. Not sure how I want to do either one. I didn't think too much about it because where I'm at now seemed so far away when I started! Haha.

 

I have already started designing my fuel can holder and we can chat if you like. I am using diamond plate aluminium. I will be trying to do some brazing and riveting. Thinking more of a box style as then I can also use it for other things when not carrying extra fuel. But may do cut outs to save weight. May be I should start selling them once I have them figured out ;p

A note for your swing arms. You may want to put either stainless steel or UHMW by/ between the hinge arm and the base close to the pivot point. (The area inside your marker zone). This will limit wear and prevent rusting from wear. I have seen a few other builders starting to do the same lately. If you look at some of the older bumpers with swingouts they like to rust in this location.

 

I'll be interested to see what you come up with on the Jerry can holder. Sounds interesting.

The pivots are spaced away from the hinge bracket. There are spacers inside the pivot that also preload the bearings. There are also press-in seals on either end. I'll take another look at it though...and add some extra protection if necessary. I could see it getting gunky and funky in that gap. Thanks for the heads up! I may add some zerk fittings too so I can keep clean grease packed inside.

 

Coming along nicely.Can't wait to see it done.