DIY relentless plate bumper help.

I have a lot of extra bolts and washers along with 4 little L shaped tabs and 2 bigger brackets with 2 slotted holes on one side and with 1 slotted hole on the other side. I'm still building the bumper and their instructions are terrible nor do they even show or mention these parts I have left. What's the deal here? I'm assuming it's all important stuff yet no mention of them. What do the NON DIY instructions look like?

 

If you still need info on this, the 4 small L shaped brackets are for mounting fog lights, I'm guessing you opted for the cutouts.

The 2 larger brackets, if they are the ones I think they are, are meant to bolt to the front of the bumper using the bolts you see as you look head on at the bumper. The bracket then dog legs back to the frame where one long 1/2" bolt goes through the bracket and then through a hole in the boxed section of the frame. The idea is that these brackets add support for winching by tying the bumper into the frame at an additional point.

 

Here's a pic of my build. The larger brackets bolt to the 2 bolts you see here and then stretches back to run parallel to the frame. I believe the hole that goes through the frame is a rectangular hole. You can't see the frame hole in this pic.



Another view of the location for longer bracket. It just ties the bumper to the frame at an additional point. If you don't plan on winching you could probably leave them off.

 

Really want to do a DIY kit myself, but it seems like unless you build bumper for a living, building one might not be worth it. Then again, you are building it, and there's a lot of satisfaction in that for sure!

 

Yea man, it's a great feeling when complete. Really not that hard either. All the pieces fit like a puzzle. Just bolt on the center section and line it up best you can then start lining up the other sections and tacking them in place. Measurements aren't hugely important, it's more important that it lines up with your particular truck.

The steel version would be easier than the aluminum one just because the welding was tedious. I tig welded mine completely and it was a pain to get into some areas on the inside. I didn't have an aluminum mig setup. The steel version could be stick welded or mig welded and it would be way easier and quicker too. Just take your time and jump from side to side as make welds so it doesn't warp.

 

Yeah, really thinking of pulling the trigger on the "Summit" model from @RelentlessFab . Depending on the weight, I'll have to decided whether to go steel or aluminum. IMO DIY is the way to go if you really want the custom clean fit for that specific truck, as all are not exactly the same. Shipping to Hawaii I assume would also be cheaper lol

Man I really did your work you put into your bumper!! Have you got a thread going from start to finish on the piece? Wanna make sure I know what I'm in for when I go to weld things up.

Tx

 

This is all the pics I took during the build. I wish I had done more but to be honest I was so frustrated during some of it that I'm lucky I didn't smash my welding machine with a sledge hammer!

The main difficulty for me was that sometimes the metal just would not clean up. If you have some aluminum welding experience then you know when you try to weld dirty aluminum it's very difficult to impossible. I sanded all the rough plasma cut edges with a flap wheel and 90% of it welded very nicely. But every so often I'd be welding a joint then hit a spot where the puddle would just skin over and not flow like I wanted it. I'd have to stop sand it down and try again in that spot. Later when I explained this problem to a very experienced welder friend he told me to check the rubber gas line where it enters the torch body. Sometimes high heat and age can cause the rubber to crack around the fitting at the torch and allow air to mix with the shielding gas which may have been the cause of my troubles. I still haven't checked my hose yet though since I learned of this after my bumper was done.

Also at times I had to use every bit of my machine's 300 amps, especially on the 1" thick recovery points. I would have liked to get a 3/16" tungsten but because of availability I had to use 1/8". 2% Lanthanated seemed to have the best current capacity for a given diameter so that's what I used but the electrode still melted and balled up frequently, requiring me to break it off and reshape the tip. I also really like the clear pyrex cups from USAweld.com. They allow for maximum visibility which comes in handy on some of the inside joints.

 

Thanks Mike for the insight, and pictures!! To be honest, I haven't spent much time behind a tig and aluminum of the thickness these bumpers are at. I've used mig spool gun on my miller to do welding when I do work with aluminum every so often. With that being said I think ill still go with aluminum as the weight savings over steel is the biggest draw for me. I can basically tack everything into place, and have my friend tig up the rest.

One question, after you've tacked everything into place, did you remove bumper and finished the rest off the truck? You'll obviously will have to take off the bumper to weld up the backside of the bumper, but what about the front?

Aloha,
Sonny

 

Yea I did remove it completely to weld the outside and inside. Just jump around a lot to avoid warpage. Weld a few inches on the left then a few on the right and so on. I don't think I ever welded more than 8" in any one weld at one time.

I'd say try the spool gun, man! If that's what you have experience in, it should work just fine as long as the machine has enough power to weld the 1/4" material. Keep in mind most of the weld on the outside will get ground down and smoothed over and the inside will never be seen. I'd say see how it goes when you tack it up. If it seems to run OK and produce good strong tacks, try to weld a bit and see how it works.