My new bumper: comments, please.

LOL

 

Powder coat it!

 

You own the MadMax movie series?

Actually looks great! Nice job.

 

Wow! Very cool! I vote powdercoat as well.

 

i thnk it looks awesome, definately powdercoat it, white or black both would look good. no polish!

 

wow. looks as though its a unanimous powder coat vote. I think what i'll do is try to polish, and if i like it then keep it, if i dont then i'll go powder coat. My logic is that i can always rough it up a little and powder coat it, but not necessarily strip the powder coat off and then polish. Thanks for all the pos. responses guy!

 

I think because of the design of the bumper, rough.... you should go with black powder coat, IMO

 

Any idea how much it cost you to build it?

Or plans to sell them? I'd be interested in on.... *hint* *hint* *hint*

Rep on the way!

 

Aluminum gives you a better looking welds, imo. Did you tig it? I don't know about polishing it, though, it might get you a ticket for blinding other drivers as they approach your truck at night. Sort've like strapping a huge mirror on the front of your truck. Black powdercoat would look kick ass on your white truck.

 

Well, total prices for the material was roughly $500+ my labor. I'd say that i could probably sell them for the cost of a similar bumper from Shrockworks, or maybe a little more than Allpro. One-off stuff could definately be done too.
Actually, i've been wanting to get my own shop, and all the equipment to build and sell stuff just like this- bumpers, sliders, tire gates, custom light bars and headache racks, tool boxes, and other random off-road and work stuff. Its kinda hard though since I'm in college and don't have the money for all of it now. If there was a lot of interest.... well, then maybe i'd have an easier time talking my dad into helpin' me out with something like this.

 

Yeah, i like the look of them better too. TIG welds would have looked awesome on it, but since most of them were gonna be sanded smooth and for ease of build and to cut time i used aluminum MIG off a Miller 350P with a Push-Pull gun. They look pretty damn nice too.

 

looks awesome, really well done. I think a black powdercoat would look cool against the white, but thats just me i guess. Polishing it first is a good idea though.

 

actually i take that back, if it were polished keeping it looking good would be a pain in the ass. I used to have polished aluminum wheels on my old ride and they oxidized pretty quick and were impossible to shine up. Go for the powdercoat

 

My thoughts as well

 

$500 ain't too bad! I thought it'd be quite a bit more than that, but then how much is your time worth?

 

Your bumper reminds me of a class 'project' when I was in vo-tech welding class. The teacher taught us how to tig weld aluminum by building a jon boat. He ended up taking the 'project' back to Louisiana to fish with.

 

so, not a pic of my Taco bumper, but this is the last bumper i built. It was on my '95 Chevy 1/2ton. Sucker woulda been indestructible if i ever hit somthin with it.

 

Great job! I know it's aluminum, but it looks like you could plow through a brick wall with it. I'm sorry, but I'm going to be the critical one out of the bunch. The 2 holes don't appear to be quite level with each other. Are those for lights? Anyway, you're gettin some rep from me. Fabrication is a great skill to have. Wish I could do it.

 

Your new project, after the front is done...

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/2nd-gen-tacomas/9246-nice-bumper-2nd-gen-tacomas.html

 

I'm going to assume you built the bar/headache rack in the bed as well?