Official Tennessee Thread

Yes

And yes. I got a bunch of pics of the whole build. I primed it tonight, gonna finish paint in the morning and have it back on tom afternoon sometime. I was gonna post pics as I was building it but I figured that's build thread status stuff and one of those I do not have. Haha I'll post them up tom

 

Just move there

 

We are a ride tomorrow at 1:30 at the watershed trail in Norris PM me for more info!

 

pictures Gid?

 

workin on it. Had a delay today so its not on the truck but its painted so it will sit overnight and when i get home from work tom it will go on. Give me a min .......

 

Side by side Comparison for 20" light bar. Rigid vs Aurora:

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/showthread.php?t=348682

 

Aight. Here it is. High clearance bumper build documented in the TN thread. Haha

So to start I got the wing pieces from Chris (05sporttaco) which had the outside wings, frame plates and braces between both. I was hoping to just use what was there and build the rest but the wings didn't fit exactly right on my truck so I just cut the frame plates and braces off and had to trim quite a bit on the top plate of the wings to the shape of the truck. So now I just had the wing pieces to start with. My plan was to fully weld everything using my Hobart 140 and hooked up on 120v. I knew it would be a lot of work and take awhile but being low on money for mods, I didn't mind talking 4-5 weeks to finish it.

So to start, a buddy of mines step dad works at a machine shop and can cut plate with a cnc machine so I called him and gave him dimensions of what I wanted for the face plate holes. Well I'm guessing he didn't write down 1 measurement correctly and it moved all 3 holes out about 2 1/2". No problem but now the frame plates wouldn't line up straight with the shackle holes. I had a solution though (pics in a lil bit). I also got him to cut 3 more plates the same length, all being 1/4" x 4" x 58 1/2" and then the shackle plates being 5/8" x 3" x 3" with a 1" hole and 5/8" material from the hole to the outside face. So on to pics .......

The metal I started with ....



I then tacked the face plate, top plate, and wings together and put it up to see what it would look like .....



Next were the frame plates and gussets for the top plate and face plate .....























Once those were put in and fully welded I could fully weld the front side. I also didn't like some of the welds on the wings so I decided to just grind them all down and re-weld them, also cutting into the front face of the wings and re-welding those. Once everything on the outside was welded I grinder it all smooth, which took a while. Haha

 

Looks damn good. I like it

 

I wanted to do a trailer hitch receiver so I went to Northern Tool and picked up a 2 1/2" x 2 1/2" x 8" tube and welded that bitch in .....











After that I wanted to get the shackles on and "fixed" before I finished the trailer receiver. So heres the shackles welded and my fix to the shackle holes being off ......





















I then made the bottom plates for the frame and welded those then grinded them down smooth .....



I went and picked up a 20' stick of 1 1/2" x .120 wall to use for the trailer hitch receiver braces and the outside tubes on the wings. I cut and welded these on ......





Next it was time for the new wing braces. I cut off the old ones because they were too long and not in the spot I wanted. I then cut them to length, welded caps on the ends on them then welded them to the wings and frame plates ......

 

Next was to put the bottom plate on. I first needed to weld in the gussets for it then fully weld the plate on and grind and smooth out the weld on the outside ......



















After that the bumper was done besides the outside tubes so I bolted it up and used a piece of 1/2" emt to bend the shape I wanted then took it to work and bent the pipes. I then used a grinding wheel to shape the ends to fit around the corners how I wanted. It took a min but I got it done. Haha





















And the bumper was done besides being painted so here's it primed then spray on bedliner on top ......











So all that's left is to get a flip plate and license plate lights and I'm done!!!!

 

Sorry if that was too detailed bit there it is. I'll put it on my truck tom and get a few pics

 

That's it bad ass Gid!!!! Love it. How much for one for me minus the tubes on top haha. How come there is a gap from where it starts and where the wheel well is at? Is that where the fender trim comes down?

 

Yes sir. It's 3" short. My front fenders are 3" taller then stock so I figured I'd match it. That's funny you asked that though cause it does look kinda strange right now. Lol and the bumper would actually be decently easy to build if I could get the whole center section rolled instead of me welding the whole thing. If I had the wings and the center section already made then it would take me half the time to build. I'd say I probably have 50 hrs in it from start to finish. That is with my fixing some things and fully welding all that

 

Bad ass. So you're getting glass rears or just going to cut the rear fenders now?

 

Just cutting. I don't want rear glass. Well ...... It would be cool but I don't want to take any function away from my truck bed and sure as hell don't want to buy them and smash the shit out of um

 

Gideon that bumper looks good!

 

so gid dose have 4 green wheels he just chooses to only put 2 on....

 

Wrong style rim

 

Thank you sir. I tried. Haha

Haha yeah those are my street wheels. Lol

 

you don’t say????