Doing something sneaky for christmas.

[MrBeast]

So I have a friend who has been a damn good friend to me, I actually owe him quite a bit. He has helped me through a pretty bad time in my life. Well, This year I am being afforded the opportunity to give one back to him.

The past couple of years I have been going to welding school, and he and I have frequently discussed me making a new bumper for his truck since he had a little fender bender about 8 months ago and in the process messed up his bumper pretty good.

Well, here a few weeks ago when I sold my blazer he loaned me the use of his truck until I get my 89 blazer going so I can drive it. Well I sat down a few days ago and started designing the bumper for his truck while I have had it here in my possession.



I presented the design to him a few days ago, and he really liked it, so I told him merry Christmas, that is what I was getting him this year, a set of prints for a new bumper. Well little does he know I have spent the last 2 days blowin and goin building said bumper, and tomorrow night when I go over to his house for Christmas dinner, It will be mounted on his truck.



Above you can see where I am at so far, it has taken a ton of work to get here, a lot of measuring and cutting, and measuring and cutting and you get the idea. Right now it is all just tack welded, and I still have quite a few pieces to cut and add to it.

Tonight I am trying to have the bumper its self all tacked out, and start welding on it, then tomorrow I can finish welding it, and get the brackets built, and install it on the truck.

The truck it is going on is a 2001 dodge ram. Now I know I know, I posted this in the 67-72 Chevy trucks board, why is it pertinant? well this one is practice, I am getting used to using my new Millermatic 212 MIG



and I will be building a new frame for my 72 C/30 as I convert it to a 4x4, and also it is going to get a bumper of similar construction.



In the picture below you can see the sag in the frame if you look close.



As well my 89 blazer is going to get a custom set of bumpers too.



But first things first, I need to finish this bumper out, and then get the blazer running again so as that I have some wheels.

Am I a busy frickin little elf or what?

[Sport/Truck]

That is one nice looking rig welder!
s/t

[72 Super]

That is a tough looking bumper. I am sure your friend will be happy, thats a great gift.

[jamesi20]

Make sure you post pics of the finished product!

[Boog]

Richard you are doing pretty good with that CAD aren't you? Pretty good with the fab tools in your hand too. That's a nice gesture to build your friend a bumper.
That's a real nice lookin Blazer. Gas or diesel? What does it need?

[Husker]

I like it. Is it all flat metal?
Take Care
Ron

[MrBeast]

Originally Posted by Boog

Richard you are doing pretty good with that CAD aren't you? Pretty good with the fab tools in your hand too. That's a nice gesture to build your friend a bumper.
That's a real nice lookin Blazer. Gas or diesel? What does it need?

Its actually Nick, (my last name is Richards) And thank you, I have been to school for welding, and I am now going for CNC Machining. It has been my lifes dream to have my own fab shop where I build hotrods and what not for people.

The blazer is a Gas, I have a 350 sitting on the engine stand, check out my blazer build thread for the full story.

Also I will mention that the guy I am building the bumper for is the guy I am buying my place from. The people he had in here before me are the ones that tore up the blazer after I sold it to them. Also while they were here, they had 22 cats, 3 dogs and a rabbit living in the house. They completely destroyed the place. Its been a pretty bum deal all around.

[MrBeast]

Originally Posted by Husker

I like it. Is it all flat metal?
Take Care
Ron

Thanks Ron, it is all constructed from .250 plate, and 2x2"x.250 angle.

[chevy29267truck]

its looks nice man

[MrBeast]

So the face of the bumper is complete less the light holes.



Doing the bottom edge of the bumper was a nightmare, Every cut was a compound miter cut, and my saw isn't a compound miter saw, this means for every different angle, I had to build a jig.



This is VERY time consuming, but I got it done. Tomorrow should go realitively fast compared to today. I am going to whack the old bumper off the truck first thing after snaping a few photos of it. Then I am going to get busy with it. First order of business will be to build the brackets, and get the bumper mountable, then I will build the end plates, and contour them to match the wheel well. Then I will add some gussets to the back side to make it way stronger, and I need to cut the holes for the lights in, and weld in the pipe rings and brackets to mount the lights.

Need to do all of this by like 4:00 or so and have the bumper mouted on the truck to go over to dinner and suprize him. Time is going to be ticking. Speaking of which, its 3:10 am, and I desperately need a shower.

'Night all!

[MrBeast]

For the record I hate, I repeat HATE using a torch in the wind... /that is all.

[LuckyHenriksen]

Looks good. You should powdercoat it

[joe231]

Nice work!!

[MrBeast]

Originally Posted by LuckyHenriksen

Looks good. You should powdercoat it

Either going to get bed liner, or painted body color.

[joe231]

so....any installed pics?

[LuckyHenriksen]

Originally Posted by MrBeast

Either going to get bed liner, or painted body color.

Oh that will look good too. Bedliner is a good idea, it would be easy to take care of

[MrBeast]

im working on the bracketry right now, got the old bumper off, cutting the new pieces as we speak.

[LuckyHenriksen]

Looking forward to pictures of it installed

[joe231]

[rambler]

subscribing just to see pics of the finished project... looks great so far!

[Tx Firefighter]

Subscribing to this one.

[Mayo]

Thats a neat bumper

[MrBeast]

Got it mounted for a test fit.



To my horror, it went on crooked, I yanked it back off, the bumper is straight, the dodge is bent. Oh well, I have a quick fix that I am going to do tomorrow that will make it right as rain again. Then I can get on to finishing it up.

I showed it to him tonight though, he was pretty tickled.

[silvereagle07]

Great bumper it kicks ass. Good job!

[Husker]

That is gonna look GREAT when your done.
Ron