Got it one piece at a time... 51 chev

[dsraven]

great, thanks for taking the time to measure and post. appreciated. I also like what you have done on the box to french the light in. makes it individual.

[LOW A D]

One of my projects this week was to figure out what to do for a rear bumper. I like the look of a rear bumper but I dont have a rear for this truck so I was hoping to make something work that I already had. I have several old cars in the backyard, and I liked the look of a 53 Chev car rear bumper that was already off of the car. I brought it into the shop and started cutting it up, hoping I would like the results! This is what i started with. At first I was hoping to use the bumper guards but I had to mount the bumper very low so that the tailgate would'nt hit them when in the open position so I scrapped that plan

[LOW A D]

Here are a few pics of how I got to my end result. I did a lot of cutting and fitting and recutting till I liked what I saw. Figuring out how to mount the license plate so it looked ok was one of my biggest problems!

[LOW A D]

I tried mounting the plate on the bumper but I was not happy with that idea

[LOW A D]

This is my final version of a rear bumper! I mounted the plate behind the bumper and put a small notch in the top of the bumper. I am pleased with the curve and width of the bumper now. I will make a small filler panel to fill the gap between the bumper and the box. I think I will sink the plate into the roll pan as well

[8man]

That looks good.

[youngrodder]

Nice custom touch....Are you going to have it chromed or paint it?

Marc

[LOW A D]

Thanks guys for the comments! I would like to have the bumper chromed eventually but I will paint it for now. I'm doing the body work on the whole truck nice enough for shiny paint, but I'm doing the truck in Flat black for now. My plan is to drive the truck a year or two to work out all the bugs and then paint it. I want this to be a daily driver/shop truck that I can use as a truck so I may never paint it shiny! The cab got painted yesterday

[LOW A D]

I also got my dash painted. I used PPG's Ditzler Hot Rod black on the truck, seemed to go on smooth with little streaking. I have found some flat blacks to be very difficult to apply without streaks.

[LOW A D]

I got my dash painted and installed. Also put in my new Dakota digital RTX gauges to see how they look in the dash

[LOW A D]

I was trying to figure out how to latch my tailgate this week. I wanted a hidden latch so I went to Lowes to see what I could find. This is what I bought.

[LOW A D]

I cut a strip out of the tailgate and installed the latch

[dsraven]

Got a finished pic?

[LOW A D]

Here is a pic of the installed latch. It works great and the whole latch sits flush to the tailgate

[dsraven]

Nice work

[LOW A D]

Another pic with the latch extended. I wanted to weld the latch in flush but found out it is made of brass so I bolted it in. Guess that will make it easy to replace if I ever need to!

[oldman3]

Nice...Jim

[8man]

Nice work!

[lv2tri2]

Originally Posted by LOW A D

Another pic with the latch extended. I wanted to weld the latch in flush but found out it is made of brass so I bolted it in. Guess that will make it easy to replace if I ever need to!

I like your solution, I think I will use it. Stainless beveled bolts maybe.

[LOW A D]

Thanks for the comments. I may change the bolts holding the latch, this is what I had on hand at the moment

[Jason 56]

Great idea... I like it!

[Tempest67]

great idea with the tail gate latch, looks good

[57tailgater]

Good idea on the latch. Yeah like others, some countersunk allen bolts would probably look great with that. I'd use a grommet in the hole the pin goes thru to eliminate some rattling around.

[LOW A D]

I've got my bumper done and built a small filler panel between the bumper and box

[LOW A D]

I want a hitch on my truck but I didn't want it visible when not in use. I made this cover to hide it