After 9 long months, I finally finished my rear bumper. It took me so long b/c I have 4 kids 4 & under and this is my daily driver so I only had about a couple hours a weekend to work on it. I really wanted a rear bumper for my 80, but I didn't have $2K to drop on a bumper, plus none were set up exactly the way I wanted. Since I had recently purchased a welder to learn on, I figured what better way to learn than to build my own bumper. I modeled the main body of the bumper after the Wildyoats bumper. He used to sell kits for these, but since they're no longer available, I was still stuck building my own. After much use of cardboard templates and many trips to the steel plant for the purchase of raw steel and for some critical bends in some of the pieces, you see the finished product.
The main shell is 1/8" steel (reinforced w/ 1/4" angle iron in critical areas). The wings are 3/16" and attach to the main shell at the rear and to the frame at the front. The main anchors are 1/2" steel with 90 degree bends that attach to the frame. (The steel plant that did the bends for me had a press as big as a school bus that could bend up to 2" steel.) The pivots are 1,750lb. spindles. The swingarms are made out of 2X3 1/8" steel and the tire carrier is fabbed out of 2X2 1/8" steel. The jerry can holder was purchased from Adventure Trailers and the license plate holder is from JCWhitney. I used 15lb. gas charged lift gate holders (the lowest lb. force I could find) from McMaster to assist in swinging open the arms. I finally had everything powdercoated and am very pleased wih the final product. The welds aren't the prettiest, but as a novice welder, I'm happy with the result. In the end, the bumper cost me less than 1/2 of what a new one would typically cost. The bumper is very stout and the tire hardly bounces or wiggles around at all, even on speed bumps. Let me know what you think.
The main shell is 1/8" steel (reinforced w/ 1/4" angle iron in critical areas). The wings are 3/16" and attach to the main shell at the rear and to the frame at the front. The main anchors are 1/2" steel with 90 degree bends that attach to the frame. (The steel plant that did the bends for me had a press as big as a school bus that could bend up to 2" steel.) The pivots are 1,750lb. spindles. The swingarms are made out of 2X3 1/8" steel and the tire carrier is fabbed out of 2X2 1/8" steel. The jerry can holder was purchased from Adventure Trailers and the license plate holder is from JCWhitney. I used 15lb. gas charged lift gate holders (the lowest lb. force I could find) from McMaster to assist in swinging open the arms. I finally had everything powdercoated and am very pleased wih the final product. The welds aren't the prettiest, but as a novice welder, I'm happy with the result. In the end, the bumper cost me less than 1/2 of what a new one would typically cost. The bumper is very stout and the tire hardly bounces or wiggles around at all, even on speed bumps. Let me know what you think.
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