Metalworking

[winslow33]

I'm planning on fabricating new bumpers for a friends truck rather than buying new stock ones. Should be a little more durable for offroad..

I went down to a building supply store today and had a look around for ideas to work from. I came across 2 things

1. Steel pipe
This is heavy duty stuff thats almost 1/2 an inch thick though the steel, used for house supports
$50 for a 3 foot length (ouch? but still cheaper than a stock bumper)

2. Steel L Beam. I'm wondering how this might work for a front bumper, as it would be very easy to mount a winch on it. A little cheaper, comes in at $10 a foot... Im just at a loss of how it will atrach to the frame rails? Heavy stuff, 1/2 inch thick i dont think it will bend very easy, but it wont really save the grille and rad from objects. I'm thinking having the horizontal face pointing out so theres a nice flat surface for a winch and hooks to pull the truck by

Does any one have any ideas or imput on this project? Its for a small truck, that mazda B-series i showed in my other thread. 1 thing... id like to do as little welding as possible, I'm not the greatest welder in the world or anything....
I'm up for ideas here guys

 

[superman22x]

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=99820

 

[winslow33]

thanks a lot ^^ gave me a few ideas..
I was picking through some stuff at my uncles tonight, found some nice 1-inch thick steel plating. Looks almost like the peices that are used to bolt 2 railway rails together... 2 big-ass lengths of the stuff, if I have them welded together it will be the exact width as the truck... Add on some brackets should be good to go. Ill post pictures of what i mean when i get time

EDIT: 2 of these bad boys welded end-to-end with eachother, bolted to the frame rails. Going to bolt on 2 towing hooks to it going through the 2nd holes from the end on each, licence plate bracket dead center over the weld, a pair of fog lights bolted on too. The other holes will be filled and the whole thing painted black