Girder bumper

[ned]

its in its early stages yet, there are several more operations to be carried out on it.

I have to form the upper and lower edges.

The upper surface, I wanted to smooth the sharp edge, becuse the P38 shouldnt have any hard edges, in my opinion.

You can see that I sliced the lower edge, I want to open it out and create a 45° angle with that lower edge (instead of its current 90°)

but I was so tired after horsing around the 9 inch grinder for an hour, I mashed the opposite wall trying to open up the split, with a sledgehammer. Bad Idea.

So that wont do, I need a good edge.

I'll have to cut that opposite wall off, and weld an undamaged strip of flange back on there.
I've only got 2 hours every evening so might take the bones of a week till I get to actually fold the piece of steel to conform to the car.

 

[ned]

@Ruffian @MattH those are sweet! Nice work

 

[Turbo]

One of the 40a lidl plasmas would make short work of that, no 9" grinder needed!

 

[lincoln2013]

Nice work so far, I certainly wouldn’t want to be swinging the 9” grinder for an hour.

 

[ned]

Gday! So I did some more work on this. I chopped the damaged flange off and welded on a new strip of flange. I had to use 2.5mm rods, so I ended up going through 40 of those, maybe more.

Next on the list of things to do;

• grind it smooth

• slice it and fold it to conform to the car

• think about how to attach it to the car

• fabricate the side sections

• weld in the reciever hitch

• fabricate tyre carrier

• retire and start drawing pension

I'm not going to make it quick release, but I'd like to make it easy to remove. Will have to figure out how to do that, suggestions welcome!

•

 

[ned]

so i smoothed the edge a bit, im not going overboard with it, trying to get it perfect, because I dont care that much about the back bumper, and electricity is expensive.
So this will do.

nice texture

I put a lot of hours in trying to get the front bumper verrry smooth. Im not doing the same with the back.

 

[ned]

did more work on this over the weekend. I revoved the hitch assembly on the range and then it became clear how to proceed, so now I know what it looks like, its just a matter of time before it takes shape. Lots of grinding and welding remaining, but nothing left to figure out. So thats nice.

Spent the day yesterday making chassis inserts. I had to build a notch in them becuse there is an indent in the chassis

Hoping to weld the inserts onto the girder tonight.
.

 

[ned]

Got the girder welded to the inserts. I will fold it tonight, and then i will have to give up for a while, because life is presenting me with obstacles, as it so often does.

Below you can see the M16 bolt running into the chassis inserts.

I'll attach it in three places, two chassis inserts and one bracket extending from the crossmember underneath the car.

Will be very solid.

 

[knighty]

could incorporate the tow bar mount into it, and then mount the tow bar on it too?

 

[brightspark]

could incorporate the tow bar mount into it, and then mount the tow bar on it too?

cant do that the forum police will say your not insured if you do

 

[ned]

Yep am gonna weld in a 2" reciever hitch Tube, I have the one built into the front, so i can attach the winch onto the front of the car and also the back

Folded the girder! Its looking more like a thing now

anyone thinking my paint looks naff, your right it does! but this car is going into the forest, so the paint is doomed. I'll bedliner it eventually.

 

[Moose McAlpine]

So why did you start with a girder if you've cut the outside ribs off, pie cut and bent the ends in, etc?

Was it just something you had around or was using a girder (as opposed to channel) part of the plan from the beginning?

Not a criticism, just curious.

 

[ned]

Yeah I had the girder, and I didnt have cash, so I used what I had lying around.

 

[Moose McAlpine]

Yeah I had the girder, and I didnt have cash, so I used what I had lying around.

I've seen you can pick them up for cheap sometimes, leftovers from building projects. Eyed some up for a nice set of trestles.

 

[Morrisman]

You could take a mould off them when finished, then pop out fibreglass versions, paint them with red oxide, and keep the numpties away for less weight and hard work.

 

[ned]

Morrisman hey. Im slowly (its taking a decade) building a cnc plasma cutter, and part of me wanted to postpone this bumper till i had the machine running, so I could make copies.

But that could be a long way off, and so i decided to just build the bumper.

Surely a fibreglass version wont be as stong? You are just thinking visually they will be similar, is it?

 

[Morrisman]

Morrisman hey. Im slowly (its taking a decade) building a cnc plasma cutter, and part of me wanted to postpone this bumper till i had the machine running, so I could make copies.

But that could be a long way off, and so i decided to just build the bumper.

Surely a fibreglass version wont be as stong? You are just thinking visually they will be similar, is it?

For selling them to others, I meant actually. They'd be quite strong, but obviously not as robust as steel, and idiots in other vehicles won't know they ain't real steel so should keep their distance.

 

[stuvy]

For selling them to others, I meant actually. They'd be quite strong, but obviously not as robust as steel, and idiots in other vehicles won't know they ain't real steel so should keep their distance.

Would you buy one?

The heavy duty one for disco 1’s is great as it replaces the already solid bumper but you get solid steel in stead of plastic end caps

 

[ned]

So I made the third bracket, to replace the towing bracket. The receiver hitch towbar will connect to this. Its all heavy steel. I'll run some weld into later and let it set overnight.

Need to gusset that 5 mm bar to the rest of the girder. The girder is on average between 5 and 6mm.

 

[ned]

Heat

The whole piece was glowing red when I was done. Was lovely.

went a bit wonky there on the left. I might attach an led torch to my welding helmet, i lost track of where I was

When I'm welding, the neighbours lights flicker, im zapping their power. So what ive started doing, is setting the job up in the evening, and come out and run some welds at 1 o clock in the morning. I figure they won't notice if they are asleep. Can't spark up the grinder etc. , or even chip off the slag - but can run heat into things.