Alfie's Winch Bumper

Gary Lewis wrote

Yes, mine does have the braces for the wings.

From what I can see in your photos Gary, I think those braces were added after the fact.  The weld on them isn't consistent with the other welds and it has more rust on it.  I think it was done by a previous owner.  Just a guess though.

Maybe so, Alfie.  But they offer some support so I'll keep them.

And chrome will look good.  Takes a lot of work to make it smooth enough though.

ok, it's time for some updates.....

Since my last post I'm been real busy and the bumper is mostly complete so I'll try to catch up the thread here with the progress.  







I placed the bracket in position on the frame and clamped the winch basket to them to locate the mounting holes.  In retrospect I wish I drilled all of the mounting holes per spec on the bumper dimensions but I didn't find that information until after I had drilled these holes.  In the end it'll work the same but I know how I'll do this little piece of work next time.  

In these photos you can see that I've essentially mocked everything in to position and know that it'll all work as intended and now it's time to start cutting and bending the bumper pieces to make the shape of the bumper.  

With the basic shape complete and the spacing and mounting ironed out it was time to turn the pieces of steel into a bumper.  

First I laid out the holes for the fairlead and cut the opening, followed by trimming the upper edges of the basket section.  




Cutting the hole for the fairlead involved laying out the two mounting bolt locations, then laying out the mouth and drilling two large holes with a hole saw and then cutting out the remaining material with a grinder.  Drill the 1/4" plate with the hole saw was probably the longest piece of work to date.

Next, I laid out the cuts that would allow me to bend each side piece.  With a mouth cut into the top and bottom returns, I heated the piece up red hot with a torch and bent the 45 deg bends like butter.  



All of the pieces cut and bend and placed nicely together finally revealed how the bumper will look.

Next I installed the bumper brackets and mounted the basket and mocked the side pieces into position to confirm the angles from the basket to the sides.  In the end I decided on an 18 deg return from the basket to the sides with the 45 deg return at each end.  This was different than what I measured on the bowtie truck where I took all my measurements from but it looks right on my truck and the overall width measured correctly.  In the end it's about the look and not about if I maintained an angle that I measured on another truck so I went with the 18 deg.  

Here are some photos with all the bumper pieces mocked into position and ready for welding.




and this is also where I hit a crossroads.......

I always liked the look of this bumper on this quite famous truck.....



In the above photo it's a newer bumper on that truck and it has pink KC light covers in each side but it's tough to tell if there are actual lights in there.  My truck come with the factory fog light option and I want to maintain the fog lights but I'm not a fan of this original look with the lights mounted below the bumper.



So now I decided if I'm going to mount lights into my bumper I aught to cut the lights in now before I weld the bumper pieces all together because it'll be easier for me to fix this if I don't like the holes in each of the side pieces.  It's impossible to find a reasonably priced set of KC fog lights so I opted for some Hella's that I was able to find online and I ordered them up.  Once they arrive I toyed around with the mounting options.  I was torn because I liked the look of a flush light bezel but then that points the lights outwards at 18 deg.  I wasn't too keen on setting the lights further back into an opening and pointing the lights straight ahead because the opening would clip a bit of the light beam.  

When the lights arrived I laid out the cut the openings and got crafty with my small vice grips....








I finally decided that I would mount the mights with a flush bezel.  When the covers are installed the lights would sit flush with the bumper and when I pulled the covers to use the lights I would twist the lights straight ahead and suffer with the clipped light field of view.

Now it was time to send the pieces out to be welded by someone a bit more practiced in the art of making these three pieces look like one single piece of steel....

A friends welded up the pieces of the bumper and well he's a bit of an artist......



he welded the vertical seams on each end of the basket and then added a gusset to to give the sides more support.  The didn't feel like they needed it but we were welding so why not added them now instead of later?



and THEN he got crafty and talked me into opening up the lights holes and adding a trim on the inside face, making the light openings perfect!!!!






and just like that we had a finished product ready to go home.....

And now I'm down to the finishing touches to get this bumper ready to install on the truck.  

I still plan on having it chromed but I'm going to stick with the plan of painting it and installing it for the summer and seeing how I like it before I move forward with the chrome.  

I ordered up a new fairlead.  I really like the look of this style over the larger (albeit better) rollers.  This is a cast unit capable of handling my stainless steel wire rope.



Tonight I spent a few long hours sanding and polishing.  I can say that I can see where the polish will eventually come out and the chrome coating will work.  As I type this I'm waiting for some primer to dry to I can add another coat.  I picked up some rattle can chrome paint and in the next few hours I'll turn this masterpiece into a turd...... for the time being anyway.





Still on my list of things to do is:

1. buy and cut the diamond plate for the top of the sides of the bumper.
2. mock up and mount two vintage, cast tow hooks.
3. fabricate a removable front trailer hitch that I can use to launch the boat or move a trailer around the yard.  This will be well built but not intended to be used on the road.

Lastly, I had someone suggest a powder coat product that mimics chrome.  I'm going to call the folks that coated by grill guard and tire carrier and see what their thoughts are on this stuff.  If it's really close to the look of chrome and less expensive I may consider this as an option.....

Almost anything is cheaper than good chrome.

Thorough (and I mean surgical!) cleaning.
Pickling.
Four or so, heavy coats of copper plating, with polishing in between.
Nickel plating, because copper is not a good base for chrome.
Then the chrome!

All of these steps use incredibly caustic, acidic, hot and toxic baths, plus huge amounts of electricity.

If you can live with powder coat it's the WTG

Your friend is very talented!  

I wish I'd had help like that when I cobbled the fogs in behind my bumper.

I love it!  Thanks for the update.

I'm anxious to see the tow hooks.  And I heartily recommend the front receiver.  Mine mounts to the four bolts of the winch.

Nice job! Looks great!

Nice job on the bumper.
Like you, above or below just did not cut it for lights
Your buddy did the same thing, all bet better, that I did with my lights in the bumper.

It would be nice to have my bumpers chromed but for good chrome it is a lot of $$.
I looked into getting them wrapped in chrome but 2 of the 3 places would not touch them. The 3rd would not do them in chrome but is SS because the chrome would show scratches from when they were putting it on. They also said it would be about $250+ to do both bumpers.
They did give me a guy to call that does a lot of color change of cars with wrap but I would need to call and make an apt. and with the hours I work that was not going to happen.

As for powder coat chrome if it is anything like a air filter lid I had done it does not look like chrome.
It looks more like un-polished nickel and that was ok with me as the lid from the factory was un-polished nickel. Sorry no picture of the lid but can get one if you want.

If you do a Google search for spray chrome there are a few different ways this is done. It looks like chrome but not all the chemicals. Jay Leno does a Youtube video of 1 type.
You may want to look into then as an option?

The last if you are going to paint with chrome paint they say the part has to be baby butt smooth.
Lay down black paint. This has to flow out like water NO ORANGE PEEL!
Could you sand & buff the black to get it smooth? I guess but that is a lot of work but has to be smooth.
You then spray the chrome paint over the black. From what they say it is like how they do mirrors.

Believe me I have looked into this a few different times and none of it is cheap other than you spray painting it yourself. That is why I went with Dupli Color bright silver, pre-mixed ready to spray and put a few coats of Dupli Color clear,  pre-mixed ready to spray also over the top to make it shine a little more, not that is helped or hurt but came out good for what I could afford till I hit the lottery.

Dave ----

That looks great!