New Bumper Build — Fostering Adventure

New Front Bumper

A Solid Replacement For the factory tin

When we took possession of the Volvo truck from the dealer, we knew then that we would eventually need to replace the poor excuse for a front bumper supplied by Volvo North America.

Not only was the factory bumper nothing more than a cosmetic addition, but it was also impossible to add a winch or bull bar to. It was simply to superficial. It’s a common problem with North American built heavy trucks of all brands. Most get replaced by an aftermarket product made to take an impact from wildlife trying to cross the road, and defend the truck from damage.

The reason we didn’t go with an aftermarket product is that no such bumper existed for our truck model. Even if there was one, it would be made for highway use. In other words, made close to the ground, and therefore useless for off highway travel. To make things worse, these commercial products will not accept a winch for self recovery. This made it necessary for us to design and build our own.

Our design for the bumper and bull bar. The bull bar must tip forward to service the engine.

Design Parameters

Most aftermarket “Class 8” truck bumpers are made from aluminum that’s nearly 1/2” in thickness. This is primarily to give the strength needed for the aluminum to withstand the force of an impact. And aluminum is used so it can be polished to achieve a chrome like finish. Something that North American truckers prefer, but we don’t. It’s a high maintenace item.

The problem with aluminum is that when this thickness is used, it pretty much negates any of the light weight advantages of the metal. Half inch thick aluminum weighs 6.98 pounds per square foot. The 3/16” thick steel that we used weighs 7.65 pounds per foot. So very close to being the same weight. Although steel is harder for us to work with in a home shop environment, it’s easier to weld. Aluminum is a great conductor of heat, and therefore transfers the weld heat away from the weld area very quickly, so a powerful welder is needed. Something we don’t own. Whereas steel is a relatively poor conductor of heat, so all the energy put into forming the weld pool is concentrated at the weld point. This meant our little 200 amp TIG welder would do just fine.

Modular Design

Irregardless of the metal used to make the bumper, it was going to be heavy. It’s a big bumper. Just moving it about in the manufacturing process at home would be difficult as the parts came together, as would installing it on the truck. So we opted for a modular design so the weight of each section could be more easily handled.

Right bumper wing, centre section, and left bumper wing. All bolted to the bumper brackets.

The modular design would also make repairs easier if the bumper ever took a hit. Only the section that was damaged would need to be repaired or replaced. This is an important factor since we couldn’t just buy a new bumper off the shelf somewhere.

The other advantage of the modular design is that the bull bar must be able to tip forward so the engine hood can be opened for service. It also allows for the bull bar to be easily removed by simply undoing the two main pivot bolts. This removal is sometimes necessary, as some countries like Germany, make having a bull bar illegal. Although visiting vehicles might be exempt, it’s always nice to have the option.

This shows how the bull bar can be tipped forward to access the engine compartment.

Measure Twice, Cut Once

This old saying is very appropriate for this project. Since work is being shopped out to others at a significant cost, we needed to check, and double check, that what we envisioned was actually going to work. Despite designing on a CAD program, nothing provides a better illustration of the finished product than doing mockups with easy to work, inexpensive materials. In this case, that meant printing off full size drawings of critical parts and laminating them to cardboard. Then they could be fitted onto the truck for verification.

Several prints were taped together to create the full size bracket.

This showed how well the shape married up with the bolts on the frame.

We worried that the bumper would stick out too far, so this helped to visualize it.

The last thing to check was the uprights for the bull bar. The height and shape was important.

The Build Begins

Unlike other projects we have undertaken, this one will require a greater amount of work being done by commercial shops. The steel is the primary reason for this. Unlike aluminum which can be cut and shaped with wood working machines, steel cannot. So cutting and bending the fender skins, and bumper brackets had to be farmed out to two different metal fabrication shops.

We start with the foundation… the bumper brackets

The left and right bumper brackets and their thickness add-ons. We wanted the recovery points to be wider than 5/8 of an inch.

The waterjet cutting is so precise that the stacked parts exactly match.

Like all construction, you have to start with a good, strong foundation. In this case, that would be the brackets that attach the bumper and bull bar to the truck’s frame rails. They take all the force from either impacts or recovery winching. And when you’re pulling a 19 tonne truck out of a sticky situation, that can be quite a lot.

The bumper brackets were made from 5/8” thick steel, and were a complex shape. So they needed to be cut in a way that wouldn’t stress the metal and cause it to warp. This meant no heat. High heat imparted into steel by cutting torch, plasma cutter and even laser can cause it to distort, and the last thing we wanted was 5/8” plate that wasn’t flat. So our cutting method of choice was waterjet abrasive cutting. It provides a near perfect cut by injecting an abrasive material into a high pressure stream of water that does the cutting with zero stress imparted into the metal. It’s also very accurate, cutting to tolerances of .005 inches. The bonus from this is that we didn’t have to drill the holes, not even the ones that had to be threaded. The water jetting could do it all for us.

Threading the 1” holes required adding pipe extensions onto the tap handle to get enough leverage to turn the coarse thread tap.

This is significant as each bumper bracket has nineteen holes. Although drilling holes in a steel plate using a drill press isn’t necessarily that difficult. The challenge comes when you only have a small drill press with a small table, and you’re trying to hold a 20” x 28” plate weighing 60 pounds. So pre-cut holes are always welcome. Unfortunately the water jetting couldn’t tap the holes for us. So we had to do it. The bulk of the holes were not too difficult, being 1/2”-NF and 5/8”-NF threads. However, one hole was larger, needing a 1”-NC thread. There were only two of these, but they were still a grunt to complete.

Once the holes were all tapped, the next step was to laminate the two bracket components together so the double thickness recovery points could be created. But there was a small catch. The upper recovery point was for smaller shackles, and they couldn’t fit over a 1-1/4” thick plate. So the smaller component had to be machined to make the upper point thinner. This was done on a table saw using a special blade made for cutting ferrous metal. It was the first time we had used this kind of blade, and we couldn’t have been more impressed. The Diablo Steel Demon ceramic carbide blade was amazing.

The cut was made by running the plate over the saw blade multiple times, 1/8” deeper each time.

Care had to be taken to hold the plate vertical, and tight to the saw fence.

Once depth was achieved, the cross cut was made to remove the wafer of steel.

After sawing, the face was hand draw filed to give a uniform smooth finish.

Both complete and ready for the next step.

Laminating for thickness

Before the two water jetted components could be laminated together for the recovery point thickness, a piece of steel flat bar had to be machined and welded to the smaller component. This piece does two things. The first is to provide the bolting locations for the centre bumper skin when it is installed over the winch channel, and the second is to provide the support brace against which the winch channel will pull against when the winch is in use.

The large holes in the flat bar are simply to reduce weight where possible.

All the welds are done with a TIG welder, which provides smaller welds.

Care was taken to ensure the flat bar was perfectly square to the plate.

Laminating the two plates together start by grinding a chamfer along the edges of the two parts only in the location where the continuous weld would be placed. Once done, the two pieces are clamped very tightly together to ensure no gaps are present where water might ingress and start corrosion. Then a continuous TIG weld is laid into the V-notch created when the two plates are clamped together. The weld only runs around the outside perimeter of the plates, and does not run along the flat of the large plate behind the add-on piece. Doing so would cause that main plate to deform out of plane along the length of the weld. Something we don’t want to happen.

Clamps and bolts are used to compress the two layers.

The assembly is now ready for welding.

Now that the layers are TIG welder together, it’s ready for cosmetic dressing.

Clamps are used to position the assembly for easier grinding.

Dressing down the perimeter weld was essentially done by hand using a small angle grinder and then a hand file. Working old school is time consuming, but since we only have a small garage workshop and not a production shop, it’s the reality we must deal with. The upside is that these skills were learned many decades ago, and like riding a bike, are skills one simply doesn’t forget.

Care must be taken not to grind the weld bead lower than the surface of the base metal.

The grinding is a time consuming process if a fine finish is desired.

Once the rough grinding is done, it is the dressed with a fine sanding wheel.

To ensure a flat cross section on the edge of the assembly, hand draw filing is needed.

Although draw filing is time consuming and tiring, the result is worth it.

After drawfiling, all the edges are radiused to complete the final look.

Even the recovery point insides are dressed for smoothness.

The whole front face is perfectly flat, and will look terrific once powder coated.

All that’s left for this part is to weld on the lid supports once they are made.

This plate had a rust stain on it from being stored on a wet pallet. Sand blasting before powder coating will solve that problem.

The Winch Mount

Bridging the gap between the two bumper brackets, and forming the structural point at the front of the truck for the Sherpa 25,000 pound winch, the winch mount was made of 5/16” thick steel plate that was bent into a channel. It will also serve as a storage compartment for recovery gear and other items that need to be close at hand.

Bent by a heavy fabrication shop, the final product had some issues that we had to deal with. The between leg dimension of the channel was 1/8” wider than specified, which wasn’t a big deal. But one issue that presented a problem was the out of square ends on the channel. They were out over 1/8” across a 10” span. In our experience, that’s a lot. It created a parallelogram which increased the length of the channel beyond the allowable dimension.

The channel had to be stood on end to determine its out of square.

Using a wedge, the channel was tipped until it was square to the bumper bracket.

This shows the amount out of square that we had to deal with.

A framing square confirmed our discovery.

After scribing the line a skill saw with Steel Demon blade was used to trim it square.

Although both ends were out of square, we only had to trim one end to bring the channel back to the correct length. So the opposite end, that was still un-square, had to be wedged while the end plate was tack welded in place.

Once everything was tacked in place, the welding could begin. Because of the extra front to back depth of the channel, the end plates that we had the fabrication shop shear for us were now too narrow. So we had to equalize the gap around the perimeter, and then fill them with weld metal.

Once the end plates were welded on, the hard part was next. That’s the process of cutting in the winch opening on the front face. This was done using the Steel Demon circular saw blade in a skill saw, a steel blade in a jigsaw, an angle grinder and hand files. Nevertheless, 5/16” (8mm) steel is tough to machine with hand tools.

Bumper Centre Skin

The centre skin performs two functions. One is cosmetic, for the look of the bumper. The second is more functional, as it helps to enclose and secure the winch and storage area.

Another of the parts bent up by the fabrication shop, we ordered the formed shape fully knowing that we would be taking a saw to it in order to create the final part. It was a better way than trying to work with flat pieces and attempting to blend the joints to get the same look. The key was the 3/8” radius on the bends. We wanted them to match the radius on the bends of the bumper skins.

The Steel Demon blade makes short work of the 3/16” bent plate.

The first step was to remove some of the bottom face metal. Further consideration after ordering the parts was that we could remove some weight by reducing the return dimension when the centre skin wraps around the underside of the winch channel. At the same time this extra metal was sawn off, we also made the cut for where the hinge for the opening lid would be.

Removing the excess weight we didn’t need.

The cut quality is so good that little clean up is needed.

Cutting off the lid section that will be hinged.

Cutting in the notches for the stainless steel hinges.

The face section had to be cut shorter as it had to fit between the double thickness area of the bumper brackets.

This not only shows the notch detail for the hinge, but it also details the cutout needed on the end for the double thickness section of the bumper bracket.

To finish the centre bumper skin we had to add the components to the bumper brackets that the hinged lid would mate up with. For this purpose, 1/4” x 2” flat bar was bent and then fitted to the profile of the bumper bracket. It was then drilled and tapped for bolts that would hold the rear closure panel on, and also drilled for the lock mechanism and latching knob.

The last thing to do to the centre bumper skin was to create the cutout into which the Factor55 fairlead will sit. The fairlead needs to be mounted solidly to the winch mount proper, rather than to an overskin. This way it can withstand the extreme forces from the winch line without any chance of moving.

At the same time the screw holes for the front license plate will be laid out and drilled. This way the front facial will be totally finished.

The shows the low level position of the winch opening.

The layout for the fairlead opening was carefully calculated to allow a 1/16” gap all around it. This was to protect the finish.

Once cut with the skill saw, jig saw and cleaned up with files, it matches perfectly.

This shows the gap around the fairlead. It protects both the fairlead and the paint on the bumper centre skin.

Next was to position the license plate so there was equal space between the panel top and the plate as well as between the plate and the fairlead.

Then simply drilling and tapping the bumper skin was the last operation.

Everything is done and it looks pretty good.

The skin was installed back on the centre section for a look see.

Now for the complicated part, The bumper corners

Up to this point, despite the weight and thickness of material, all of the components made so far interact with each other at right angles. So that makes construction fairly easy. The bumper corners, however, are complex shapes and don’t have a square joint anywhere.

What makes things more challenging is that the bumper corners conflict with the truck hood when it’s tipped forward to access the engine. Our new design protrudes further out in front of the truck than the factory tin, which means several fittings on the truck would be needed to figure out how much of the front face would need to be relieved so the bottom edge of the hood would clear.

Creating the corners began by taking the various brake shapes and mitering the ends that would eventually be welded together. This was done using a combination of the skill saw with the Steel Demon blade, an angle grinder with a zip disk in it, and on occasion, a hand jigsaw.

Since the two sides are simply mirror images of each other, it was easiest to do the detailed layout on one side, and then after cutting and finishing it, lay it onto the opposite side blank and trace the outline with a scriber.

The bumper corner consists of the front face and the side skin. Both require mitre cuts.

One side skin that’s been cut is laid onto the opposite side skin and traced.

This shows the uncut right side skin and the partially finished left skin.

Side Skin With Integrated Step

By far the most detailed part is the section of bumper that stretches down the side of the fender toward the front tire. Aside from the miters at the front corner, it also has to be cut to feature the integrated step that will allow easier access to the top of the engine and the more frequently needed reach to the windshield.

This is a great example of how the Mercedes Zetros can be purpose built. The bumper step can be seen just in front of the tire.

This clever design by Action Mobil solves the problem of getting into very tall cabover trucks.

At this point I should give credit where credit is due. The idea of the side step is not a Foster original. I borrowed the concept from two European designs, one from Mercedes Truck In Germany, and the other from Action Mobil in Austria.

The step cutaway came from the Mercedes Zetros, which is a truck we dearly would have preferred over the North American Volvo, as it comes fully equipped for offroad use. But we couldn’t get it because of the stupid North American protectionist rules.

The swing down step came from the world renown expedition truck builder Action Mobil. It’s a solution they developed to solve the problem of trying to climb up into the very tall European offroad trucks they use. Combining the two ideas gave us a nice solution for our access problem.

Properly blended joints look just like the bent edges of the part. Can you tell which is which?

The side skin is where the more difficult and time consuming work takes over. Not only does it involve simple fabrication, but it also requires the fine blending of visible joints so they become invisible. The part should look like it was somehow pressed out of a single sheet of metal without welded joints.

The side skin has an intricate cutout so a piece of what was cut out can be welded back in.

The goal is to have the large radius bend flow down the angled face to the step area.

The weld joint has to have good penetration because much of the above surface weld will be ground away.

Angle grinders with varying coarseness of wheels are used to quickly remove the bulk of the excess weld.

Once the grinding gets very close to the base metal surface, a switch is made to hand files to carefully blend the joint.

Once finished off with an orbital sander with 150 grit paper, the joint looks like it was never welded.

The brake operator did a good job bending these pieces as they married up very well once we cut in the mitre joints.

The thickness of the material was also mitered so the two outside vertical edges came to a knife edge alignment.

Before finishing the side skin step area, we shifted to joining the side skin to the front face of the bumper. There would be a lot of manual manipulation of the corner assembly for verification on the truck, so delaying the addition of extra weight during this process is desirable. It’s also better to have as much three dimensional reinforcement as possible before adding the step material. There’s a lot of welding in the step, and this causes distortion. Not something we want to then have to marry up to the front face. Better to work with two pieces that want to fit together, rather than trying to bend pieces back into shape so they match.

Flat reference bars were clamped to the outer vertical face so we could nest the corner rod to then to scribe its circumference for the next step.

Working from the scribed circle, the centre pilot hole was drilled.

Then the 1/4” guide hole for the hole saw was drilled.

A 1-3/16” diameter hole saw was used to saw the clearance hole for the 1-1/4” steel rod. The smaller hole saw wobbles and creates a 1-1/4” diameter hole.

The hole is rough, but was easily filed to receive the round bar.

After finishing the corner hole, the vertical cuts were made with a skill saw using the Steel Demon ceramic carbide blade

The green tape helped to make the cut line more visible when cutting.

The cutout slot is now ready to receive the steel corner bar.

The underside mitre joint was welded at this point.

Once the joint is welded it is dressed down to provide a seamless finish.

At this point we needed to create the bolting plate that would attach the bumper corner to the bumper brackets. It’s cut from 5/16” steel plate.

This shows the mounting plate in its final position on the bumper bracket.

The plate had to be ground on the corners and fitted to the inside radius of the skin bends.

The plate was tack welded in place so it could then be fitted on the truck to ensure the horizontal plane angle was correct.

Once the angle was verified, we started laying in the weld.

Fitting the parts on the truck

Now that the corner assembly has been joined together and mounting plates attached, we were able to do the necessary trial fitting on the truck. This fitting was needed to ensure our angle calculations were correct so the side skin aligned with the side of the front fender. We also wanted to check that the side of the bumper protruded out the side of the fender just the right amount so it lined up with the fender flare. The protrusion was also important because this is where the anchor plate for the bull bar outrigger would sit.

Rather than bolting on the 60 pound bumper bracket, a simple piece of wood will do.

The front face looks quite large right now, but after the light holes are cut in, and the bull bar added, it will look much nicer.

We needed to ensure that the side spacing and angle was correct.

Being able to scribe the body line on the bumper corner, and determine where the hood will touch, makes cutting decisions more confident.

This shows the wedge we will have to cut out to allow the hood to clear when tipped forward.

We also needed to determine how much of a relief cut would be required on the front leading edge of the bumper so the hood would clear it when opened.

The part was laid out according to our test fit.

Green tape was laid alongside the scribe lines so the cutting process was made easier.

Here is the wedge shape removed from the part, and laying out the flat steel that will fill the gap.

The infill piece is tacked in place ready for welding.

The V-gap provides for a near full penetration weld.

The weld is done a few inches at a time, and staggered from place to place to reduce heat buildup and distortion. The stop and start points can be seen along the length of the weld.

The excess weld was first ground off using the angle grinders and various disks, and then here I am finishing the blending with a hand file.

Here is the finished wedge area. All that remains is to trim the excess length of the wedge material so it is flush with the end plate.

This short bit is trimmed off using the skill saw and Steel Demon blade.

The bumper corner is bolted onto the bumper bracket and you can see how the wedge angle matches the angle on the top of the bumper bracket.

After the relief facet was finished, a test fit showed the hood cleared the bumper by 1/4”.

Finishing the corner connection

The 1-1/4” corner bar is more than cosmetic.

With the relief cut for the hood clearance finished, and the test fitting on the truck to confirm all our angles done, we were now able to finish the joining of the front face with the side face. This was not only a structural connection, but also the most visible cosmetic point on the bumper… the outer corners.

Blended into the corner was a length of 1-1/4” diameter solid round bar that was drilled and tapped on the upper end with a 3/4” coarse thread. This would be the main pivot point for the locking mechanism that secures the bull bar in place. It also provides the cosmetic curvature to the vertical mitre joint so it matches the radius of the bends along the length of the bumper.

The challenge here is the gap that’s created by the radius of the round bar and the cut in the bumper face. It’s much longer across the weld joint than a simple fillet weld if the objective is to make the joint look seamless. A lot of filler metal must be laid down, only to then grind a lot of it off in order to make a flush joint. Working with square material would be so much easier, but in this case, round was the only option.

The cleaner and more accurate the cut, the better the finished joint is.

The solid bar sticks above the bumper top by 1/2” so it can properly interface with the bull bar base plate.

It’s imperative that the surface of the bar and plate line up perfectly, otherwise an invisible joint is impossible.

The bar is positioned in place and then tacked to hold it firm.

The perimeter weld of the bar and the mitre joint weld are completed.

The weld joint is worked down level using angle grinders with various wheels, and then finished off with an dual action sander.

The length of the bar is welded in steps. First is the deep placement weld that secures the bar in place.

Then progressive welds are done to fill up the void so it is proud of the final surface level.

A heavy grinding wheel is used to hog off the excess and bring the level down close to the surface. Then a finer wheel is used to take it even closer.

The final leveling is down with a hand file so that it isn’t possible to cut deeper than the surface level and mess things up.

The draw filing will show up any spots that were not filled enough with weld initially, and they can then be re-welded to fill them in.

Gentle grinding, then draw filing and finally dual the action sanders used to finish the now invisible joint.

Completing the side step

The final fitting on the truck so we can test to see that the tires clear the bumper end when the wheels are turned.

The last step in enclosing the bumper skins was to create the step area at the rear of the side skin. This would finish the structural part of the bumper corners, under which would be mounted the swing down step. The step surface will also be the attachment point for the rear bumper bracket that mounts on the side of the frame braces the side assembly.

After cutting and welding the rear angled face on the bumper side, then actual step plate had to be cut and fitted so it nicely matched the radius on the bumper edge.

Each end of the plate was ground at the appropriate angles so there would be little gap front and back.

The plate was cut longer so the outer edge would wrap around the front curve, and go past the rear face to the outside rear.

The plate was welded in place from beneath taking care that the outer side face was perfectly straight before welds were laid in.

Tight joints were assured because all edge cuts were either sanded on the belt sander, or filed smooth with a hand file. No cracks were visible.

The edge of the step plate sticks out over the side of the bumper skin by 1/4”, which is merely a cosmetic choice.

The joint at the front of the step is nice and tight. But there’s still a crack which will not seal with the powder coating. This means rust at a later date.

The joint was therefore welded to seal it and add strength.

The rear joint has the same issue as the front... cracks mean rust if the part isn’t galvanized. We want a nice finish, so no galvanizing.

Finished TIG weld, and finished step.

The convenience of a foLd down step

The bumper side step is 33 inches off the ground. It’s a side effect of having a Class 8 heavy truck, set up for off highway travel. So to make things easier, the fold down step was incorporated under the side of the bumper to halve the 33 inch distance to a more manageable 17 inches.

The step rung has a safety tab on the end to prevent one’s foot from slipping off the end.

The rung is welded inside the vertical tube on one side, and outside the tube on the other. This way the tube won’t twist under heavy weight.

The vertical tube ends were closed off to increase strength and seal the tube from road debris.

The pivot end had a solid steel slug welded inside for the axle.

The tube’s travel was determined by a physical, adjustable stop.

This shows the stop and the adjustment screw.

The pivot stop plate is made from 1/4” thick steel flat bar.

This is the tab that was included so the swing down step could easily be deployed without reaching inside the bumper.

This shows how the step rung stores up inside the bumper.

A stainless steel gas spring is used to hold the swing down step in both the stored and deployed position.

This shows the gas spring in the deployed position. It has a 40 pound push, so there’s no way the step will move under use.

The swing down step was mounted in such a way that it angles out from under the bumper for easy use.

Adding auxiliary lights

Paper cutouts are used to decide on position.

One of the biggest challenges with all our vehicles over the years is that of having decent light when traveling at night, on highway or off. So for this build we’ve incorporated the latest lighting technologies from several of the top vehicle lighting manufacturers.

The main-off highway light is an E-Series Pro 30” light bar from Rigid Industries, configured in a flood/spot combination. It projects over 32,000 lumens out to over 1300 meters. It’s essentially a small sun sitting on the top of the bumper.

To provide extra on-highway lighting that’s legal to use, we added a pair of Rigid 360-Series configured as driving lights. They provide over 8,000 lumen, and cast light out past 500 meters. A nice addition to the J.W. Speaker LED headlights we installed to replace the pathetic halogen sealed beams that came with the truck.

Lastly, for replacement fog lights to those supplied by Volvo, we chose the KC Hilites Gravity LED G4. They’re a 4” light that provide a broad low level beam for seeing clearly over short distances. Something that is definitely needed when traveling at certain times of the year, especially at night. Our worst fog experience was in our Class A motorhome traveling over the Pendleton Pass in northeastern Oregon in January. It was night, and the fog so thick that we could barely see twenty feet in front of us. The only way we could stay on the road was by watching the lines on the road. It was a 10mph trip until a logging truck passed us going much faster. We figured he must know the road well, or was using a technology we didn’t have that allowed him to travel faster, such as a FLIR system. So we sped up and stayed right on his tail. We figured as long as we could see his taillights, and those taillights didn’t suddenly jump way up in the air and then disappear, we wouldn’t be following him off a cliff. Fortunately, it worked out fine and we cleared the fog on the eastern side of the pass.

We started by cutting the light holes in one side, and then just laid one on top of the other and traced the second set of holes so they’d be the same.

Because of all the curved edges, only doing the layout once was a great thing.

A hand jigsaw with a metal blade was used to cut the holes.

Even cutting something as simple as this requires a face shield. Little bits from the cutting can fly up and get past glasses and into the eyes.

After the rough cutting a hand file was used to take out the large bumps before going to a sanding drum in a right angle drill.

Once we were satisfied that the lights fit in the holes with sufficient slop for beam adjustment, we moved on to the mounts.

The lights needed a three point mount so they wouldn’t vibrate, so a vertical brace was needed to accomplish that.

A cardboard template was made to create the required shape. We wanted as much contact area as possible, but had to get around the lights.

The straight cuts were made with the Steel Demon blade and the table saw. The curved cuts were made with the hand jig saw.

Both the left side and right side braces were made at the same time.

The steel braces not only support the light mounts, but they turn the bumper front from a channel into sort of a tube. This stiffens the front face significantly.

This shows the light mounts and how they connect to the bumper face and the vertical brace.

The light mounts are made so they get welded to the bend area where the distortion won’t be seen on the front face of the bumper.

This shows the vertical brace and the light mounts all tacked in place.

Here’s the continuous TIG weld on the top of the brace. The join in the middle is because the second half is welded first to help reduce distortion, and it keeps the welders hand cooler.

Brace and light mounts all fully welded.

Must have done something right. The lights fit in the holes properly when attached to the mounts.

Next was to drill and tap the attachment holes for the Lexan protective shields.

Small pilot holes are drilled first with the hand drill.

Once the tap holes are drilled, they are tapped using a guide block to ensure that the tap goes into the metal at 90°.

The light holes all finished and ready for service.

Final bumper supports

The last thing to do before moving on to the bull bar part of the build is to create the rear bumper supports that tie the step area to the truck frame. We’ll be using the existing mounting bolts that hold the two steering boxes to the frame. The steering boxes are held on with three 20mm bolts, and we’ll be using two of these on each side.

The side wing of the bumper is strong, but the length of it allows tremendous leverage if forces push in against it. So it needs help to keep it from being pushed inward and downward. But it still needs failure points in the case of a collision, so they are built into the outboard end of both struts that attach to the front corner point and the rear step area.

1-1/2” square tubing was used for the bumper supports, and they were welded to the 3”x3”x3/8” angle iron brackets made for the steering box bolts.

The angle iron brackets had to be custom fitted to the steering box casting and bolts.

TIG welding steel can leave a very compact and attractive weld bead.

The square tubing was fully welded to the angle iron so no rust could start in crevices between the parts.

The two sides were virtually mirror images of each other. But the passenger side was less complicated.

Since we couldn’t weld the components in place on the truck, we had to clamp up the parts and rely on reference lines.

Heavy steel washers were welded to the underside of the tubing so the tube wouldn’t crush when the bolts were tightened.

Cross struts were included to increase the strength, and also provide a base for an engine work platform.

The bumper mount was bolted to the bumper skin, rather than welded. This makes it easier to assemble and disassemble.

All finished and ready for the next step.

One last bit of steel work

The last things required for the bumper are locks for the bull bar. Since the bull bar must tip forward in order to open the hood for engine access, something needs to be created to lock the bull bar firmly in place for travel. We weren’t able to find any commercially available locking devices that would suit our need, so a unique solution had to be designed and created.

The pivot lock did more than just lock the bull bar in the travel position. It’s also the device that holds the outrigger bar and vertical end plate firmly to the steel bumper if it was to take a direct impact of a substantial nature. That’s why it needs to be so beefy. To accomplish this it works in conjunction with two 1/2” pins that are welded to the top surface of the bumper and key into corresponding hole in the baseplate of the outrigger vertical end plate.

The lock mechanism swings over the front of the wing vertical plate base, and is secured to the bumper via a grade 8 bolt.

Fitting the Winch

With all of the bumper parts completed, the final step before sending the steel out to be sand blasted and powder coated was to fit the winch into place. The Sherpa4x4 Stallion winch was bought from Australia where it is made. It’s durable, no frills winch with over 25,000 pounds of pulling power. Used with a military block and tackle, it is capable of moving up to 180,000 pounds. More than sufficient for our needs. Since the bolt holes for the winch had already been drilled when the winch channel was made, all we needed to do was make a couple of small brackets to hold the solenoid.

Final Bumper Parts

Here are all the bumper parts ready for sand blasting and powder coating.

All of the steel bumper parts after sand blasting, and ready for powder coating.

Post Paint Work & Assembly

Turn around time for our powder coater was about ten days. Much sooner than we expected considering the amount of work on his floor when we delivered our parts. All in all, the powder coating job was pretty good. Not perfect by any means, but we’ve had much worse. By the time all things are assembled, the imperfections will be much harder to see. Plus, one trip to the Arctic will do substantial damage to the bumper paint job that it will all be a moot point.

Coating Parts With Rock Guard Coating

Before certain parts could be assembled they needed to have various surfaces protected with an anti-chip coating such as rocker panel protection spray. This included the inside of the bumper corners where rocks flung up from the tires would hit hard, and the inside of the winch compartment where steel tools etc. might chip the powder coating if impacted hard enough. Fortunately this procedure can be done by us with a product bought from the local Canadian Tire store. Dispensed from a rattle can, this product is easy to apply, and etches itself into the powder coating, so no surface prep is required.

Component Pre-Assembly

With the rocker guard spray applied, we could turn our attention to the pre-assembly of certain components. Chief among these was the swing down step of the bumper corner unit.

Assembly of these components is so much easier to do on the work bench as opposed to doing it after the bumper is installed on the truck.

The step assembly includes installing the 40lb. gas strut which holds the step open and closed.

We placed a piece of plastic wire loom on the strut so it would act as a closure boot to keep wheel thrown debris off the strut shaft when traveling.

A rubber pad was attached inside the bumper corner to cushion the foot when it sits in the travel position.

The gas strut holds the step in the open position, but does not take any force from someone using the step.

This is the adjustable stop that positions the step in the correct open position, and takes all the force of someone using the step.

This heavy duty hose and wire spiral wrap is used to provide the rub surface on the step rung so the paint does not get damaged.

When the spiral wrap is fully installed it looks quite attractive.

Final Mounting of the Bumper

After months of design and fabrication, we finally arrived at the point of mounting the bumper on the truck for the last time.

Despite the late time in the year, some early November sun and warmth made the installation a much less onerous task.

Starting with a blank slate.

The first step is to attach the bumper brackets.

We put a number of layers of masking tape on the recovery points to protect the paint from damage from a hit by other steel components being installed.

It was important that both brackets be mounted parallel to each other, and the only way to do this was with a level.

With both brackets installed, we were ready for the next component.

The very heavy winch enclosure was the next step, but it went in very easily.

With the hood tipped forward you can see why the unusually shaped bumper bracket was needed. The hood dips into the void provided by the sloped face.

The next parts to install were the two rear braces that support the side step area.

The rear brace also supports and positions the front corner of the bumper.

Installing the 25,000 pound front electric winch was next in line.

This shows the winch solenoid control and the remote control receiver on the top of the rear closure panel.

The front panel and winch enclosure lid/light bar mount was next for installation. This was simply done by installing the front screws and hinge screws.

The bumper centre section looks quite large, but miraculously shrinks in size as more parts are added.

The is a good shot showing the black Delrin abrasion preventing rub surfaces that were installed on the bracket prior to mounting.

The bumper corner was possibly the most difficult to install. It has three mounting points with nine bolts.

This shows the bumper corner with the swing down step deployed.

Next was the auxiliary light mounting and wiring.

Also, the winch line fairlead was bolted in place. These two bolts also secure the bottom two mounting points of the winch to the winch enclosure front wall.

With the bumper now fully installed, we can see how all the body lines match the bumper lines perfectly

Even though the bumper looks great on the truck by itself, we now can install the matching bull bar.