Seanz0rz's rear bumper buildup

[Seanz0rz]

you dont even know the half of it! still have to remove everything from the garage, paint the floor, move everything back in while organizing it.

then there is the green house kit that is still in the box on the side of the house.

not to mention a new fence, landscaping, working on the vw, finishing the wiring on the house, finish the wiring in the garage, fixing my gas tank skid, etc. im forgetting alot of stuff on that list.

[04 Rocko Taco]

WE all have those lists. lol. Being a homeowner adds a lot to the "to-do" list. lol. I think we've just about got the garage fixed up, although I've got a few lighting, and electrical needs to deal with.
The upstairs is coming together too! The yard is a different story.....

[Seanz0rz]

here is the final chapter on this guy.

the latch mechanism was the final piece of the puzzle. i actually laid the ground work for this back when i started working on the passenger swing gate. i drilled a very large hole through the bumper and welded in a long, hardened nut. well. when i welded it in, i messed it up pretty bad. so i figured i would deal with it later and get started. now it was time to deal with it.

i started by drilling the threads out with a 9/16" bit, just to make it easier for the 5/8" bit. after a few minutes. the 5/8" bit was dull. apparently cutting hardened steel with hardened steel is a bad idea. go figure...

so i got my grinding stones out and went to work on it. between that, the dull drill, and my dremel, i got it done in about 4 or 5 hours. at the very end of the hole, i did this to the bit:


luckily it was already nearly done and i finished up the last bit of it with my dremel. i then welded a nut on the back side:


here is the hole, nice and smooth:


here is the eye bolt installed:


between that and grinding on the entire piece, my tuesday was gone with the wind.

[Seanz0rz]

wednesday, i started on the latch plate.

i cut a square hole in a piece of plate:


got it all welded up with necessary support and such, here is a picture of the backside:


finished off all the grinding, drilled some holes in the plate for the hi lift so water and dirt will drain away:


cleaned it all up, prepped it for paint, and painted the sucker:


ill let the paint cure out for a few days, then load it full of stuff.


up next:
Bumper reinforcements
reflectors, lighting
action shots!

thanks for watching, stay tuned!

[DHC6twinotter]

Looks awesome, Sean!

[Crinale]

sweet Sean! cant wait to see it next weekend at big bear :-D

[CYi5]

Nice work! I started my bruce-styled bumper the other day. Worth the effort, your take on it turned out well .

One question..I know you can use the tow hitch to mark the holes on the brackets, but do you line up the leading edge? I haven't pulled it off yet so maybe the answer will pop out at me. Also, did you slot your holes?

[Seanz0rz]

its been so long, i dont remember. i think i took each individual bracket and used one side of the tow hitch to mark all the holes for both sides. i know i thought it through pretty well. i got the holes really close, but i had to grind them a bit to fit the bolts for the correct fitment. in that respect, they are slotted.

if i have time this week, i will work on the reinforcements. i probably wont as i have to get the trailer and my truck ready for big bear.

[Seanz0rz]

so i have my first failure.

this is the plate that my spare mounts to:


you can see the 'n' shaped crack appearing through the paint, and those cracks extend further than what is visible.

here are shots of the back side:



this plate was thin 11 gauge steel (~1/8") and i was concerned about using it originally. well now its come back to bite me. from 6 months of bouncing on the highway, the support tubing has finally punched a hole through the plate, directly in the heat affected zone.

so here is my remedy:

8" diameter, .25" thick plate, gusseted back to the support, with a diagonal support back to the arm of the swingout.

i am just very glad i noticed this before my tire fell off!

[Seanz0rz]

So today i got to fixing my broken tire carrier.

for you material science people, here is the failure:


i stopped by the steel place a couple of days ago and picked up an 8" diameter, .25" plate. i drew up a template for the holes, printed to scale, and punched them in the steel, and drilled my holes to .5" for 3 wheel studs:



i cut the old plate off the swingout:


and welded the new one on with an extra tube back to the swing out:



you'll notice the extra gusset on the top, hopefully that will help spread alot of that load back into the tube and not just the butt joint between the plate and tube. haha i said butt

creating that angled tube was the hardest part today. here is all the bits i cut off to get it perfect:


and it's being painted right now:



now stay tuned for the next installment of Sean gets REALLY dirty