October 14, 200619 yr Love that bumper for the OBW. I second the recommendation to buy a welder and tools and build your own. Welding is great fun, as many of us can attest to, and wirefeeds are pretty easy compared to learning stick welding. If you want to voyage out to Colorado, I'll weld one together for you. But then you get back to the cost of gas issue with the guys up NW. I'm going to put one together for my EA81 wagon when I get around to it. Just bought a 20 ton hydraulic tubing bender to go with the wire feed welder, chop saw, grinder, plasma cutter, etc... The plasma cutter is the most fun I think -- not so much for making tube bumpers, but for making art out of old metal, it's so nice. An artist friend of mine picked it up and in about half an hour made a piece of roofing into a japanese lampshade that could probably sell for several hundred dollars in the art shows. Sorry, off topic. Z
October 14, 200619 yr Well just finished the main part on the bumper on my 97 OB OMG and you just got it too! Wow!
October 14, 200619 yr Love that bumper for the OBW. I second the recommendation to buy a welder and tools and build your own. Welding is great fun, as many of us can attest to, and wirefeeds are pretty easy compared to learning stick welding. If you want to voyage out to Colorado, I'll weld one together for you. But then you get back to the cost of gas issue with the guys up NW. I'm going to put one together for my EA81 wagon when I get around to it. Just bought a 20 ton hydraulic tubing bender to go with the wire feed welder, chop saw, grinder, plasma cutter, etc... The plasma cutter is the most fun I think -- not so much for making tube bumpers, but for making art out of old metal, it's so nice. An artist friend of mine picked it up and in about half an hour made a piece of roofing into a japanese lampshade that could probably sell for several hundred dollars in the art shows. Sorry, off topic Z I've used plasma cutters but still prefer my cutting torch... I can cut just about anything with that. Again it just comes down to practice...many hours of it over the years. Wire feeds are cool, thats what i used for the bumper, (plasma cutters and wire feeds excel on thin material) However you need to find someone who is a good welder to show you how to get a full penetration weld. I have seen many poor surface welds that won't last. Biggest mistakes-- is that people go too fast and dont let the weld puddle melt into the base metal. other is not prepping the weld joints correctly with bevels etc. I prefer stick welders, but dont have one right now. you get much deeper penetration with stick welding if you do it correctly. Did you get one of the Harbor freight benders... ? dont be surprised if you collapse the tubing. you need a mandrel bender to do thin wall tubing.. or fill the tube with sand and cap the ends before bending
October 14, 200619 yr Looks good Soutthpaw. Now all you need is a skid plate! Its in the planning stages, will tie into the bumper itself... may get to starting it today...see see.
October 14, 200619 yr Now all you need is some monsterus lights below it and above it! Got those too, Heh got 4 stock fog lights off of jeep wranglers an also some 6x9 cepek off road lights, may do 6" pencil beam off road lights as i like the beam you get with them
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