Super Duper Duty bumper almost complete.

Oh my, I have put in way too much time on this bumper/grill lately.  The bumper itself has be on the truck for over a year but I just haven't had the time or the drive to get out the welder, plasma cutter, and tube bender and start fabricating.  So a few days ago I got busy.  It's been a tough road though.  I needed 2in and 1.5 inch tubing.  NOT PIPE!  I have spoken to a few metal suppliers and had to educate the person on the phone the difference.  Yet they still try to offer what I don't want.  Pipe is measured by inside diameter and is meant to transport "stuff" inside of such as liquids, and gasses.  Tube on the other hand is generally used for structural applications.  Though some kinds of tubing are used for fluid conveyance, the kind I am asking for which I thought was common isn't so much.  In the end the 2in outside diameter tube I needed was in a .120 wall thickness and I was unable to find any such, and while in Houston I was only able to find .083.  Though not what I want, desperate I bought a 20ft stick hoping my hydraulic bender could bend without any unwanted deformity.   No luck, bad bends.  So on a short time frame and without the 2in tube I was forced to redesign.  And the pictures begin... Pain, the tube you see below going around the headlights has 4 separate bends on several different planes.  With 2 of the bends just a bit too close for the die I have which is a 5 inch center line radius.  

This is a Pro-Tools tube notcher which has a large ball bearing and shaft that accepts hole saw blades to cope ends of tube to fit to the sides of other tube.

In this picture I was capping the end of the bumper with 2 inch strap metal tack welded and shaped and formed with a rosebud tip from an oxygen-acetylene setup.

Here is the back side of the bumper in the center where I have opened the 6x8 rectangular tubing and extended the platform for a winch.

 

 After all the grinding and other surface preparation the bumper was suspended from the roof of my "shop" to prepare for painting.

The first 2 coats were sprayed on with an automotive paint gun and PPG Omni self etching epoxy primer.  2 to one epoxy to hardener ratio with a bit of added acetone to thin the paint.  That's all for this session.

Next and last for coating was something new to me.  I came across a spray on bed lining product on a few various .com forums.  The product is by UPOL and is called Raptor.  I saw quite a few pictures of this stuff applied to the inside tubs of a classic Bronco and a jeep or two.  I liked the texture and the reviews were pretty good.  The kit came with 4 bottles and a can of hardener plus a spray gun that screws onto the bottles and says the kit is enough to to a large truck bed.  I only needed two to coat this bumper.  After mixing the application process was very easy and the consistency of the texture was to my liking.  After two coats its all done and I'll be mounting it on the truck tomorrow and reinstalling the lights and winch.