got an awesome freebie saturday!! *pic's added at bottom*

[rick88blaze]

A guy stopped by and asked me if I wanted a grill guard for free for my K5 on Saturday. So of course I said yes. He brings it by an hour later or so and this thing is built. It has 3/8" thick side plates and wraps under my bumper and bolts to the frame.

Now here's my question:

I am thinking about just removing my bumper all together and bolting on this grill guard. Then this winter get some tubing and weld it to the guard to make a full bumper out of it. What kind of tubing would you recommend? I haven't decided yet if I want to go with 2 smaller tubes on each side or one larger tube on each side yet. I might have an opportunity to get some thick piping from work that was on our old fuel system. I do a little bit of everything with my K5. rocks, mud whatever. Would regular pipe hold up as well as some good tubing bouncing off of a rock? The pipe is anywhere from 1/8" to a 1/4" thick. I haven't seen the inside of it yet, but it's good old fashioned pipe that's about 40 years old. It's not this newer plumbing pipe you get these days.

Also, I plan on getting some steel plating and welding it to the inside of the grill guard for a winch mount. Would 1/8" be thick enough or should I go with 1/4" thick. If I do the winch mount, I plan on making some brackets that will go back to the inside of the frame to help hold everything in place. This won't be done in the near future, but I hope to have it all done by our first run next spring.

Thanks in advance,

Rick

P.S. I'll get a pic of it in the next couple of days.

 

[4X4HIGH]

Definately stay away from pipe. Pipe doesn't have the required strength we need for our rigs.

 

[scrappyk5]

Definately stay away from pipe. Pipe doesn't have the required strength we need for our rigs.

why would you say pipe is not strong enough for our rigs ?
just curious ,

i know i made my bumpers on my s15 out of 3" pipe 1/4" wall and they have worked great. i have yanked people out of mud holes with them. i also got nailed by a toyota camry doing about 20mph. it was fast enough when she hit my rear bumper, it peeled her hood back about 18" and shoved the grill,and rad into the motor. all it did to my bumper was put a 1/4" deep scratch in it.

 

[bamf]

how about a pic of this free bumper?

 

[gn4u2c]

My front is made of 8inch tall c channel I assure you everything else will bend before it does. Just drill some holes in it bolted to the factory mounts

 

[rick88blaze]

Here's a couple of pic's of the grill guard:

Like I said before, the side plates are 3/8" thick and it wraps up under the bumper and bolts to the frame. I'm going to try and get it on this weekend and I'm debating on just taking my front bumper completley off and just running this up front.

Rick

 

[Inu-Hanyou1776]

The tubing that's usually used for rollcages and stuff, what we all like to call DOM (drawn over mandrel) tubing, is usually made out of 1020 or 1024 mild steel. I'd just use that instead and not take any chances.

 

[Wicked Wolf Auto]

at the very least run HREW

 

[rick88blaze]

The tubing that's usually used for rollcages and stuff, what we all like to call DOM (drawn over mandrel) tubing, is usually made out of 1020 or 1024 mild steel. I'd just use that instead and not take any chances.

What kind of shop would I look for that would carry that kind of tubing?

Rick

 

[rick88blaze]

Here's a before and after pic of my K5 with the grill guard mounted up and the bumper painted black. I think it looks a whole lot better with the black than with the chrome. I will eventually paint the trim around the grill and mirrors black too.