Topic: front bumper

[LD]

Built this yesterday. Still not finished have to weld up a few more things and cut and cap the ends. Will put a cross piece in for the winch when i get one. What do you guys think?

[Peterbuilt84]

Looks good  especially since you did it yourself. Wish I had a bender to make stuff like that.

[86moneypit]

looks good bro where you live i need a stinger for my plate bumper 

[84krawler]

turned out sick bro you puttin a winch plate on it too?

[Snowtoy]

Looks good  especially since you did it yourself. Wish I had a bender to make stuff like that.

You don't need a bender if you are just making a one-off bumper.  Any exhaust shop that fabs their own exhaust systems will bend tube for $5-15/bend depending on what type of bender they have.  4x4 fab shops tend to charge a lot more, same with steel fabricators if they do their own bending in house.

[LD [OP]]

Thanks guys. I live in manteca and whenever i get a winch.

[LD [OP]]

You don't need a bender if you are just making a one-off bumper.  Any exhaust shop that fabs their own exhaust systems will bend tube for $5-15/bend depending on what type of bender they have.  4x4 fab shops tend to charge a lot more, same with steel fabricators if they do their own bending in house.

4x4 shops charge more because its take a little bit of work to make a tube bumper and each bender is different you have to know where you want the bend to start and where it needs to be in the die to start there. A muffler shop probably would want to fab a whole bumper. Thats if they have the right dies for the tubing you want it made out of.

[PBrown]

nice man

[gtoyonrocks]

Yea, that bumper looks sweet...

[Snowtoy]

4x4 shops charge more because its take a little bit of work to make a tube bumper and each bender is different you have to know where you want the bend to start and where it needs to be in the die to start there. A muffler shop probably would want to fab a whole bumper. Thats if they have the right dies for the tubing you want it made out of.

I understand this, but for the type of bumper you made, nice work by the way, you don't have to have a tube bender to be able to make one at home yourself.  All you have to do is have a shop make the bends for you, you will of course need to know what type of angles you need, and for a stinger how far out you want it to stick & how far apart you want the legs to be.

I think the reason why muffler shops are cheaper, even those custom shops w/mandrel benders, is that they bend tube all the time and see it as relatively simple work, whereas 4x4 shops don't.

[Peterbuilt84]

You don't need a bender if you are just making a one-off bumper.  Any exhaust shop that fabs their own exhaust systems will bend tube for $5-15/bend depending on what type of bender they have.  4x4 fab shops tend to charge a lot more, same with steel fabricators if they do their own bending in house.

I meant that it would be nice to have a bender because not only could I make bumpers I could make sliders or even a cage, without the need to go somewhere and have them do it for me. I also could make bumpers, etc. for friends.

[LD [OP]]

Yeah i see what you are saying. Never really heard of anyone doing that, have you done it in the past?

[Peterbuilt84]

Yeah i see what you are saying. Never really heard of anyone doing that, have you done it in the past?

Me? No I have never taken any tube in to get bent. I'll just wait until I get a bender and do it myself, or try to find someone I know that would help me out. Until then I'll just stick to square tube and plate.

[Snowtoy]

Peterbuilt84

Ya I know what you mean, even though I build the bull bar type bumpers a tube bender would come in handy(as well as a plasma cutter), however I don't build enough of them to justify buying the equipment.  I currently just bend the tube using a pipe bender, the bends don't need to be structural, and when done correctly you don't get any kinking.  There is a free set of Build-Your-Own Tube Bender plans through pro-tools, and the items you don't want to/can't make yourself you can buy through them, as well as the dies.  They just email them to you, I haven't printed them out yet, or priced what it would cost, but just looking at what the stuff i could easily make and the stuff I would buy from them it looks like it could be done for around $200, plus the cost of the die.

[Snowtoy]

Yeah i see what you are saying. Never really heard of anyone doing that, have you done it in the past?

Yes I did it for the first couple of bumpers I built.  The two shops I have used only charged $5/bend for the standard tube bender, and only $10 if I wanted it bent on the mandrel bender.  None of the local 4x4 shops use a mandrel bender, and the cheapest one wanted $15/bend.  I didn't know that muffler shops would bend tube either, until I stopped by one and asked.

[mtm]

nice that i do like the look of tthe stinger bumper. ive made a few up now but still havent got round to fitting one to mine