Thanks guys! I sure hope it looks good.

 

Had to work this morning and went a couple towns north to pick up the 06 header panel! Installation was fast and easy but adjustment took up my whole day. The alignment molded pins (pictured below) at the end of the 06 header panel have to be cut off to get proper alignment. The very top outside edge where the headlights just meet the fender have to be ground down a bit to clear the fender properly. Just about every bolt on the header panel has to be loosened and adjusted to get the right fit. The new header panel dropped the grill down about 1/4" so my once 1/2" gap to match the headlights is now a 1/4" gap. At this point it is nearly impossible for me to get that 1/4" back since the bumper is nearly laying on the frame now. The stock 06 bumper must be laying right on the frame when bolted up? Otherwise everything went together good and the gaps and lines all look good. I didn't take any pics but I made up some conversion plugs for the 9007-H13 headlights. I just so happen to have a couple extra honda 3 prong plugs that fit the H13 after some work. For the 9007 side I turned off the bulb part of a couple extra headlights and soldered a short wire between the honda H13 plug and the (used to be headlight) 9007 plug. It will work fine until I get my HID's which I found out I can order the ballast for the 9007 truck plug with H13 bulbs for the headlights.

Didn't have time to get metal today, maybe tomorrow.

On with the pics:









Molded fiberglass pins that have to be cut off the 06 panel for proper alignment.




I'll probably sell off my old stuff after I am done. I here allot of 99 guys like the 02-03's.

 

Got metal and cut up, bent, and tacked in the corners today.



Yeah I know there is a hole, I told you the cuts in the bumper were crooked. lol






Will have to get paint soon!

 

Excellent work!

 

Another nice update. Looking really good!

 

Had enough time to hammer everything out, cut, weld, cut some more, and weld a whole bunch more. Most of my time was taken by filing the edges and lips. Even got the fog lights adjusted for the new bumper.

You can see the fog light brackets are factory marked in just about the right spots with the bumper shortened.


Stock next to cut and drilled.


Welded, ground, filed.


I threw a coat of some whatever paint on to keep it from rusting between now and paint time.


Did the rear bend as well for support.


Not bad for just metal work so far.




The bumper metal is .072" if anyone was interested.

 

Looking great!!!

Cant wait to see the side by side shots of before and after.

Did you do a bunch of spots or continuous bead?

 

That looks great Snow!! I can hardly wait for pics of the completed project.

 

Thanks. I first spot welded all the panels you can see earlier about every 3 inches. Then I went back and did a couple more spots between those and then just 1" welds to connect the tacks/spot welds in alternating locations.

 

Came out good. Looked like it would have been a ton of spots, thats a long bumper!

 

Thats what I was thinking when I started and with normal sheet metal you do have to get the tacks very close together. Luckly the bumper material is thick enough that I could do short stringer welds without it warping or flexing.

 

The warping or flexing was what I was thinking about. Looks like the stock you used is thick enough to resist warping and you stitched it up the right way. What are you doing with it today?

 

I got that same thickness material as the factory bumper, .072". Today I think I will be starting on the driving light holes that I forgot to do. lol Then I have to run around and pick up paint, filler, look at a few more places for good driving lights, pick up the new timer for the cloths washer and install that, and anything else that pops up along the way.

 

Got the light holes in today. Going to try and pick up paint in a little bit here. Going to try out some new filler for the deep scratches and round everything out nice.

Holes cut and stainless (I hate rust!) 4" tubes welded in.



They are not pretty, nice to look at welds, I was going for more easy to file and round down welds.


Still some high spots and stuff to take out.


Painted up till later.

 

That is going to be a sharp front end when you are done.