Okay guys i just came into your world, i just got out of building little rice burner honda's and i just bought a 2000 f150 single cab longbed 4x4 with 7700lb towin pckg 5.4 litre, now my buddy over here said that i should build a rear and front bumper out of steel, seeing how i work at a steel fab shop and i can get a hold of some steel, he has built a homemade bumper for his old jeep truck out of some channel that the open face was pointed toward the truck and capped off at the end, well jeeps are more straight in the front, and i was wondering if anyone has built there own front bumper and rear bumpers out of steel, and ive searched a bit on here, but no luck, so if anyone could direct me that would be awesome thanks

 

i'm working on building one for my truck, and whenever (if ever) i get it back from the powdercoating shop I'll post some pics. I started a thread on this a short while ago, there should be something in the search. I used 3" Black Pipe (3.5" OD) for the bumper, 1/8" diamond plate for the bumper skirt, 3/8X7" strap for the uprights, 2"x.120" tubing for the grille bars, and 1 1/2"X.120" tubing for the headlight surrounds, with expanded metal in the grille bars. I built it to resemble a ranchhand style replacement bumper. It weighs a couple hundred pounds, but my truck doesn't sag much with it on and i can't even tell it's there driving down the road.

 

Its also good to see that your ***** finally dropped. Its nice to see that all rice burners aren't worthless, some come around.

 

o dont worry i still stand behind them when it comes to running tens, but to get a rice burner to break 9's and 8's you gotta have some magic, but yea i feel like gettin off the street, seein how here in New mexico theres dirt everywhere

 

sounds like a good plan. when are you gonna start on the bumper?

 

well im gonna check out wut i have at the shop and see wut i can get out of it, my freind said he knows a shop where if you bring them donuts they will give you wutever scrap you want, hes a detailer for some place in town, but ill probably start taking the bumper off and puttin the new one together this coming weekend, im thinkin of just using the channel idea and getting some 8inch channel seein how the ford is kinda big in the front and pie cutting it and weldin it to fit the front then running some pipe for a push bar and maybe something around the headlights, i was just wondering if anyone on here had done somthin like this

 

That wouldn't look horrible if done right. You could spray it down with some bed liner when you're done with it. I'm thinking about doing that to mine cuz the powdercoating place is taking entirely too long to get mine done!

 

so theres only one other guy that has even attempted this?

 

not on a new Ford, but i built a custom 1969 Custon C20 about 10 years ago. used the 8 inch c-channel you speak of. straight across in the back, with a recess in center for the liscence plate. In the front i used two pieces, welded at the center line, put about a 10 degree angle on it so it sticks out 5-6 inches further in the center than on the ends. welded a 3/16 plate over the end to cover the C and blended it into the fender area. Painted it to match the truck, candy maroon red.

 

cool so you wouldnt happen to have any pics of yours, or other peoples work so i can get some better ideas, because the front of the F150 curves quite a bit and i dont want to have too much gap

 

I have a 2003 super crew and have been looking at alot of sites for ideas Renuel has on that I really like if I could only get some plans. I think I will just try to copy what I can and add lib the rest. Right now the bottom plastic facia is off (thanks to a tree acroos the trail) I have a new one and I have the bull bar off right now I am thinking now might be good time to push ahead with my own ideas. Good luck with yours, looking forward to pics

 

Your right 8" channel iron works well on Jeeps, it also looks allright on the back of a 97 GM 1500 (guy at work. I'll get him to switch to Ford yet!).
If your worried about the space between the bumper because of the contour of the front end, local fab shops in your area should be able to bend the channel iron to the same radius. This should be pretty inexpensive if the dies for channel iron are in the bender. Whatever length you need get 2' extra (it's easier for them to bend). If this isn't an option than a rosebud and an oxy-acet kit will work. Tack a 2" wide strip of flatbar across the channel, place on top of bottle jack, secure ends (steel table you can weld to works best), heat channel from ends to middle and pump the jack. The flatbar will stop distortion from the bottle jack. A small chunk of pipe tacked to the flat bar (for the top of the jack to sit in) will stop it from slipping out.
Good Luck