Truck Bumper Build
1997 Toyota Tacoma
When I first got to Iowa State, I met my future bestfriends. They love everything outdoors and truck related – I did too, but I had no one to enjoy it with back home. I finally found my group. They have extremely more knowledge than me when it comes to cars – I was just happy to learn. They wanted to build a bumper for my friend Wrigley’s truck. We had this base image on the right to start and that’s it. We wanted to switch the light bar out for a winch, and keep the prices cheap. Being college students, that’s always a concern.
We started by making all of our pieces out of cardboard to get the dimensions for the sheet metal. There was a lot of trial and error. If we were to do it again, I would have measured and 3d modeled the mounting points to the frame and then added all of the individual pieces of sheet metal. This would have been a lot easier to get our parts. However, once we got the carboard model done, we cut all the pieces out of 7 gauge sheet metal and went through many discs with the grinder. Aftwerwards, I learned how to weld, and let’s just say I did not do all of the welding… I’m not the best welder, but I can do it now. We welded everything together after many long hours. The bumper was built!
The last thing we had to do was paint it. Cole, another friend of mine, has a paint barn and has done body work since he was a kid. He showed me how to properly paint the bumper and seal coat it. Once we were finished, the total price came out to ~ 207$, having enough sheet metal to build another one. A new one would be priced anywhere from $400-$800, saving us plenty. The main expense was time, but we have more of that than money right now.
