Bumper Woes.

[zebedee]

So... I decided to tackle the bent, twisted, cracked and much repaired (none too well) front bumper.

First, using 20 ton bottle jacks, under the rear bogey, press the major bends out......


Bumper resting on two 4x4s placed equidistant from the apex of the bend I'm trying to straighten.


Small steel plate, 1 inch square, under the blocking below the jack to focus the force near the flange. THis was to remove a twist in the bumper.


Stretched top flange, from previous bend, bumped up after bend was straightened.


After some hot shrinking, I managed to push all the steel back to where it came from.


Splits to top and bottom flanges on other end, probably previously repaired running through bolt holes.


Need to check if both 'wings' are at the same angle, probably not. Just see a tight, small kink next to the bend on the drivers side. Not going to try get that out.


Ground and opened the splits to allow the drivers side 'wing' of the bumper to be 'Come-a-long'd' back to a matching dimension to passenger side. Square tube clamped on the front of the top flange to measure set back of ends of bumper. Came out at about 7 1/2".

 

[zebedee]

I also welded up and redrilled some of the bolt holes that had been gouged out, badly repaired or were otherwise oversize for the required bolt.
Next step will be temp reinstall, so that I can finish the fab of the stowage tray for two water jerry cans, that was used by some units.
Tray to carry 2 water cans, had to remove fender tube brace while I figured this out.

Forgot I took this pic of bent bumper after I took it off.

 

[zebedee]

Yes, this mod (jerry can stowage) was done inservice by the recovery mechanics in the Australian army (ADF), incase anyone wondered why I didn't post this in the '5 ton Hot rodding' forum...

 

[G744]

I always thought 5-ton bumpers were rather flimsy compared to the rest of the truck.

Suppose it was easier for a unit to just replace them, as a sacrificial item meant to save more complex things behind it.

Not that it was easy to bend one up...

 

[zebedee]

Totally agree on flimsey. But 36,000 lbs vs solid tree etc., not difficult to see how they get buggered up.


So, fixed some ugly and oversized holes while I was at it...


Welded ugly hole. Used a 1" aluminium backing plate. Smooth n prime. I tend to use Self Etching Primer mostly.


Marked new hole with the bracket used to attatch bumper to frame.


Yes, a pic of new hole!

 

[G744]

Cool.

Somehow, the phrase "new bumper hole" conjures up a totally different meaning...