FabricationCustom fabrication ideas and concepts ranging from body kits, interior work, driveline tech, and much more.
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Thinking about making something like the pic below for my car for weight reduction. The one in the pic is made out of mostly 1" aluminum tubing. I'm thinking about making one out of rolled steel tubes instead so I can weld it. Also would be using triangles braces more in the design to increase strength. I can get a conduit tube bender from a hardware store in 1/2" or 3/4" and I can get rolled steel tubes in 1/2" or 3/4".
Should I go with 1/2" tubing to keep the weight down and hope its enough strength or go with 3/4"? I can bend by hand the 1/2 tubing in a section of 3ft fairly easy...
I remember that pic!What ever became of "jerrywho" & this bumper support?Anyway how legal/light/strong would this be?I think the larger dia tubing would be better, as far as strength is concerned anyway.What about price?
The tubing is not much difference in price between the sizes. In 4ft section its under $10. The conduit bender with a handle runs $30. Already have the welder so price depends on how much tubing would be needed, maybe 20 feet per bumper. I'm not looking to make extras and sell them though because my welding is kind of ugly.
The aluminum version was 5 pounds. I think 1/2" tubing would be close to that. Stock rear bumper support weighs 26 or so pounds.
I use 1/2" (and 3/4") electrical mechanical tubing (EMT) everyday in my business as an electrician. I would think that the 1/2" conduit with proper triangulation (bracing) would be strong enough for what you need it to do. It also bends easily with a conduit bender giving you a minimum bending radius of 6". It comes in 10' lengths too.
Interesting project.
EMT is weak as hell, it will support the bumper, but will not protect you in a crash. Not sure what the car will be used for, but if its used on the street you can forget using EMT.
I use 1/2" (and 3/4") electrical mechanical tubing (EMT) everyday in my business as an electrician. I would think that the 1/2" conduit with proper triangulation (bracing) would be strong enough for what you need it to do. It also bends easily with a conduit bender giving you a minimum bending radius of 6". It comes in 10' lengths too.
Interesting project.
EMT is weak as hell, it will support the bumper, but will not protect you in a crash. Not sure what the car will be used for, but if its used on the street you can forget using EMT.
I wasn't implying that it would be crash protection.
Racing why not leave it off completely or build a very thin cage using 1/4-3/8 tubing
If used on the street the design shown will have ZERO benefit, even if made from steel. The impact bars keep the frame rails from spreading during a crash. The first thing that would happen in an impact on the above design is the mounting stumps would snap at the welds making the remaining bits useless for protection
A better design would use some heavy bar or tube running between the mounts and a lightweight cage to support the bumper. A 1 5/8" - 1 3/4"roll bar tube, channel iron, or large angle iron should do the trick
So, if this was to be built for street use it would probably be no lighter than the stock one. With a huge bar going across and a cage for bumper support or very low speed collision.
A little bed frame angle and some 1/2 electrical conduit. Weighs maybe 2-3 lbs. - I have had no issues with it, even when pushing the car via the bumper.
There is always Styrofoam. It can be shaped anyway you like and is very light. It is used in Mazda to form bumper support under the cover. Was working on one yesterday. They had a fiberglass bar and molded around it was a styrofoam support which the cover mounted over. I figure a simple steel tube bar and a formed styrofoam support would be the way to go.
Racing why not leave it off completely or build a very thin cage using 1/4-3/8 tubing
When I removed my steel bumpers before I made my aluminum ones I drove around for a day to see what the car felt like with out them and it was scary. The rear wasn't such a big deal but without the front one on the car felt very uneasy. Almost like a wet noodle. So I just made some bracing out of some 1/8inch square tubing from the metal store. Car felt alot lighter and better after that.
Not like the stock impact beam offers all that much protection...
From a drag point of view, you should never encounter and impact that would require the stock front/rear bars
From a street point of view it is critical. I have NEVER seen a 3rd gen impact bar not remain connected to the frame rails post collision. They do their job quite well. If in doubt, remove it and have an accident.
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what the car felt like with out them and it was scary
From a suspension point of view, the front bar acts somewhat like a wonderbar. Without a bar connecting the left and right framerails, they move independently, and since your suspension is bolted to each side respectively, they also move independent of each other. I.E. bad
I remember that pic!What ever became of "jerrywho" & this bumper support?
It's still on my Drag car and after that picture I mini-tub it, installed a very custom 9 inch rear and some 15 X 12 wheels with 315 MT radials on them with the car lower then stock.
Jerry, do you have any pics of the fabrication? I would really like to see how it turned out. your work is always top notch.
Kory
__________________ 88Iroc lt1 355, mahle pistons, compstar 6"rods , stock crank internally balanced, 4 bolt studded block, Advanced induction dominator heads Ai 22x/23x cam, holley 58mm tb, 1.6 comp cams rrs,home built equal length lt headers,custom built cat back,t56, street twin, hurst shifter, ls1 brakes front and rear. ronal r15s, homebuilt 8.8 rear fms 4:10 gears. Dyno numbers and new track times to come.
Hotrod air underdash A/C and 01 ta dash new for 09.
From a drag point of view, you should never encounter and impact that would require the stock front/rear bars
From a street point of view it is critical. I have NEVER seen a 3rd gen impact bar not remain connected to the frame rails post collision. They do their job quite well. If in doubt, remove it and have an accident.
check out the attached pictures... you can see the impact mark on the side of the bumper, and the whole assembly landed like that about 150' down the road.
These are some good ideas. Does anyone have pics of a front bumper support?
__________________ I started racing when I was 7 years old and here I am now... KONI Yellows | Pro-Kit | J&M Strut Mounts | Edelbrock STB | Spohn SFC | 9-bolt disk 3.27
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