Helping a buddy out with his new 72

[Letsgocrawling]

A friend of mine surprised me the other day with a very nice 72 he picked up here in Tucson recently, and said he was going to add the front cage portion to the roll ball that came with the eb just for the look. And also wanted a old school style brush guard to mount some KC lights he still had from high school days projects. I knew he was really excited about this endeavor and had some questions about his attempt to do this, I knew what his capabilities were with his metal working skills and knew he could do it----but as nice as the truck was I decided to do it for him. Actually it had been a long time since I had used my bender and being the gear head I am---I looked forward to doing it. We set up the weekend 2 weeks ago to do it but had to regroup to last weekend because my friend bought a diys cage kit that was 2" but his rollbar was 1.75---he said that would be fine and I said that will look like crap, so now you know why it was easy for me to help him out. Sorry about the pic quality. Anyways happy Thanksgiving everyone!

 

[doghows72]

Looks like a dam fine job to me. Want to make one for my half cab?? That would give me an excuse to drive down where it is warmer.
He's lucky to have a good friend with fab skills nice work, and happy turkey day!

 

[blamejane]

Sheesh, what a great friend!! Great work there.

 

[Letsgocrawling]

Thanks you guys----just could not justify mating the 2" to the smaller stuff---and it is the holiday time of the year! And yes this is the best time to work on anything down here in the southwest!

 

[Thunder Chicken]

Nice work

 

[nathan.hall1]

I like the cactus smasher front bar

 

[Mountain Ram]

Nice job coping that tube Mark. You have skills my friend!! Thos are the hardest cuts to make!

 

[Letsgocrawling]

Nice job coping that tube Mark. You have skills my friend!! Thos are the hardest cuts to make!

They are really a pain in the azz, but fortunately using a mill and a modified vise with 3" clamping ability it's makes it easy, i also use only Lennox hole saws and turn them really fast, and also pipe threading oil for lube--- and it has to be the brown stuff. Generally get about 10 to 15 copes to a saw depending on my patience at the time lol

 

[Mountain Ram]

I use the same hole saws- they do a good job, but I have nothing to do that radical of a cut on... It's all cutoff wheel and grinder for me here. I have a not her the does a good job to a point...

 

[smokinjoe]

Your welds, your coping cuts, ALL very impressive.

Thumbs up to your metal fab skills man!!

 

[Scoop]

Nice job! I like the cactus smasher too. Did you have measurements from a real one or did you eyeball it?

 

[Letsgocrawling]

Thanks guys, we found what my friend liked made by Protofab and basically copied it from their picture, the light tabs were changed from sticking out on the sides to being put in the middle. Just kind of eye balled the dimensions to the grill and made sure the bends would work in that short of space. And just guessed on witch front center bumper hole they used. So the 2nd new added hole would either be on the inside or outside of the original hole. I actually think protofabs is on the out side like i did on this one. It would look good either way i think.