Rear Bumper/Swing-out Tire Carrier

I've been "planning" to start a thread for my build for a while now...I just never remeber to do it. So, I thought I would at least show ya'll one of the items I've been working on...the rear bumper. What started out as "just" a rear bumper quickly turned into a more involved project. Here are a few progress shots & what it looks like so far:







The latch just came in today, so I'll be able to install that as well. I'm pretty much ready to take everything apart and complete all of the finish welds/grinding before it goes to powder-coating .

 

Looks great! I love the drop down in the middle for the tow ball.

I'm planning something similar for a swing away. How did you make (or where did you buy) the swing hub?

Oh, by the way, I notice your Georgia Bulldogs license plate looks a little funny. Must be the color tone on my computer ...

 

Awesome work! That looks really good. How much have you spent on it so thus far? If you don't mind me asking.

 

That's spectacular. Lots of angles, very impressive work

 

Now that's a fantastic swing out rack. :stout:

I like the wrapped license plate too, if I hadn't decided to keep my stock taillight setup, I would have gone to a wrapped plate.

Where did you get your latch?
I just saw these latches a couple days ago on another forum, rated at 4 and 8 thousand pounds.

http://www.jergensinc.com/site/sfg_toggle_clamps/toggle_clamps_-_latch_clamps

 

Those are pretty cool. I was just planning to use one of these:

http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200395474_200395474

 

Evedently you don't do much real off roading. I built one similar to that about 10 years ago. It got me stuck several times
being lower then the body. I wound up giving it away the last time. It does look real go though, can't take away from that.

After clean up and primer I like to use appliance paint or POR15. It lasts forever, except on the bottom

 

How different people define real offloading might surprise you.

thats some great fab work right there way to go.

 

Nice work!

 

Thanks guys for the kind words.
Earlswrench:
I got the spindle here - http://www.atozfabrication.com/store/home.php. I understand, sometimes the contrast on those crazy monitors can go hey-wire...
Nightstr:
I don't mind at all. All total, I have about $400 in it at this point.
68buickv6:
The latch is made by De-Sta-Co (product #334-R). I bought it from here - http://freertoolandsupply.com/

 

Sorry, that icon should be an "r" (334-r). I didn't realize a capital "r" would post as an emoticon.

 

Really nice work on the bumper/tire carrier. Giving me ideas for the CJ-6 build

 

I got the latch installed last night. Here's a shot of the swing-stop base & the latch:

 

I completed all of the welding/fabricating and only have some finish grading to do now. Here's how it looked with everything together before tearing down:

 

After much thought & deliberation, I have decided to paint the bumper & carrier instead of powdercoating. One of the main reasons is cost, but not the only reason. I have other items powdercoated and love the benefits that it offers. In this particular application I saw that it would be in an area that would take some abuse and therefore need periodic touching up. So, I decided to try the Body Armor "truck bed" application by Duplicolor. Here are the results on the carrier:

 

Turned out good. I use Rustoleum truck bed coating on all my armor for a powdercoat look, looks like it has the same texture as what you used

 

Sorry for the delay guys, like all of you I imagine, I was involved w/ a lot of Thanksgiving festivities (mainly intake). I know, I know, enough talk and more pics. Well, here ya go:









Now, all that's left is re-installing my back-up lights that I relocated into this bumper. Oh, and a 5th wheel/tire would helpR)

 

Nice fabrication, it's evident that a lot of time was spent on that bumper. I really like the Delron idea for the latch area.

 

Came out really nice!