2000 GMC Sierra Expo Pickup Truck

[chevyexpotruck]

Little update.

Have been pretty busy at work for the past two months, so I haven't really had time to do anything to the truck. But I took the day off friday to do some running around and a few things to the truck.

Installed my CB. Didn't want to mount it on top of the dash, as it would block my view. And mounting it into the dash wasn't really an option unless I wanted to do some serious modifying of the dash assembly so I thought this would be a good place.



It is out of the way, but with one quick look back, I can adjust things as needed.

Today I finally got around to installed my Hi-Lift jack. Got really tired of loading it in the back, then having it slide all over the place. I had the mount for a while, but totally forgot about it until I came across it yesterday while looking for something else.



Should work well.

 

[chevyexpotruck]

A good start.

 

[chevyexpotruck]

Getting a basic idea here on how it is going to look.





That should work so now it was time to start with the mounts. I am going to mount it to the frame in a similar way that the original bumper did. Though my way will be a lot more solid.

I couldn't find any plates of the right thickness for mounts, so I simply used what I had sitting around. I had some 3/16" plate, but that was too thin. I wanted to used some 3/8" but since I didn't have any, I used the 1/2" plate I had been saving for another project.

I marked them up then drilled some holes.



Then I bolted them up to the truck.





I used some scrap metal to level the plates to the top of the bumper so that it will sit properly.

 

[chevyexpotruck]

Since I got mounts all figured out, it was time to start tacking things together. And to be sure nothing moved when I took the bumper off the truck and started welding it, I got some more scrap pieces and tacked them on the mounts.



With that done, I was finally able to pull the bumper off the truck and onto the table where I could do some trimming.





These are the bottom plates that needed trimming now that the piece of angle was in place.

Then came some more braces to help hold things in place while I start welding.



Yeah it looks pretty crazy, but I just used what I had sitting around. It will all come off later.

Now came the welding. Yes I could have simply welded from one end to the other but that wasn't right for two reasons. First of all it was way more weld than it needed (I am building a bumper, not a battleship. Though sometimes I think I forget that ), and it would add a lot more heat into the metal which would cause distortion. I stitch welded it on both sides down the length of the bumper. Though I did full welds for the rest of it.



Once I was finished welding it, I left the bumper to cool.

 

[chevyexpotruck]

Took off the braces and ground down some of the welds. Will buff them up later.





On the truck.




I put the front grill back on to give you a better idea.





Not bad. That should work.

Then I started looking at how to make the side pieces. I put one up to get an idea.



Will need to cut back the main tube a bit to make it look right. I had left the main tube long on purpose as it easier to cut it down then to make it longer.

 

[chevyexpotruck]

Now to start working on the sides.



Did some intensive calculations to find the right angle. Well more like moving it around till it looked right then I made a mark and cut the angles.

But the center tube was too long so I cut off two inches from either side to make things work a little better.




Much better.

Then I proceeded to do the other side.






Then back off for some welding.




All welded and back on the truck for a test fit.

 

[chevyexpotruck]

Now it was time to trim the ends of the bumper. Like the center tube, I had left them long so that I could cut them down later to the perfect length. As you can see, they are way too long.




So to figure out how wide I wanted it, I used a very expensive and technical tool to get the perfect measurement.





Don't tell anyone about my secret tool

Then she was pulled off and trimmed. I trimmed it about a half inch in from the fender flares.

Back on again (this bumper is getting heavier with each time I take it off and put it back on) for another fitting.





It looks wider in the pictures than she really is. Though even at that I might just trim it some more later. But this is good enough for now.

I put the grill back on to give you a better idea.

 

[chevyexpotruck]

Now I decided to work on the checkerplate top for the bumper. I happened to find a piece that would work. It was about an inch short, but I can live with that.

Naturally I used more of my super technical knowledge to figure out how to cut it properly!





Yes, usually the most simple way is the best

Tacked her on.




Then after picking up the bumper and bringing it to the truck, I was able to mark off where I needed to cut so that the piece of checker will fit around the truck.



Now I know I could have done it another way and saved some checkerplate by doing a lot of measuring and maybe some of that math stuff, I didn't. For two reasons. First of all I am not a big fan of messing around with a lot of math unless I need to. And second is that the piece of checkerplate I was using was something I had around forever (is why it is so rusty) and I really don't care about saving a couple of pieces from it. Well and third (yeah I know I said there were just two reasons), but it is pretty cold in the shop (-20) and I am not going to mess around all day playing with it when I can "just get it done".

Okay so now back to the pretty pictures.

Little more trimming and she fits well.




The grill back on for a better look.




Just have to make some filler plates under the lights and she will look better.

 

[Jimmy the Heater]

Thanks for the great write up on the bumpers, very nicely done with "That looks about right" engineering.

I'm also a huge fan of relays. Had a friend that put some cheap Ebay fog lights on her K1500, wired up per the chingrish instructions, the switch overheated, wire insulation melted, almost had an interior fire. I don't have any formal electrical education but I did some research and wired in a relay to the system. Has now been working fine for 3 years, nice and cool. Why run a 15amp line all the way into the cabin when a milliamp relay control will work just fine. This springs project will be to convert all the big bulky lighting switches in my farm tractors to relays for a nice clean system.

 

[chaos616]

Very nice bumper, I'm building some rocker sliders for my GMC right now and sounds about like you mentioned in the beginning "feels like I'm building it for a battleship". At least if you build it like a battle ship it wont fall apart right? Anyway, looking forward to the filler plates and seeing how you finish it. Looking good so far!

Cheers,

Ehren

 

[chevyexpotruck]

Thanks for the comments. It is coming together.

I am hoping to work on it again this weekend. But I need to go exchange the gas bottle on the welder first, as it is pretty much empty. Will try and exchange it some time this week if I have a chance.

Will start by making the filler plates under the lights, then the plates on the ends of the bumper. Finally, I am still trying to figure out what to do about the brush guard. I am thinking something like I did on my pathfinder.



But still unsure at the moment.

Also hoping to get some more checkerplate this week so that I can make a new skid plate with it to replace the old crappy plastic one.

 

[chevyexpotruck]

Murphy is an as*hole. I wish he didn't make up that law of his.

Truck has a fuel problem and died about 30mins away from base. Got it started a couple times, but it kept dying on me soon after so I had to call a friend to come tow me.

Though it wasn't till he arrived and we went to hook up the tow rope that I remembered that I had cut off the tow hooks for the new bumper (I had expected to have the bumper finished by now). So since I had no other place to attach to, I wrapped the rope around the bumper and away we went. Made it back okay except for the few times he hit the gas way too hard and gave me a few good tugs which did this.



Since I had been removing and installing the old bumper for the past few weeks, I only put two bolts at the top. Which was more than enough to hold the bumper in place. But now that it was being used to tow my truck, it put a lot of stress on the top two mounts and bent the **** out of them. I had planned to reinforce the mounts after the bumper fab work was done, which would have stiffened them up a lot, but now it was looking like I should have done that sooner.

After pulling the bumper off and screwing with the mounts for a bit I decided to just take care of things properly and cut the damn things off.



And started to fab up some new ones.





New mounts sitting in place.




I then welded them up and was much happier with the new setup.

Now I got around to cutting up and installing some side plates for the bumper.




And welded the clevis mounts on the front. Gave them three passes each to make sure they would not be coming off.

 

[chevyexpotruck]

Back on the truck to check the fit up.

 

[chevyexpotruck]

Now came the time to install the filler plates under the lights.




I gradually tacked then bent, then tacked, etc, to get it to fit properly. I did the same to the other side.

This had to be done with the grill on the truck to make sure it would fit well. Turned out well I think.






With the grill off to give you a better idea.





Bumper is done. Pulled off and ready for paint. Sorry for the crappy pic, but it was getting dark.



The brush guard will come later once I figure out how I want to set it up.

 

[chevyexpotruck]

Little bit of paint and bed liner.




Will install it as soon as the truck is running again.