Custom Bumper Project

[Marlin]

Were it me, I'd put them just inside the width of the chassis rails apart, but it looks like you have a lot of metal in there, should be plenty strong I'm watching this closely, I have to either buy a roo bar for my project (ho hum everyones got one of those) or do what you're doing

No way I would go with ordinary, run of the day stuff. I have had a lot of fun making this thing, and I cannot even begin to tell you how much I have learned. Metal work is a whole new world for me. I think it moght be addictive, I find myself walking around the house thinking "I could fab something for that" "I oucld weld that together".
I am going to make the pretty pieces this afternoon out of cardboard and post up some pics to get advice, I will also go ahead and sleeve the inserts for the tow points, and drill out second holes for another set of pins. The gussets can wait until I do the body work. That should satisfy just about everyone
Then I will tie it to a tree, pull the tree out of the ground, destroy the tranny and break a few straps, just to prove that my bumper was not the weak point!!! LOL.

[Marlin]

First upgrade complete. I put the 2" tubing sleeved into the crossbar for the tow points. Took forever, that is a whole lot of steel to drill through, and the bit is about $15. I made the sleeve about 10" long, so that should do plenty to spread the force over a bit wide of an angle, as well as strengthen the weld point. Thanks for the advice guys. I gotta find a scrap yard so I can get materials to make the gussets with.

[Marlin]

Update*** I am upgrading the clevis pins to 5/8" hitch pins this weekend, and I decided to take Billy's advice and get some bolt through D-ring shackles. By autocad, the weakest point will be about 20K lbs at the welds on the tubing. The front portion of the frame will bend before the bumper does, assuming the welds are good.
For the metal work guys, the inner tube is 8gauge, and the outer tube is 12 gauge.
I will post up the pics of the new shackle mounts, that may be a few months, but the pins are this weekend for sure, as well as some of the sheet metal work. I got my LED turn signals in, and picking up the driving lights Friday. HID kit for those will be in August sometime. I may not do the whole front end in sheet metal, it is starting to grow on me Just do the bottom and sides so it looks a little tighter, and a front facia for the lights and to hide the tubing. I don't know what to do next I am running out of projects. Any ideas? I may get the hubs this weekend too if it isn't 100 degrees and raining.

[blacksambo]

Don't take this the wrong way but... what you have created is liable to be just as rust prone as what you removed except it's more exposed to salt and also hopefully washing....not to mention it would drive Simon Cox (original VX designer) to drinking. Again, don't take me wrong, we have two '99's that I powerwash each week snow or shine and I do flush that bumper area extensively. So far no bad rust, yet. Stay tuned.

[Marlin]

Don't take this the wrong way but... what you have created is liable to be just as rust prone as what you removed except it's more exposed to salt and also hopefully washing....not to mention it would drive Simon Cox (original VX designer) to drinking. Again, don't take me wrong, we have two '99's that I powerwash each week snow or shine and I do flush that bumper area extensively. So far no bad rust, yet. Stay tuned.

No offense taken, you are one of the lucky few that do not have the rusty bumper problem.(I have no salt problems here in Charleston ) The scary part is that most people will never remove their cladding and check their bumper, which means they have nothing for low speed fender bender protection and they don't even know it.

Isuzu is notorious for making vehicles that are very susceptible to corrosion. Not their strong point. My bumper on the other hand is enameled and primered, and soon the openings will be capped. But since it is accessible, I can see any rust early on and take care of it.
As for Simon, although he designed an amazing vehicle, there are some significant design flaws: No drink holder, no way to open rear door without a key, stupid plastic front end with no "meat" to it. Donut spare, hard plastic arm rest on door. These are design problems, things like the window problems and what not are later on, and I don't fault those as design issues.
The lesson being there is always room for improvement, I don't care too much if people like the look of my bumper, I am the only one with a real, functional setup, that I did myself, not store bought.
As for mods, I am an electrician by trade, so I don't really enjoy electrical mods but here is what I am doing now:

I got some H3 driving lights with blue LED halo around the housing. I am going to wire the blue LED with the new LED turn signals. It looks pretty sweet, when I am done, I will post night video. The driving lights will be wired via the factory driving light switch. I will upgrade the H3s to HIDs sometime soon, that would be a total cost for my lighting project of 90 bucks. 20 for the LED turn signals from Hong Kong, (driving lights on clearance, and I had 10 bucks off and 10% military discount), so I only paid 27 dollars. The HID kit is around 40 from Hong Kong. SWEET!!!!!!!!!!!!

[tomdietrying]

I'm sure it will look sic. I can't wait to see the pics!
Peace.
Tom

p.s.
I wasn't intentionally trying to ryme.

[Ldub]

I'm sure it will look sic. I can't wait to see the pics!
Peace.
Tom

p.s.
I wasn't intentionally trying to ryme.

But it happens all the time...

[Robbomaz]

I don't know what to do next I am running out of projects. Any ideas?

Supercharger!!!!!!

[Marlin]

Supercharger!!!!!!

I saw Ldubs at Moab, looks sweet, but I was not impressed by the power difference. I talked to some of the gear heads at work, our engine just isn't made to handle too much boost, so I imagine a SC might get you an extra littl bit of uuumph, but for crawlin and playin in mud, I don't think it matters. For those with SC, no offense, but it just doesn't seem worth it at all.

Update**I messed around with the sheet metal a bit, after laying 3 pallets of sod, and building a skid plate for a VX member!!! Anyway, I learned a valuable lesson, I hate working with sheet metal. It is very artsy, and I am not artsy at all. Here is what I have so far. I think its gonna look sweet, there is gonna be a gap under the headlights, but eh....for a no experience metal worker, I consider this top notch. Still need to get square tubing and a bender, but I can wait on that. I drew in the driving lights, and I sticky taped my turn signal on one side to see how it looks. As far as I am concerned.............BAD ***!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The sheet metal is 22gauge, and I will weld in some 1/4" plate brackets to help keep its shape. I will put sheet metal over the top of the hitch as well to bridge the gap. It is pretty sturdy though. I would say by next weekend or so I will be done with that, minus the tubing.

[pbkid]

interesting...

you gonna fill in all that open space??

[tomdietrying]

That is looking sweet! Give us a shot from the side when you get a chance.
Peace.
Tom

[Marlin]

interesting...

you gonna fill in all that open space??

Thanks for the confidence Tom.
Jack, I do not know what I am doing with that space, here is what I envision, of course it will be all welded together and square, and painted flat black when I am done.





I wish I could get it to look like this, but the VX frame is a lot lower than the rodeo. This setup is similar to mine, only I used a square tube frame vice 3/16 plating. His weighs a ton, and is not as strong structurally. But it looks nice.

[Ldub]

I saw Ldubs at Moab, looks sweet, but I was not impressed by the power difference.

As I'm Running 33's, with stock gearing, you would expect to see what kind of power difference?...

[JHarris1385]

Not to get away from the bumper but since you stopped a little on the power issue I will post another piece I was told.



If your keeping it naturally aspirated we have seen substantial gains from the basic mods of a free flowing exhaust system. We recommened a 2.5 inch mandrel bent system with Pacemaker brand headers/extractors. If your race class allows it I would not use any mufflers at all or if you have to then obviously use 2.5 inch straight through items.

On the intake side of things over here in Australia the factory airbox was very very restrictive to keep noise down for emissions. Remove the whole box if possible on your model and use a K and N pod filter.

Lastly, we would suggest the use of an aftermarket ecu such as our own WOLF V500. With the above bolt on mods and then some ecu remapping you will be very surprised at how the car transforms. In our experience the 6VD1/6VE1 engines were heavily restricted from factory so theres a lot of power to be had just by releasing the restrictions imposed by Isuzu.

Other things engineered by isuzu such as the ignition system seem to be very well done. We have seen well over 500kw at the wheels using the factory ignition with no type of amplification. The stock crank also showed no signs of cracking or any twisting at this power level also, but it was obviously balanced and prepped beforehand.

On the forced induction side of things then it first comes down to whether you want to supercharge or turbocharge. We have done both and had great power results but from our experience turbo charging is more beneficial. From a reliability, engineering and power potential point of view.

After that its just of matter of how much power you want to make. Theres still head work, pistons, rods etc for those people just wanting to make big numbers.

For your type of application a mildly powered responsive package is what you need. If forced induction is allowed in your race class then the most suited system would be a small turbocharged setup. This would give lightning response combined with decent top end power and no sign of lag. A small turbocharged 6VE1 drives like its a naturally aspirated 5 litre.

For the wolf V500 ecu, there are dealers already in USA who are familiar with the product.

[WormGod]

I saw Ldubs at Moab, looks sweet, but I was not impressed by the power difference. I talked to some of the gear heads at work, our engine just isn't made to handle too much boost, so I imagine a SC might get you an extra littl bit of uuumph, but for crawlin and playin in mud, I don't think it matters. For those with SC, no offense, but it just doesn't seem worth it at all.

No offense taken. Us S/C'd urban mall crawlers don't have all the offroad gear and are turning smaller meat, so the S/C is quite noticeable.

I am confused about something though. It is almost as though you see the S/C as being "too weak" for offroad activities, yet you are adding extra weight (ala this monster bumper) on top of your stock 3.5L? I would assume that, even offroad, the S/C would pitch in to help push/pull that weight, on top of what the stock 3.6L is already doing. *shrug*