Flipped bumper - the hard way. GM Task Force truck

Flipped a bumper on a Task Force Chevy truck I'm building. Well, actually, flipped, sectioned & reshaped both front and rear bumpers. Along with the entire truck. There isn't a panel on it that wasn't tweaked and slightly reworked in some way, but that's neither here nor there. And that's for another thread.

Unfortunately.. I was a dumbass, and the call was made to flip the bumper *after* I finished the paint & body work on the cab, making it twice it as hard. But - thats the name of the game.

Anyway, I shaved the bumper bolts. And got rid of the factory brackets in general. This truck has been clipped. So I actually pinched the front rails and fabricated a set of brackets that I welded *to* the bumper. That (bumper assembly) then bolts to the frame, and the adjustements are done there - I have fore, aft and side to side adjustments possible. I unfortunately don't have any pictures of that stuff handy, but they are simple enough.

This is the factory bumper, sitting in it's proper "factory" orientation. Even in that picture though the bumper had been tucked in quite a bit vs. stock.


Anyway... I masked the hell out of the front clip. Then cut the ends off and proceeded to flip the bumper. They have a crown to them, stock. Doing it my way I made the bumper actually look correct, in it's new orientation. I also fit the curve of the bumper ends to the curvature of the fenders and picked up the body lines and used that to my advantage through out. Everything falls in place and plays nicely with each other. I unfortunately don't have any finished pictures as I'm waiting on them back from the chrome shop. Should be any time in the next few weeks.



From there I set about hacking the ends apart. And by that I mean cutting each side into nearly 20 pieces and reworking them.

As you can see in this shot. This was just starting to play with stuff. Tacking things back in place. Removing pieces. Putting pieces in other locations than they started with. Reshaping pieces slightly to make them fit the new curvature, etc. Hell of a lot of work.



Kept playing around, tweaking, reshaping.


Still playing. Filler pieces were built for quite a few areas that needed them.



Skipping forward a ton of work, once I had the welding done I started to metal finish them off. I have hours upon hours into the reshaping. And even more hours upon hours into the metal finishing. Stupid amount, truthfully.

 

Continuing on with that, there was a hell of a lot more metal finishing to be done.





You can see it starting to progress and take shape in those pictures.



Still had some areas that needed attention as far as straightening, evening the bodyline, etc. are concerned...but this is where it's headed.




Skipping forward a LOT more work, rebuilt the other side in the same manner and had that taped up into place.



Reason I didn't make the bumper one piece yet was ease of working. It's a LOT easier to swing a hammer on, metal file and work bumper ends than a complete full length bumper. That sucks, royally. Especially when it's just one guy (me), doing it. A wooden stump became one of my best friends during the course of this. That and numerous and various clamps, stands, etc.

Anyway.. then I welded the ends on.



Started playing with that. Wound up going back in and removing a slice from the entire width of the thing as well to help tuck it in. This bumper is tucked in, pinched, raised, etc. etc.

 

Looks great so far!

I appreciate that you talk about how much work there is in a job like this. Sometimes in the build threads things get glossed over, hours of effort get written off in a word or two.

 

Then I really got into the tweaking of the bumper and finalizing the fitment, look, etc.





That and kept cranking away at getting the metal finished right, in order to be able to have it chromed.

Hindsight says.. I know why people paint bumpers. And why I've never seen one done like this. I'm not sure I'd do another one this way, fwiw. Tons of work.







Anyway.. pulled it back off the truck. Kept cranking on finishing it off. Got it all polished up, looking nice. Couple little waves here and there I had to go back in and address. Got those done. Then I went back and took a DA and 180 grit to it, as that's how I was requested to drop it off to the plating shop. He fine tuned it and got out what I wasn't able to.





And this is is mounted on the truck.
















panel gaps. Fixed those too.

 

Beautiful job!

 

Thanks guys. And yeah - it was a hell of a lot of work. I've seen the bumpers with copper and nickle... can't wait to see the things in chrome. Really looking forward to that.

edit: here's an outdated overall.

 

Beautiful truck! Nice fit on the dog leg, few people appreciate that. I will buy the bumper from you however I'm working on a 4400 series truck so you will have to add another 4" in the middle! I'm not started on mine yet but thanks for the warning.

 

Beautiful truck. That bumper is gorgeous the factory should have done it that way, I especially like the ends flowing with the wheel wells kudos!!!!

 

Exactly! I flipped my front bumper but I skipped all that hard work. Looks awesome.
BB

 

Gary,
That's one beautiful truck, nice work on the bumper. I wish I could weld like that.
Thanks for all the pics.

 

Thanks much - really appreciate all the comments. I've put a lot of love sweat and tears into this truck for a good friend of mine over the past year and a half-ish, on and off.

I did the same to the rear bumper. Cutting it apart, flipping it and completely reworked that one as well as well as filling the area under the tailgate, extending the stake pockets (seriously), etc. to further smooth out and refine the overall flow of the truck. There's a LOT more to this truck than initially meets the eye. Everywhere has been tweaked. Honestly in just the bumpers I had about 2 months worth of regularly messing with them to get them to where I was pleased with them.

Granted, the next set of bumpers would go quicker...but it became pretty blatantly obvious to me why nobody flips bumpers this way. I learned the hard way. And I can honestly recommend unless you either are *really* bored or after one hell of a challenge... to not bother doing it this way.



edit: and no, that exhaust didn't stick around like that. However it did used to line up with the rear bumper. So you can see how far in I moved *that* as well. I built a new stainless piece for the exhaust, exiting in the center, and the exhaust pipes got redone to work with the new tip and on and on and on. Once everything is *complete* and back on the truck (still waiting on chrome, gotta finish wiring up some things, put the interior in, etc. etc.) I might do a thread on it. *shrug*

 

Any updates?

 

WOW!! Beautiful truck! The bumpers and gaps are the way GM should have made it.

I've been thinking about selling mine, but after seeing this, not so sure.

 

Sorry for the delay in updates. I don't spend much time playing around on the internet these days...

Eventually I might do a full build thread on it, but it doesn't really fit the ethos of the HAMB. It's bordering on too street rod, I think, for the HAMB.

Anyway, here's a couple crappy cellphone shots. Eventually I'll snag some good pics with the DSLR, but for now these are all I have.









reflection of the shop in the door & fender.

 

Super nice!

 

Awesome TF dude,great rework on the bumpers!

 

Funny, all that work (very impressive, too) and it looks like it was supposed to look (or should have looked) from the factory.
I love the look you achieved.
Worth every minute of effort.
r

 

I can see that you have done a great amount of work on those bumpers, but I must be a knuckle dragger, I would walk past that truck and never notice the difference. I don't know what to say other it looks like work well done.

 

The sign of truly well done work, it looks like it was SUPPOSED to be that way. Kudos, it's stunning!

Brian

 

If you don't even notice the little things that have been done to the truck, then you know it was done right. That is awesome.
Mark

 

I did a somewhat nice restoration on one of those trucks and can say you did a hell of a lot of nice work to it, those truck lined up like a soup sandwich from the factory and you pretty much have to cut them up to get the lines anywhere close.

 

Thank you much. That was the idea from day one with this pickup. Done the way GM should have done, had they a better grip on things like panel gaps and willing to spend the extra time and cash to do things like the rain gutters, bed rails, etc. different.

Thanks much. No shame in admitting that. That was kind of the point. Unless you *know* the truck you would walk right by just thinking it was a nice stockish example. When you really start to look you'll notice the hundreds of subtle things that have been reworked, but it looks as if it could have been factory. Subtle. Nice. Clean. Nothing jumps out, but at the same time... nothing jumps out at you. Meaning every little "problem" area has been addressed on this. From the seams at the stake pockets, to the rain gutters, tail gate seams, etc. It's all been welded up, molded, shaved, reworked & slightly reworked. Just a super clean '55.

Thank you much - really appreciate that. Loved your feature in HRM on the Fordillac by the way. Super cool setup.

Thanks much. Really appreciated.

Thanks much, and that's exactly it. These things fit for crap from the factory. I cut the cab apart, welded in filler material onto the doors, cut the hood (along with sectioning it), etc. etc. Just to make the stupid thing fit like it should have from the factory. It was a PILE of work, but well worth it, imo.

Here's another couple subtle things I did to it... I 'mini' frenched the headlights, so the trim rings would sit an 1/8" recessed all the way around, fading out to 'stock' at the bottom of the trim. Also welded up the fender seams and got rid of those. Along with actually fitting the grill. And slicing the hood into nearly a dozen pieces (or so it felt like) to make it NOT sit proud of the fender, like they all do. And got rid of the stupid frown at the bottom edge of the hood where it butts up against the center section.

Also rounded all bed corners, removed & reworked the stake pockets as well as removing all bed seams. Welded & molded the pockets to the rails. Refinished the bed wood with a dozen coats of lacquer. The obvious marker lights, reworked rear bumpers. Reworked the tailgate. Fit the tailgate to the bed & filled the seams on either side of the tailgate. Removed the factory chains & latch and went with a spring loaded setup on either side & chrome tailgate straps that tuck into the 'gate instead of the chains. Filled the area under the tailgate, extended the stake pockets to meet up with the flipped, sectioned and reshaped bumper. Etc.. There's a TON of work into just the bed itself.
And on, and on and on.










Some of the pics the truck still hadn't been final buffed and polished as I'm pulling these off my phone, but... still gives the idea.

This shot shows off the sectioned hood rather nice. Has a much more natural flow to it than factory.




And actually sectioning the hood.




tailgate when I had it in highbuild. You can see how I smoothed and knocked out all the seams on it. List is endless.

Anyway... thanks again guys. Really appreciate the compliments.

 

Amazing work! Feel free to post more pics... love it!

 

Thanks much. Eventually I might do a full build thread as there seems to be a decent amount of interest in it... *shrug*

 

id like to see a full build thread

 

In this photo, is the bumper in the original position, or is it tucked in?

Nice looking truck

What color red is that?

 

That had been heavily tucked but still mounted.in the factory position with the "fat" weighty side up top and slim portion on the bottom.

And thanks much guys. The red is a custom hue I tinted based off a Mercedes color with extra black and violet toner.

 

Thanks. I think I may tuck mine in like that without the flip.

Also looking at this red (69 Garnet Red over a black basecoat)

http://www.69pace.com/images/Paint/1969_52_garnetred/69redzl1_62recr/43692_Front_3-4.jpg

http://www.69pace.com/images/Paint/1969_52_garnetred/69redzl1_62recr/43692_Rear_3-4.jpg

Sorry to hijack

 

No problem and that's a gorgeous color. Should look great!

 

Great info and cool truck