DIY Front bumper

[rallyfinnen]

I wanted another front bumper with a rounder shape than the standard, so I used a piece of plastic cutting board (correct name?) and heated it and bent it around a piece of pipe.
I also shortened the aluminum plate in the front about 1cm and used the same bolts as for the suspension arms.
I also 'recycled' the piece i cut off the bottom plate and used as reinforcement of the frons suspension bolts.
The shape of the bumper is not perfect, it was abit tricky to shape, but the function is good. I will try to post a video later..

[rallyfinnen]

Not sure if I put the post in the right place of the forum..?
Should it be under body?
Anyway, the video I mentioned is now uploaded and can be found here:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEDoyMUEYos

[rallyfinnen]

My conclusion of the bumper is that the material I used is too brittle, it goes in peices when I smash hard into something. Design works better than the standard part, but material is bad

[rallyfinnen]

I have now started another version using a piece of ABS plastic (softer and more durable) from a car bumper, and some foam from a mouse-pad (?). I 'laminated' the foam using spray-glue.

Here is the new version, still under construction:



Still need to make some fastening for the foam and find a way to protect it from absorbing a lot of water..

[sickboy]

looking bulletproof there but you say keeping the water out ye not planing on swimming with it are you lol

are you sure you want to go this way using alloy as a bumper its just that thing will bend all the time and then you will have to keep bending it back
i thing the plastic one you made was more of a bumper absorbs more

[rallyfinnen]

Might go swimming, never know
If I drive in snow, that will melt to water too.
As it is now, i don't have any water protection on it, will see how that works.

Tested it today, and it held up fine even if i did some nose-dives when landing!
I think this is the solution i will stick with.

Not sure what you mean by alloy?
They are both plastic, but the plastic on the first one (white) was too hard, it broke in hard crashes. Could be the plastic got brittle because of the cold weather.
The new one (black) uses softer plastic from a car bumper, and the foam is there to absorb the shock, because the ABS plastic is too soft on it's own.

[sickboy]

ah sorry my bad it looked like painted alloy to me doh well do let us know how it holds up in the snow just a idea for ye the screws that hold it in place might be to use some washers around them to spread the load when nose diving.
it would be a pitty to start all over again

[rallyfinnen]

It's working great! No snow yet, and no driving in the wet, but it has been through some hard nose-dives!
This is how i fastened the foam:

A zip-tie around the brace for the ball joints, then made a hole through the foam, a washer of some plastic, a hole in the zip-ti for a clip -finished! Easy to remove too.

I also made a 'skid plate' for the rear in the same material:



It has been badly worn from landings on gravel, so it needed some protection.