Front Bumper Nerf Bars For A 1952 Ford F-1 - Bumper Bashing

With the bracket removed, two lines are visible. The line on the right represents the face of the valance in relation to the bracket. Since I want the nerf bars to be parallel to the valance, the bracket must be trimmed at this same angle, represented by the line on the left. Also pictured are the 1/2-inch mounting holes.

I use an HTP MicroCut 301 for most of my cutting needs in the shop and it worked great to cut through the 1/4-inch stainless. A piece of scrap steel clamped to the work piece works great to make a nice, straight line.

Here's the first iteration that I came up with. They're a little too long and implement-looking for my taste so a redesign is in order. If I was going to push hay or cattle around on the farm, these would be perfect.

What I decided on was a design that incorporated a bend that would curve under the valance. I'm using 3/4-inch solid stainless bar for the upright, which bends fairly easily in my Harbor Freight pipe bender.

To get the radius of both sides even, I measure the distance that the bottle jack travels. It gets you pretty close but since the bar wants to settle back a little bit after the pressure is released, it still takes a bit of finessing to get them even.

Here's the second design, bent and trimmed close to the finished length.

Little jobs like these have more to do with what appeals to the eye than anything else so it's important to mock things up a number of times until you get just what you're looking for.

Satisfied with the mockup, the two brackets and the upright bars are now ready to be welded together.

Since the bar is 3/4-inch in diameter and the bracket is 1/4-inch thick, a pair of remnant 1/4-inch plate pieces are used to shim the bracket, which centers it perfectly with the bar. A few clamps hold everything in place while it's tacked together.

I've been using this Miller Diversion 165 TIG machine to weld just about everything recently and it works great. Cranked up to weld the thicker stainless pieces proved to not even phase the little beast.

It should also be pointed out that since I used stainless steel to make the parts, it's necessary to use a similar filler material. ER308 is a pretty standard filler rod when it comes to welding stainless steel and once polished, should look pretty nice to boot!

The finished nerf bar all welded up and ready to be installed. I'm not a great TIG welder but it just goes to show you that anyone can have fun spending an afternoon in the garage making stuff.

Here they are installed on the F-1. I'm pretty happy with the way they came out and can't wait to see them fully polished with the surrounding sheetmetal in color.