One of the liberties many people take when it comes to classic trucks is the treatment of the front and rear bumpers. It's common to find an old truck with a "farm fix" bumper made from 3-inch C-channel or galvanized pipe. Oftentimes these "upgrades" are stout enough to push a locomotive and, more often than not, isn't that good looking. There are many reasons for this, from pure necessity to the fact that many truck manufacturers offered bumpers as an optional upgrade. Whatever the reason, it should come as no surprise that when I originally bought my '52 F-1 project, it was sans both bumpers. Back in the February 2010 issue, we tackled the problem up front by installing a pair of one-off stainless nerf bars. But I wasn't so sure what to do out back. I didn't care for the stock F-1 rear bumper and wanted to continue with the custom truck theme and knew it was simply a matter of getting out in the shop and having a good stare at the back end of my truck.
Thankfully, the tailgate and rear stake posts in my bed had already been fixed a few years back, so the view from the rear was already looking pretty good. What wasn't looking good was the rear crossmember and leaf-spring shackles that hung down from underneath, in plain view. This would need to be remedied while I tackled the bumper situation.
What I came up with was a 2-inch stainless tube bumper slightly wider than the bed that would mount nice and tight against the rear cross sill, just below the tailgate. I decided to go with stainless since it will match the front nerf bars when they're polished and I don't have to deal with the headache of finding a good chrome shop and all the ills that come with chrome finishes (peeling, flaking, discoloration, rust, etc.). It also allows me to removes the parts and repolish them if the need arises, something that isn't so easy or cheap to do with a chromed part.
Fabricating and mounting the bumper was fairly straightforward. Once it was cut to length using a chop saw, I ensured that the ends were nice and square using my Harbor Freight combo belt / disc sander. From there, it was just a matter of drilling the mounting holes in the rear cross sill and welding the two stainless studs in the correct location on the backside of the bumper and bolting it up.
Once the bumper was in place, it was glaringly obvious that something needed to be done to the area directly below the backside of the bed. For that, I called up the guys at National Parts Depot (NPD) and ordered up a smooth roll pan with license box recess (PN F-40544-1B). The roll pan showed up with plenty of extra sheetmetal that allowed for it to be installed in a number of ways, yielding it to a wide variety of applications. For my F-1, I wanted to keep the back end nice and streamlined, so a bit of trimming using my HTP MicroCut 301 was in order to allow the roll pan to install high and tight against the bottom side of the bed. It took a few tries to get it just right, but when everything was said and done, I was quite pleased and the back end of the old Ford was looking way better.
Here's the section of 2-inch...
Here's the section of 2-inch stainless tubing that I'll be using for the rear bumper. A pair of jack stands are used to move it around to find the relation that looks best in regards to the tailgate.
I adjusted the jack stands...
I adjusted the jack stands until the bumper was nice and snug with the bottom of the tailgate before I marked it to be trimmed for the proper width.
Since the whole idea behind...
Since the whole idea behind the bumper is to keep a relatively low profile, I decided to let it hang 1/2-inch over the width of the bed at either side. Here, you can see the trimmed tube in place.
With the location decided,...
With the location decided, it is time to plot out the mounting holes in the rear cross sill. First, the center is marked, followed by the two mounting scribes.
Here are the two 1/2-inch...
Here are the two 1/2-inch holes for the bumper bolts.
I wanted the hardware to be...
I wanted the hardware to be hidden from view, giving the bumper a "floating" look. Using two stainless steel socket cap bolts that I cut the heads off of, the new stud was welded to the bumper tube. The section where the stud meets the bumper is on the shank portion of the bolt so the threads remain undisturbed during the welding process.
Here's the floating bumper...
Here's the floating bumper installed. Note the unfinished look of the area underneath it.
We'll fix that with this roll...
We'll fix that with this roll pan from National Parts Depot. I chose to go with the smooth pan with the license plate recess.
The first thing I did was...
The first thing I did was to mock up the roll pan in its stock guise. To do this required removing the bumper since the pan was so long and needed to butt up against the bottom of the tailgate. It's still too long so after some careful measurements were made...
...it was off to the HTP MicroCut...
...it was off to the HTP MicroCut 301 plasma cutter to trim the excess metal away.
The line at which we made...
The line at which we made our cut is actually a 1/2-inch longer than the panel needs to be.
This was done to allow us...
This was done to allow us to fold the panel on the line, giving a mounting surface for the side panels of the roll pan. Note the 1/4-inch hole that will serve as the mounting point under the bed.
For the back side of the roll...
For the back side of the roll pan, I simply drilled and tapped the rear cross sill and installed the roll pan directly to it.
When the bumper is installed,...
When the bumper is installed, the hardware disappears, resulting in a clean installation.
As much as was removed from...
As much as was removed from the original roll pan, it was still a bit clunky at the back end. My original intention was to make a low profile roll pan so as to hide the back part of the frame and the spring shackles, not so much add an entire panel under the bed.
So back to the plasma cutter...
So back to the plasma cutter I went and another few inches were hacked off the top of the roll pan. The other thing I observed was by moving the roll pan underneath the bed as opposed to flush with the rear cross sill, it gave the appearance of being further streamlined as it broke up the back panel. Instead of your eye seeing a panel that was flat from the top of the tailgate to the bottom of the roll pan, the roll pan is moved under the bed and the bumper is back at the bottom of the tailgate, visually.