'00 F350 SuperDuty

Front End Replacement

After looking over a bunch of different front-end replacements (bumpers), I decided that I needed one for the truck. The stock bumper is not exactly all that great and doesn't look like it would hold up all that well. I kept finding funny situations where I would have the need to push something, another car, etc, and it's silly have to this big truck but be afraid to use it because you don't want to scratch the bumper. I do frequent trips down small highways that wind thru the forest, and seeing the number of large animals in the road that I do, the idea of having a bumper that would win in an unexpected collision is appealing. The prices on these units are a little high and usually cost a ton to ship, so decided unless some really good deal come along, I wasn't going to get one. I really needed a project to work on, so gathered up some scrap metal and started welding.

The inner frame is constructed mainly of 2" square thickwall tubing. The outside is 1/4" steel plate. Air vents (lots of coolers behind the bumper) were cut and covered with expanded steel, and light mounts were attached to the lower horizontal bar. There is a hitch receiver centered on the bottom, the license plate is bolted to a bracket that slides into the it for easy mounting and removal. Two tow hooks off a large tractor were bolted to the uprights. The headlights are protected by 1" heavy tubing. It weighs a few hundred pounds and was coated with some spray-on bedliner type stuff. Seems to look ok, covers up my grinding marks and when it gets beat up, spray on some more and it patches very easily. The lights are just some 6" 100-watt (150?) units I found at the store, they are sure bright! Makes the high beams look like daytime running lights.

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