- Banned
- #76
Thank you. I gave up my welding and fab work several years ago when just got to hard on my eyes. If I could find a good fab guy I may resurrect the front bumper design for the JL.Bumpers, you want bumpers, here they are. YES I know this gonna brings out the jokes, laughter, haters etc. Fine by me, its ok and heard it for years.
Front bumper is my build, its light weight, strong beyond its looks.. If you think it cannot take a hit, this>
Driving down Frank Loyd Wright Blvd in Scottsdale AZ on the way to do some shopping. I am driving alone on the street which is 2 lanes and I am going 55 mph. The light ahead turns green and its a long green light, I drive this almost every day.
I get to the intersection and as I enter a Caddy runs the red light, I do not have time to even hit the brakes and I hit Caddy full force, passenger side rear quarter panel at the top of the tire. I see the truck literaly explode under the impact it flies off the caddy breaking its hinges. The caddy is a huge 4 door, I don't even hit the rear passenger door yet the glass explodes and so does the passenger front door glass. The axle is offset from the frame. We slide around and stop, I back up and drive around and park on the stree behind. I get out and run to the caddy and open the door, praying there are no passengers injured. There is only the driver. The driver, turns and looks at me and says: "Ohhh Sonny, I am so sorry, I did not see the light, I only one eye!" As her head turns to face me, she ONLY has one eye!
Her caddy was a '92 4 door sedan, a monster of a car, she was 90 years old. I tell her to just sit there and ask if she feels hurt. It was a major intersection and cops are already there. They tell her to stay in the car and an ambulance arrives, they put her in for observation. She not sure what is going on, but asks the cops to call her Son. They live just down the street and they are there in minutes.
Cop looks around as there a crowd and asks who and where is the car that hit her? I say its me. Where is your car. It the red jeep as we walk toward it. Cops looks and walks around my Jeep and asks, where did you hit her. Front bumper. WHAT! I have seen a lot of wrecks but you could have hit with that bumper! Yes I did, I built it and designed it.
POST SCRIPT: The lady loses her DL, her car is totaled, I get a letter from here insurance company lawyers wanting to settle the claim. I write a response and request a check for $0.97 for a can of glaoss black for the scrape mark on my stinger on the front of the bumper and tell them that is ALL the damage.
The rear bumper I had custom built. YES it is UGLY. But I carried a $100 bill in my wallet and as they laughed at it I would pull it out and offer it to anyone who cares to take a 10 lb sledge hammer and dent it. In the nearly 10 years I ran it, no one ever put a dent in it...Schedule 40 Steel pipe.
A reason why it fell out of favor was because of a design flaw. The 'Stinger" (if you had one) was to short. If you look at my design you see the stinger it slightly above the to of the radiator. I you go down a vertical and suddenly find flipping on your lid, my stinger will do 2 things. Keep you from flipping on your lid and keep from crushing the radiator. The other flaw was the braces for the stinger were welded to the radiator hoop...WRONG as all that will do is shove the hoop into the radiator. So when I designed mine I put the braces I welded to the crossbar and to the stinger now I am below the radiator completely and it adds strength to the 2 lower cross bars. You can just barely see the support bar bust below and next to the bottom of the right driving light.
Sadly designs like this did not stand the test of time due to poor design to begin with and the guy who (as I understand it) invented the original basic design, and was selling them like crazy, he was in all the catalogs and, he made a lot of money but had to file for bankruptcy. A lot of the problem was his NEW multimillion-dollar home, and cars and moved to from a 1200 sq ft shop to a 10,000 sq ft shop. He also (see it being done now) went DEEP in aluminum products, bumpers, tie rods you name it and he got carried away. Like his Aluminum Axle shafts, and drive shafts and it all failed . I knew him real well we were friends and I tried to make suggestions but would not listen.
If I was younger I open another Jeep shop, welding and fab werks. I loved it but I was killing myself doing it...
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