Some recent projects

[Corban_White]

I have been busy fabbing lately but it hasn't really been 4x4 related stuff. I thought the pictures might be interesting to some of you so I figured I would post them.

These are some tool boxes I built for my truck:

I had Marshall powdercoat them in a black wrinkle finish. They did an awesome job but I did not take any pictures till today so they are quite dirty. You can see one spot on them where I rubbed a bit of automotive wax and they shined right up. Now to do the whole thing.

 

[Corban_White]

A few months back I got rear ended and since I have been wanting to fab front and rear bumpers for my truck for some time but lacking the time I figured that with the money from the insurance I could buy one. I looked at all the replacement rear bumpers I could find for the Tacoma but I just didn’t like the style. Then I found this bumper made by CBI offroad fab in Idaho Falls and it looked pretty much like what I had in mind so I ordered one. I was concerned about the built in hitch as I do tow quite a bit with my truck and I am often up near the 6500 lb rating. They assured me that-although they couldn’t legally rate the hitch for liability reasons-it was at least as beefy if not more so than the stock unit. The price was good and the look was good so I ordered one up. I had them leave the cutouts for the license plate light and trailer hitch plug out because I didn’t like how the ones they supplied looked.

A few weeks ago I picked up the bumper and really liked it……..except for the hitch. Don’t get me wrong, it is beefy but the guys at CBI are obviously not engineers. Neither am I-technically-but I have been trained in the art. It was pretty strong looking except when you factor in the loads a WD hitch would place on it. That along with the attachment area had me a little concerned. So, I got out the plasma and the welder and took care of my concerns. It is not how I would do it if all the other pieces weren’t already welded but it assuaged my concerns about the stresses. Unfortunately I do not have any pictures of that part. I figured out what I wanted to do for a license plate light and trailer wiring so I cut those all out and then took it down to Marshall to have powdercoated. It is the semi-gloss black that he talks about in his black Friday thread.

 

[Corban_White]

And finally, since my son is scooting around (about like Ken Block ) in his walker as well as on his belly we decided that we needed a baby gate to prevent a tumble down the stairs. Because of how our stairs are arranged any of the gates that we looked at would have to have been modified. Well, I didn’t want to buy something only to have to be always fixing it and be frustrated so I decided to build one. It attaches to the newel posts on both sides using angle iron with weather stripping in between so as to not mar the wood. The gate lifts off the hinges leaving only the mounting brackets, swings both directions and is slam to latch. This one I rattle canned in high gloss black:

Hope you enjoyed!

EDIT: Sorry about the image quality, these were all taken on my Droid.

 

[benjy]

Very nice

 

[Taco4life]

Awesome work! That bumper looks smokin!

 

[Brad J]

Great Work Corban

 

[bobmed]

Very Nice
Your tools are way to organized though. You could find stuff in there without even trying

 

[I Lean]

Looks really nice Corban! Did you bend the iron for the gate, or is that something you can buy? Either way, both that and the toolboxes look like manufactured pieces.

 

[Corban_White]

I bent the arch if that is what you mean. The flowers I purchased.

 

[TRNDRVR]

What a waste of time. Stairs are like a training aid. Kids fall down them once and it'll never happen again. Trust me, I know. Ask my kids.

 

[mesha]

looks nice. I like those boxes a lot.

 

[lewis]

Good job! How much do those boxes weigh empty?

 

[Corban_White]

I didn't weigh them but I did lift them quite a few times. I would guess about 80 lb apiece.

 

[ricsrx]

do have a box brake to do your boxes? if so it looks great, thanks for sharing your projects, its cool to see there are people still around that can create stuff, nice work.

 

[Corban_White]

I have a brake but it is only 3ft. The boxes are 4 feet long so I had Kingdon Sheet Metal do the long bends.