60-66 Stepside rear step bumper modification
 

Hello all,
by request of a fellow member, I am sharing my "lesson learned" story & posting some photos with text of the modifications I had to make to my rear step bumper, in order to fit my '62 stepside long bed truck.

In my defence, this is my first stepside truck, I've always owned long bed fleetside trucks. So not being very failure with them, I assumed (wrongly) that the additional length of the long bed was made up in front of the rear fenders, in the running board area. I did not realize (or look carefully enough) that there is also an extra 6" behind the rear fenders. If, like me, you've never really noticed, have a look at a short bed stepside truck. You can see the rear fenders are almost in contact with the rear stake pockets (tailgate end) Whereas there is about a 6" gap between the rear fenders & the rear stake pockets on a long bed truck. Lesson learned!! Don't even want to think about the 9 foot beds

Here's the story:
My truck came with a very poor homemade bumper which was quite bent out of shape and had to go. So I started searching for a new rear bumper. I've always preferred the look of a step bumper & when I saw internet photos of original diamond plate stepside bumpers which wrap around (as I call it) the rear fenders which some of these trucks came with, I was hooked! Had to have one! It was not easy to find one around here, but I finally tracked one down from a Classic truck parts supplier who also carries used parts & happen to have one sitting in a storage area (not mounted on a truck) He only wanted $50 for it so I figured, can't go wrong with that!...or could I??

Not knowing at the time that there was a difference between short bed & long bed step bumpers of this style (because of that extra 6" in rear of the long bed) I went ahead and stripped it, primed & painted it. I was so happy with look!..... until I mounted it on the truck & installed the fenders!

Note: Before I resorted to modifying this bumper I tried to find a correct one locally with no luck, and shipping one from the US where they seem to be more plentiful would have been too cost prohibitive.

So here below is the first installment (more to follow) of what I did to make my short bed step bumper fit my long bed correctly! All in all it was a fun metal fab/welding project to do and rather easy to accomplish with rather basic tools, welder, die grinder with cut off wheels, angle grinder & my trusty old jig saw with metal blades. If you have a plasma cutter (I don't) I would imagine you could make the cuts much faster too. I did have to buy 2 pieces of 1/8" diamond plate steel 12" x 24" from my local Metal Supermarket (really inexpensive) to make up two new step pieces. The other filler pieces were made with scraps I had sitting around. At the end of the day, I learned a little more about these great trucks and ended up with what I'm proud to say is a really cool looking bumper!

If any of you are in the same boat I was in (I doubt many of you would overlook the bed length dimension detail I did here) or if can only find a short bed step bumper of this style to put on your long step bed truck, hope this little project helps you out? Any questions, feel free to ask!

Re: 60-66 Stepside rear step bumper modification
 

Installment #2 Can't seem to load more than 5 pics at a time.

Re: 60-66 Stepside rear step bumper modification
 

Final installment.

Re: 60-66 Stepside rear step bumper modification
 

Nice job, Great write up.

Re: 60-66 Stepside rear step bumper modification
 

Thanks for capturing and detailing all the work required. Nice job. Love the finished result.

Re: 60-66 Stepside rear step bumper modification
 

Thanks for sharing this excellent write up. The pictures and a detailed
walkthrough make your mod very clear. Well done murghy98!
I don't have a step side bumper but I want to try to mod my fleet side bumper before I give up and just put a repro chrome one on. The bumper right now is a safety hazard at car shows. I was thinking about just shortening it and closing the bed side holes. Any Other Ideas? I am going to try to hunt down a long step side barden bumper but I am not going to bet on it.

Re: 60-66 Stepside rear step bumper modification
 

Thanks very much for the + feedback.

I can really see what you mean by the ends of your fleetside bumper being a hazard. I like your idea of closing up the ends as shown in you lower photo, you should be able to extend the side sections to meet up with your fender sides without too much trouble. Before you do any cutting on the ends, I will see how wide my bumper is to see how much you would need to trim if that is any help to you?
Oh, by the way, I have seen this style of bumper referred to as a "Barden" bumper. Can you tell me why? Was Barden the company that made these bumpers? Thanks.

Re: 60-66 Stepside rear step bumper modification
 

Thanks very much for the kind words, I was hoping the instructions would be easy to follow. This style bumper is not nearly as common as the standard (non step) style bumper but I really love it!

Re: 60-66 Stepside rear step bumper modification
 

Thanks very much!

Re: 60-66 Stepside rear step bumper modification
 

Fine work you have done murphy! I have a rear fleetside bumper similar if not the same as WhippinSaw's that I am now inspired to modify! :metal::chevy:

Re: 60-66 Stepside rear step bumper modification
 

Thanks very much T.J.
Glad to here you will try to modify your fleetside bumper. Looking forward to seeing it! Post some photos when you are done, be nice to see the fleetside version modified to fit a step bed.

Re: 60-66 Stepside rear step bumper modification
 

Injoyed the post with great pictures nice job on both truck....thanks Sp

Re: 60-66 Stepside rear step bumper modification
 

I believe Barden Bumpers where installed at the dealer, my 63 was made in Oakland and has an Woodland California/Albany Oregon Barden bumper, There are probably other companys making these bumper too. Good thread on dealer installed bumpers here. http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=561195

Until I find a step side bumper I want to cut the tail off mine, keeping the contour and slide it over. Will I be able to use a cut off tool to separate the diamond plate from the angle iron by the white arrow and reattach the diamond plate to the piece I am sliding over without damaging? This will look better right away, its cheap and relatively easy compared to your mod and will give me some confidence to mod a real fender side bumper if I have to.
Thanks again murphy98

Re: 60-66 Stepside rear step bumper modification
 

I have that same bumper on my '64 fleetside C-20...I am thinking of pulling it and modifying it to fit my C-10...I kinda like the looks...also that is has a place to mount a ball, and that it will add some weight. lol

Re: 60-66 Stepside rear step bumper modification
 

Thanks for the info on the Barden bumpers WhippinSaw,
My bumper originally had a small steel tag riveted to it about the same as your tag photo but it was rather faded and mostly unreadable (so I removed it) but I believe my bumper came off a US West coast truck so it most likely is a Barden made bumper. Also thanks for the thread on dealer installed bumpers, found it most informative! I will post photos of mine there as well.

As for your question about using a cut off tool to separate the diamond plate from the angle iron, I imagine you should be able to. I was not trying to save the piece of diamond plate to reuses so I just cut along the perimeter weld across the top of the diamond plate so as not to damage the angle iron. However in your case you may want to try cutting the weld bead at a 45 degree angle to the diamond plate/angle iron & use the thinnest cutting wheel you can in order to minimize "shortening" (due to the thickness of the cutting wheel) of the diamond plate, if that makes any sense? That way you can slide the bumper end contour piece under the diamond plate and re-weld a new bead, I am sure the weld will be able to fill the gap between the diamond plate & angle iron easily and look just like the rest of the bumper. Good luck with it, try to take lots of pics while you are doing it and post your results. Looking forward to seeing you modification.

Re: 60-66 Stepside rear step bumper modification
 

Murphy98, do you think I can make a step side bumper out of this? Seems to be a lower than yours, but I might be able to make it work with your help.
Thanks

Re: 60-66 Stepside rear step bumper modification
 

I just checked my bumper measurements and they seem to match up with yours exactly WhippinSaw. My bumper is about 4" high and the vertical piece of diamond plate which closes the gap from the top of the bumper to the bottom of the bed cross sill is 2 7/8" high. I have about a 1/4" gap between the vertical piece and the bottom of the rear bed cross sill. It appears that your bumper is sitting a bit low, looks like your gap is about 1" going by your ruler in the pic. I do recall having to elongate my bumper bracket holes (on the frame) a bit as my bumper also sat a bit low when I first installed it. I made up a platform with a couple or 2x4s & some plywood between the bumper & my floor jack to support the bumper fully so I could make height adjustments as well as front to back adjustments more easily since I was doing this install solo. The bottom side edge of the bumper side extensions should be flush with the bottom of the rear fenders as you can see in the last pic. Hope these additional pics help? Let me know if you need more help or info.

Re: 60-66 Stepside rear step bumper modification
 

Great, I think I can do this then. I am going to get the bumper up so there is only a 1/4 inch gap and post back. Thanks murphy98

Re: 60-66 Stepside rear step bumper modification
 

Great job and thanks for documenting it.

Re: 60-66 Stepside rear step bumper modification
 

Sounds good, take lots of pics as you do your conversion. Looking forward to seeing it all done!

Re: 60-66 Stepside rear step bumper modification
 

Thanks!

Re: 60-66 Stepside rear step bumper modification
 

Hey WhippinSaw I have the same bumper on my 64 C-20 and am contemplating on doing a similar swap..only difference would be is mine is a shortbox stepper. If you have any tips later on I'd be happy to take any advice. And like Murphy said..Please take pictures! LOL! :chevy:

Re: 60-66 Stepside rear step bumper modification
 

Finally warmed up enough to start working on the truck. Took the bumper off and straighten the rear sill plate and the diamond plate where it meets the sill. The diamond plate is still bent down some by the barden tag an I will fix that later. The floor jack worked good to get the bumper in position. A factory small hole on the frame lined up with the far slot in the bumper and I used a small bolt to tilt the bumper up and down to find the best angle. It went up about 3/4", and went towards the rear 1 1/2" and had tilted it down some. Just had to drill the small hole out bigger and drill a new hole for the other.Looks good so far, got nothing to lose so I'm ready to cut, If you could check some overall measurements, I can measure it twice and cut once, I got 66 1/4' under the rear sill and think that will be around 55 after Its cut and 76 5/8" overall not sure what that should be. Thanks murhy98

Re: 60-66 Stepside rear step bumper modification
 

Hey WhippinSaw,
the gap under the cross sill is looking really good after your adjustments. I just checked the two measurements you asked about on my bumper. I got 55 1/4" for the width of the vertical portion of the diamond plate under the cross sill, so just about what your measurement is. For the overall width of the bumper I get 73 5/8". Perhaps you can take a carpenters square and put the short leg along the rear edge of the bumper and have the longer leg just touching the rear fender but long enough to reach just short of the molded lip area of the fender see last photo in post #18 above for reference (maybe put some masking tape on the fender so the square does not scratch it) then draw a line on the top of the bumper to simulate the end of the bumper and repeat on the other side then measure the overall width of the bumper going by those two lines and see what that comes to before you do any cutting. Check that measurement against mine to see if you are close. Let me know if you need more info, happy to help!

Re: 60-66 Stepside rear step bumper modification
 

Thanks for the carpenter square suggestion, I got a good look at it and noticed my fender with the spare tire cutout is narrower than the other. Never noticed that before, barely noticeable in the pic. That side will have a shorter bumper than the other.:lol: I have a metal super mart close by, looks like I need 2 pieces of 1/8" diamond plate steel 12" x 24" and 2 pieces of 1/4" X 4" flat stock steel 2 foot long before I start cutting. If you get a chance could you post a couple of rear close ups so I can better visualize that molded area like the pic below. Thanks murphy98

Re: 60-66 Stepside rear step bumper modification
 

This is a great thread guys! I will soon be starting on my own rear bumper on my longbed stepside. Your's turned out great. :bann:

Re: 60-66 Stepside rear step bumper modification
 

Here are some pics of the contoured tip of the bumper side rails where it meets the fender, hope these help? It's only about the last 2-2 1/2" of the bottom portion of the tip that is bent (sort of a compound curve top to bottom of the edge & horizontally a couple of inches from the end) to match the contour of the fender. I took the last pic from underneath so you can see how it bends in to fit the shape of the fender. The top edge is straight all the way. Bottom edge of the bumper side rail should be flush with the bottom of the fender. In other words you should not be able to see the bottom of the fender dropping below the bottom of the bumper side extension. Obviously, I did not have to deal with making these contoured tips as I was able to reuse my original tips however it may be helpful to use a scrap piece of thinner metal or tin to make up a sample of the tip before trying to shape the thicker steel piece.

Re: 60-66 Stepside rear step bumper modification
 

Thanks 3/4ton Randy, good luck with your bumper, post some before and after pics when you are done.

Re: 60-66 Stepside rear step bumper modification
 

Thanks murphy98, Yes that helps, still seems that I am to low, I cut off the diamond plate to 55 1/4 and am going to remount the bumper after I clean it up so I can lay some new diamond plate on the top of the bumper to see where it ends up on the fender. I want to cut it like yours under the diamond plate vertical riser like the picture below to rid a little more rust and smooth it out, I think thats on a straight line with the bed then too. I think its 3 inches, could you confirm when you get a chance.

Re: 60-66 Stepside rear step bumper modification
 

Checking my bumper measurement from the edge of the vertical diamond plate to the factory weld seam I get 2 3/4", the distance from the factory weld seam to the outer edge of the bumper is 12". The new diamond plate pieces I used to fill in the new section were exactly 12" x 24" which worked out perfectly for my bumper. Because your bumper was originally for a feetside, not sure if the factory weld seem would have been in the same location as the stepside version? Let me know if you need any more dimensions, your progress is coming along nicely!

Re: 60-66 Stepside rear step bumper modification
 

Oh, by the way WhippinSaw, I see in your second photo above that your bumper has an upper hitch ball plate. Mine had the same setup but I chose to cut out the upper plate in order to allow my rear license plate to be mounted there as I did not like the original mounting on top of the bumper left side as shown in the 2nd photo below. Not saying you should do the same but something to consider. I forgot to mention that modification in my original write up.

Re: 60-66 Stepside rear step bumper modification
 

Thanks for posting the description of the bumper tips. Your picture from the bottom of the compound bend and your description made it all click. I made a tip out of 1/8" flat stock and thinking of welding 6 inches of that tip onto thicker flat stock or channel and hiding the seam under the diamond plate. The compound bend not only made the bottom curve In, but it also curved the whole edge. I put the flat stock in a vise and tightened it at one and pushed until 45 degrees in the picture , lowered it to two and pulled it 45 degrees, then lowered it to three pushed it as needed. I also think I got a good measurement. The bumper is flush with the bottom of the fender and everything looks good so far. :metal: I might need to cut more than 2 3/4 off the diamond plate to get rid of the distortion from the rust, but I don't think that should be a problem.
Thanks again murphy98

Re: 60-66 Stepside rear step bumper modification
 

Looking really good WhippinSaw! I see what you mean by needing to cut a bit more of the diamond plate to get rid of the rust underneath it. I had the same problem on one area of my bumper as well but it was more confined to the outer curve area. As you said, should not be a big deal to correct this issue. Looking forward to seeing the finished product, keep up the great work!:metal:

Re: 60-66 Stepside rear step bumper modification
 

Nice it looks like it should have came from the factory that way.Great detail.

Re: 60-66 Stepside rear step bumper modification
 

Hey murphy98, I have one side mocked up but wanted to get some advice about the diamond plate. The more I cut out the more it sagged, never worked with any of this stuff so any input is welcome. I ended up using 3/16ths channel and flat stock for the frame. The thicker metal was harder to bend, so I just put the bumper tip in a vise at the line and bent the triangle over to match the molded area. Pictures are worth a 1000 words so here ya go.


[QUOTE=richards72chevy;6612914]Nice it looks like it should have came from the factory that way. QUOTE]

Thanks for the encouragement richards72chevy, I am thinking the same thing, its worth the effort to find out.

Re: 60-66 Stepside rear step bumper modification
 

Hey WhippinSaw, you are making great progress! Side pieces are looking really good! I must admit however that I am not sure why the vertical section of diamond plate is sagging? I did notice that in your last pic on post #33 you can see that there is a downward dip in the vertical piece of diamond plate & a downward dip in the horizontal piece towards the vertical. That distortion may be due to the rust build up at the outer edge? So perhaps when you removed the extra flat section of diamond plate the vertical piece took on more of the slope downward due to the missing horizontal section. Hopefully once you add in the new section of horizontal (step section) of 1/8" diamond plate under the vertical piece, the vertical section can be pushed up with a floor jack and tack welded to see if the sag is corrected. Not sure if that makes any sense? Kind of hard to describe. This was my first time working with diamond plate too so I'm afraid I'm no expert! If the sag is not corrected when the new horizontal piece is installed you may need to cut some of the vertical section further towards the center of the bumper and splice in a new piece. Not sure if this is of any help but I hope the sag can be corrected. Keep us posted!
Murph.

Re: 60-66 Stepside rear step bumper modification
 

Thanks for the reply murphy98, the floor jack and some massaging might work. If I have to I can try to re skin the whole thing. Im getting ready to make the final adjustment on the fender tip spacing and was wondering if the bumper tip touches the fender or do I leave a small gap.

Re: 60-66 Stepside rear step bumper modification
 

I was going to suggest if the sag can not be corrected that you may need to consider (although I know it's a ton more work) redoing all the diamond plate with new stock but did not want to overwhelm you! Glad you are considering it if the jack does not work, hope it does however. I left just under an 1/8" gap between the edge of the diamond plate/end tips and the fender. This allowed me to use left over fender welting to fill the gap and prevent the bumper from scratching the fender.

Re: 60-66 Stepside rear step bumper modification
 

Nice work...looking good. Love the trim rings that you added to the rims also...looks great.

Re: 60-66 Stepside rear step bumper modification
 

Really nice work! Giving me ideas for when I possibly do mine! :metal: