Three days in the shop and not a lot to show for it.
Or should I say how I drilled a round/elongated hole in a curved surface.
Wanting to stay with my concept of putting the stock backup lights in the bumper I picked up some 4 inch exhaust pipe from NAPA and a 4 inch hole saw. Then built a wood jig to hold the bumper square in my drill press and drilled the two holes in the bumper.
Welded up one bucket for the backup light and then welded it into the bumper keeping it square to how the bumper will sit. Still have to do the LH side of the bumper. Will not show you the back side of the bumper the weld is not very pretty but its functional, it’s one of those I’m not very proud of the weld but will live with it and no one will see it unless they crawl under the truck or I run over them HA HA.
After I weld in the other light and clean up all those nasty little burs on the back edge of the bumper (you know the ones that snag/cut your sponge or hand when washing the truck) the front and back bumper plus bolts will be off to be stripped and powder coated black.
I did get a chance to test fit a swing up license plate holder from Summit (part #SUM-G301000 Flip-up License Plate Mount). It didn’t fit very well to my satisfaction; it had to sit low, hitting the aft edge of the bumper, and spring showing below the bumper. I like the concept of hiding the trailer hitch and when using the hitch the license is visible. So there will be a lot of modifications that I will need to make to it to function and look the way I want it to.
Trying to keep up with my self imposed goal of wanting to post something on this build once a week or two to keep you up to date and keep the project rolling along. Hope my slow pace at doing things will keep your interest. Now I need to recoup a few days before getting back at it. Have a nice day and a better one tomorrow.