I finally finished my little push bumper project tonight in time for the Outlaws tomorrow night! I started by removing the grill guard from my Dad's '83 W150. Then, since the bumper on it was trashed, I removed the front bumper from the '84 D150(which is just sitting). I mounted it all up at my Dad's place two weekends ago. I had to cut the ends off the factory bumper reinforcement brackets(different than the actual bumper brackets) so the "old" bumper would clear them. I used the '84 brackets to mount it. Now I had a solid platform to mount a "light-duty" push bumper to. Last Sat I went out and made up a push-bumper frame of angle iron. I finished it up this afternoon by filling the frame with a 2x12 and a 2x6, mounted the rubber(discarded sprint car tire), and painted it. And I must say, it's a lot more solid/rigid than I expected. I went over to my buddy's house(who wasn't home at the time) and bumped up against the back of one of his '88 K1500 Shivvy's that was parked in the street. I got out to check the contact area then proceeded to effortlessly push it ahead about 8" with it in park! I REALLY wanted to floor it and push it down the street but I also didn't want to break the Shivvy or leave long black marks on the street from his rear end skidding. Now I realize the the whole assembly is "crooked", however upon close inspection of the rad. support mounts the driver side one is worn/squashed down 1/2" lower than the pass side. So the bumper is straight, the rest is crooked!
Overall, I really like how the old mid 80's bumper looks on my '91. It's slimmer, trimmer, and shinier!!(no plastic cap) It's a couple inches shorter, but I that makes it look even better!

 

SAWEET!

Jon

 

im guessing your a push truck at the dirt track.

 

Well, it will be now, for the few times the NOSA sprints are here, or the once-a-year Outlaw show we have. I'm part owner in a towing business, our main truck is a '91 Ford SuperDuty, our first truck, an '80 Chevy K30, is what we use at the track now. We stripped the (junky)wheellift and sling off of it so it's just a wrecker body and boom. It's got a 350, 4spd, and I'm looking forward to pushing them things with an AUTO!! Of course, the fact that it's a CTD DODGE doesn't hurt either! There are other times it will come in handy year round.....

 

i worked as a tech inspector for 5 years at my local dirt track, we ran all small cars so our pushers were fourwheelers, we did flip a old 78 ford f150 one time, the track owners son got it sideways packing the track and rolled it up the wall and over on its roof. i will never work at another race track again, i cant stand the owners.

 

Looks like it will do the job