Well, I think I finally have something to contribute.
i decided to finally build a winch bumper for my ranch truck. I have a 1979 Ford F150 and scored a winch from a salvage truck. Now all I needed was a way to mount it. I could buy a winch mount but that's not very fun, so I called my friends, each with a special skill, and we got after it.
The first thing I did was to build a cradle out of thick gauge plate and Grade 8 hardware. This thing had to be bomber, as it would support the old winch (100lbs) and the rest of the bumper. It had to basically be able to handle the shear strength encountered when pulling the truck by the winch, so I overbuilt the shit out of it. Welded and bolted, it was bomber.
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After building (and rebuilding) the cradle, we began the bumper that would be built around it. I started with a 6' piece of plate. Here's Brian heating and bending the corners to provide the tapered corners. You can see the old bumper the winch came from. Shit box.
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Here's the plate with the corners turned, after Brian finished.
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We then mounted that flat plate to the front of the winch and secured it with four bolts through the winch plate and some welding. We then heated the seams and bent it back towards the truck. After that, I traced the caps, cut them with a plasma cutter, then tacked them on to hold it together.
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After that, I went on a welding rampage, completing all the edges, insides, etc. until it was all done and sturdy as shit. My buddy Jake then ground down the welds, making it all pretty. If I could, I would have left it in it's raw state. I love the colors and textures of raw, welded metal.
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After that, it was simply time to paint the beast (I used bed liner) then bold the roller fairlead on. And viola!
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