Home brew rear crossmember

[RiftRover]

Been meaning to post on this for awhile and was inspired by another post... Found some cancer in my rear crossmember and couldn't bring myself to spend 400 large on a new one (non-galvanized!), especially when it is poorly constructed IMHO. So I decided to build my own with 6x3 .120 wall rectangular tubing. It's slightly taller than the stock crossmember, by about 3/8", but still fits the NAS bumper. Also decided not to fill it full of holes like the stock one and only did what was necessary to fit the bumper, and I sleeved those holes in case I want to use it as an air tank (assuming my welds are good enough). This was about $90 worth of steel and a saturday.

[bjf]

Really impressive

[cgalpin]

Very nicely done!

[Jpayne]

That looks great.

Did you weld that crossmember to your 89 frame or did you weld it to a new one and then have it dipped?

[evilfij]

Looks good!

How did you attach it to the frame? Did you use fish plates and brackets like factory?

[Grover]

Well done!

[16kpsi]

nice Mike - truck's looking good

1) why not stainless? :)
2) why didn't you call me and offer to make me one too? (for a price, of course)

[RiftRover]

I used the original brackets to mount it and also added an L bracket on each side of the frame with plug welds just to be sure. There is about 16 separate welds so it should be OK. :) Frame is actually not galvanized, it's coated with Rust Bullet. If I did it all again I would galvanize it, because as the Ninja says they rot from the inside and coating the outside is just postponing the inevitable. But coating it allowed me to do a little at a time... Tony, I didn't do stainless because I am a novice, not a professional like you! I guess I do owe you something for the awesome stainless A-pillar supports you made me though... :)

[bjf]

It is an impressive set up for sure. I am too lazy to search but do you have other pics of your truck and how it is built up?

[RiftRover]

No, I haven't done a build thread yet but was planning to post something when I get finished. I actually drove it this afternoon for the first time in about a year and a half! So should be posting something soon, although I didn't document everything as well as some have.

[don]

That looks really good. Very nice job! When I repowdered my rear bumper and replaced the gas tank guard I cleaned up the rear cross member then coated with POR 15. The whole time cleaning out the gunk and stuff in all the nicks I thought "why the hell would they make them like that?" The stock setup is like a bucket for grabbing water, mud, dirt, leaves, etc. Plus it looks better on the exterior as well without all the holes.

[lynchee]

Nice job. That looks great.

[mikeslandrover]

Very nice job.:)