Looking good.

 

looks great man

 

Look nice , must be nice to have a lazer cut table. But one thing I would have to add is about how low your light tabs are, with my hella light I welded mine at the top and still had to add washers as shims so I could get the light covers off. So might want to a test fit before final paint

 

Thanks guys.

I was able to get the bar sanded down and cleaned/prepped for paint. I then sprayed two coats of primer and two coats of Rust-Oleum textured black. I'm really happy with the way it's turning out and I can't wait to get it on the truck.

As for lights I decided on a couple sets of IPF 986s. They have been getting very good reviews for a while now and according to all the off-road forums they're hard to beat for the price.



These pics were taken with my cell phone so they aren't the greatest quality but you get the idea. The paint is still drying too so there appears to be some lightly coated areas in the pics but there definitely aren't any.

 

SHA-WEET....I'll take one...

 

I actually meant for the tabs to be at the top but with the bend angle I put on each end they actually fit better a bit lower down. I should be okay with the lights I'm putting on it but if not I'll cut some spacers on the laser. If I ever make any more of them I'll most likely put the top of the tabs flush with the top of the tubing to alleviate most problems. Thanks for the heads up!

Yeah it's definitely nice having a laser. For the longest we ran hand plasmas and finally upgraded to plasma tables. The laser was purchased a few years ago and has made things so much easier; no more grinding, the tolerance is excellent, and we can cut some pretty intricate stuff.

 

Just curious, if you would consider making me one identical to that except not painted. How much would it cost figuring materals, time, and use of the equipment.

I love it and want one.

Thanks!

Jonathan

 

I would definitely make these for others on f150online.com but first I would like to make sure everything fits just right on my truck. I ordered the lights tonight so hopefully they will be in soon and I can get things finished up. Stay tuned!

 

It looks great man! Glad you went this route rather than the N-Fab!

Those lights should be decent. I'm still a firm believer in Pencil Beams though.

If you start making these, I'd definitely be interested once I purchase a Supercrew!

-Curtis-

 

I think they'll be okay. These lights will be used solely for hunting trips and where I hunt it's mostly winding trails through the woods so I probably wouldn't even be able to use the range that a pencil beam would give me.

 

Good deal. They should be good then.

Where I hunt pencil beams prevail. We have a lot of long straight clay roads and lots of chops. Nothin beats a good drive through the woods on the way to the treestand before the crack of dawn with all lights burnin.

-Curtis-

 

Looks great! Glad to see I'm not the only one around here self fabricating light bars.

 

I really want to put a light bar on my truck but the only decent light bars are the Smittybilt light bar which run around $130-$140 on ebay. If you decided to do a batch of these please count me in (of course depends on price).

Nice work.

 

The lights should be here next week and I'll get some pics with the bar on the truck and some more with the lights installed. The only thing I'm not 100% satisfied with at this point is the paint..... it looks great but it seems like it's going to take a while to fully cure. I checked on the bar tonight (24 hours later) and the finish isn't anywhere near being even partially cured. However it has been real humid here so that probably has a lot to do with it.

As for price I'm not really sure yet since I haven't actually figured time, materials and machinery usage but I would guess somewhere in the range of $100-$130 depending on whether or not you wanted it primed/painted. I'm going to check on powder-coating and see how much a local guy would charge to do 5-10 of them so that could be a factor as well. I'm thinking that once I'm satisfied with the design/finish of the bar I'll build ~10 of them to keep the cost down and see how it goes. Who knows? They might become popular and I could sell more than that. I haven't had any first hand experience with any of the other bars but judging from the pics I'd be willing to bet mine is just as well built -- if not better. Design and fabrication is what I do for a living after all.

Stay tuned......

 

When I built my bar I feared that the paint wouldn't turn out well on it if I just sanded it down by hand. I took my bar and had it sandblasted, then primed and painted it and it turned out great! Paid somewhere around $15-$20 bucks to have the bar blasted I cant remember exact off hand. Just another option possibly.