SWRT wrote:Man, I'm so freakin jealous of your car.
Please take pictures of the process of mounting that bamboo push bumper.
I want to make one of those too if I can figure out how you did it haha
As long as you dont mind, that is. It was your idea.
It's pretty simple, and I dont mind at all... And no need to be jealous, the only thing I've got in this car is a fix for my boredom. hehe! But thank you!
materials:
2x 2.5" dia bamboo stick
1x 1.5" dia bamboo stick
hole saw blade *slightly smaller diameter than the 1.5" stick
1/4" cotton rope
fiberglass resin and hardener
3x 2" throw away paintbrushes....
I decided on length/angle/etc of bars.
Cut two main bars then measured and marked for uprights.
Carefully drilled between cells for holes for uprights in lower bar, keeping uprights fairly long.
Used a round wood rasp to widen holes to near-fitting in the uprights, then used 220 grit to custom fit each hole. *keep track of which ends fit where with a sharpie. I used a few dots. so they were hidden easily.
Trial fit everything, seeing how much I need to cut off of uprights.
I then trimmed uprights, and after I had it nearly to my desired height, I tapered to a 2D half moon; the ends of each upright with a belt sander so it fit all the way down into the receiving piece's wall. *this also gives additional rigidity to the structure, giving it more contact points.
[Note: be sure to sand toward the end grain, if you sand into the piece from the edge, it will cause the fiber to run and peel.]
I didn't take any pictures of the assembly of the bumper so far, as I was just building by the seat of my pants...
for the mounting of the bumper, I've saved two 1.5" stalks about 8" long that I drilled the center cells through and sanded smooth the interior and fit 1/8th steel tubes that I will weld to the mounting plates of the original crash beam... they'll be welded in place to the steel pieces. They are currently properly spaced apart, to keep alignment with a tacked in place bar between the two. *will take pictures of this. * and after I weld on the uprights I'll only have to slide the sleeves on and run a bolt through to fix the bamboo to the original mounting points. The bolts will be hidden with rope. They then will receive a resin coat to keep the rope binding nice and tight. If I choose later to remove the bamboo bumper or need to repair it, I merely cut the rope off and sand off the remaining resin. Or if I want to switch bumpers, it'll unbolt with the original four bolts.
EDIT: I just noticed this is my 555th post!
How very Subaru! Random thought: I dont think those 555 brand cigarettes exist anymore, it's more Subaru than smokes now.
Would have been nice to go as smooth as that.