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Early FDT Light Bar


ZippoVarga

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Well...after thinking about it for a couple years, I finally went ahead and ordered me a piece of .250 x 1.250 hot rolled steel the other day. The shop offered to cut the 20 foot piece down into manageable lengths for me for free, so I took them up on their offer and had 4 sections cut at 30 inches to make 1964-1968 light bars with and the remaining stock I just had them cut in half to make rear light brackets and 1969-1972 front light brackets with. I chose to tackle the hardest one first which is the older long light bar and here is what I was able to get done in the hour I spent out in the shop this afternoon. I'm hoping to get the 4 done first since I have 3 spoken for and one for me to replace the aluminum one I made for Ugly Alice. I gotta tell ya.......it's a heck of a lot easier to bend the aluminum than this stuff!! lol



[img]/club2/attach/ZippoVarga/LightBar.jpg[/img]
Obviously the one on the bottom is the original. Getting the downward angle to match up was a chore and a half. I am hoping to devise a better way to set those angles. I've also got to make a better jig to put over the stock to get the arc set easier than just using a long pipe and heating it up with Mapp gas. The stock likes to twist and contort when bending the arc. Which is why there are vice marks on the "prototype" that I'll use on Ugly Alice. Has anyone made these with good results who can give me a tip or three on making the arcs and downward angle easier to do with less tool markings?
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Have you tried this method. Roger made one up for me and it turned out really good. http://www.simpletractors.com/club2/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=24838
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The only thing I can think of Sean is to buy the bronze or aluminum jaws for the vice and work from there.
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Sean, if you used Oxy-Acetylene torch and had that piece red hot for about a couple inches, it would bend like putty and would not wrinkle like the one you bent. Mapp gas just is not hot enough to bend metal, since the piece needs to be "red-hot" to be soft enough to bend easily.
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You need a nice old forge and anvil to do that job.Works better than a torch and is a lot more fun to do.Besides the smoke smells better than cigarettes.
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When I made mine I made several notches and bent it together. Once filled with weld metal and ground down it looked the same.
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Issues resolved. Found an old torch tip that gets the metal red hot in about 45 seconds with mapp gas and isolates the area being bent nicely. Didn't have any buckling of the other side. Pictures tomorrow....
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That's a possibility. Only problem is my body has to cooperate long enough to get them made. So I won't make them to order. I'll post in the classifieds when something is ready. Here are a couple pics of the first finished bar. You can't tell, but it does have the stock angles that tilt downward. And I am not square on Ugly-Alice so it looks like the right light is real close to the hood. They are actually equal distances away from the hood. First try had some growing pains. I'm sure as I go forward, they will get easier to make. Next are rear light brackets for both Simplicities and A/Cs now that I have one of each and flat hood FDT headlight brackets.




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Good job Sean! Didn't think a Mapp gas torch would get the metal red hot. Learned something new today.
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lol...Hood Bolts...hmm.....I'd need a lathe for that!! Rod, I was having heat issues and just kept going through my torch heads and tada!! Just happened to find the right one for the job. I wasn't very optimistic at first. Thanks for all the kudos every one! If I get good enough at it we'll all have light bars!!! Tomorrow I'm making a set of flat hooded FDT light brackets and a couple Simp and A/C rear light brackets. We'll see how they turn out.
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Good info to know Maynard....takes a little pressure off me with all the PMs I've been getting...lol.
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