Completed: The Mazda B2500 Turbodiesel 4x4 Brush Bumper Project

It seems like forever since I started the project, though it's only really been 3 weeks (you can read more about the start here). With the workshop's priorities shifting to emergency jobs and the priorities of Boya and myself shifting quite a bit during that time, it seemed like it would take forever. And that's not even touching the problems of vehicle juggling, pigeon dodging and taking advantage of time slots to do other necessary things in the same workspace. If we could distill out the time used in the final product, we spent about 3 solid work days on the bumper spread over a 3 week period.

Model inefficiency, maybe, but given what needed to be done I have to admit we did pretty good.

The finished product, above, doesn't even get a glance on the road. Why? The theory is that (1) It's black and (2) it fits the contours of the pickup. I'm calling it the Stealth Brush Shield at this point.

Prior to the rust removal, final bake and paint/undercoating, the then frankenbumper got many stares. It wasn't pretty but people knew well enough not to pull in front of me unless their tetanus shots were up to date. I got quite a few comments, mainly from taxi drivers, that they liked the bumper.

"Dat is bumper, boy!".
Why yes. Yes it is.

Altogether, the parts for the bumper came up to approximately $580 TT - about $91 US. With the undercoating, the cost goes up to about $680 TT ($107 US) but the undercoating is to be a recurring cost. If the undercoating scrapes off in the guava patch, I just... spray it back on.

A few people thought I should electroplate it, saying it would look really good in chrome. Probably. But it wasn't designed for looks; I pick function over form almost every time (a female critic of the bumper suggested that this is why I am still single. She's not far off).

Lessons Learned

Thicker steel sheet would have been easier for Boya (the Chief Fabricator) to work with; we knew that but weight remains an important factor. If the power plant were significantly larger than a 2.5 liter turbodiesel, heavier sheet would have been used. To be clear on that, the weight is also a factor in what the front suspension can maintain under load. The gas shocks I use do compensate for some, and the tires for some more, but at the end of the day the little Mazda is a little Mazda and not a Sherman Tank. Some people think the Mazda is a Sherman Tank, but that has more to do with the driver than the bumper...

The clearance on left and right of the bumper for the wheels has already proven a boon for offroad - a turn in the right direction allows me more rubber to the surface, so climbing up embankments can be done more readily. This is a nice feature that wasn't planned.

Better planning for the tow hook might have been done. The objective, of course, is to avoid using the tow hook - but the intercooler is placed very close to it. Repositioning the intercooler was a thought, but assuring airflow to the diesel itself for cooling and combustion is also important. So that was an unfortunate balance that needed to be struck.

The air ram isn't actually implemented yet. Mr. Boya wasn't exactly getting my meaning on how it would work, but he understood everything else so I got him to set up most of it for me without knowing how it would work. The idea is to, eventually, bolt in a scoop on top of the diamond mesh that really forces the air over the intercooler and pushes air into the intake. This is not really necessary, but... I like tweaking things. Better airflow across the intercooler will, effectively, make it a larger intercooler. A 12V DC fan has not been ruled out, either.

Overall, I'm happy with the bumper. And that's what matters. We'll see how it does over time.