60-66 Stepside rear step bumper modification

[murphy98]

Hello all,
by request of a fellow member, I am sharing my "lesson learned" story & posting some photos with text of the modifications I had to make to my rear step bumper, in order to fit my '62 stepside long bed truck.

In my defence, this is my first stepside truck, I've always owned long bed fleetside trucks. So not being very failure with them, I assumed (wrongly) that the additional length of the long bed was made up in front of the rear fenders, in the running board area. I did not realize (or look carefully enough) that there is also an extra 6" behind the rear fenders. If, like me, you've never really noticed, have a look at a short bed stepside truck. You can see the rear fenders are almost in contact with the rear stake pockets (tailgate end) Whereas there is about a 6" gap between the rear fenders & the rear stake pockets on a long bed truck. Lesson learned!! Don't even want to think about the 9 foot beds

Here's the story:
My truck came with a very poor homemade bumper which was quite bent out of shape and had to go. So I started searching for a new rear bumper. I've always preferred the look of a step bumper & when I saw internet photos of original diamond plate stepside bumpers which wrap around (as I call it) the rear fenders which some of these trucks came with, I was hooked! Had to have one! It was not easy to find one around here, but I finally tracked one down from a Classic truck parts supplier who also carries used parts & happen to have one sitting in a storage area (not mounted on a truck) He only wanted $50 for it so I figured, can't go wrong with that!...or could I??

Not knowing at the time that there was a difference between short bed & long bed step bumpers of this style (because of that extra 6" in rear of the long bed) I went ahead and stripped it, primed & painted it. I was so happy with look!..... until I mounted it on the truck & installed the fenders!

Note: Before I resorted to modifying this bumper I tried to find a correct one locally with no luck, and shipping one from the US where they seem to be more plentiful would have been too cost prohibitive.

So here below is the first installment (more to follow) of what I did to make my short bed step bumper fit my long bed correctly! All in all it was a fun metal fab/welding project to do and rather easy to accomplish with rather basic tools, welder, die grinder with cut off wheels, angle grinder & my trusty old jig saw with metal blades. If you have a plasma cutter (I don't) I would imagine you could make the cuts much faster too. I did have to buy 2 pieces of 1/8" diamond plate steel 12" x 24" from my local Metal Supermarket (really inexpensive) to make up two new step pieces. The other filler pieces were made with scraps I had sitting around. At the end of the day, I learned a little more about these great trucks and ended up with what I'm proud to say is a really cool looking bumper!

If any of you are in the same boat I was in (I doubt many of you would overlook the bed length dimension detail I did here) or if can only find a short bed step bumper of this style to put on your long step bed truck, hope this little project helps you out? Any questions, feel free to ask!

[murphy98]

Installment #2 Can't seem to load more than 5 pics at a time.

[murphy98]

Final installment.

[Mathew21]

Nice job, Great write up.

[murphy98]

Originally Posted by Mathew21

Nice job, Great write up.

Thanks very much!

[TJ's Chevy]

Originally Posted by murphy98

Thanks very much!

Fine work you have done murphy! I have a rear fleetside bumper similar if not the same as WhippinSaw's that I am now inspired to modify!

[murphy98]

Originally Posted by T.J. MCCAULEY

Fine work you have done murphy! I have a rear fleetside bumper similar if not the same as WhippinSaw's that I am now inspired to modify!

Thanks very much T.J.
Glad to here you will try to modify your fleetside bumper. Looking forward to seeing it! Post some photos when you are done, be nice to see the fleetside version modified to fit a step bed.

[markeb01]

Thanks for capturing and detailing all the work required. Nice job. Love the finished result.

[WhippinSaw]

Thanks for sharing this excellent write up. The pictures and a detailed
walkthrough make your mod very clear. Well done murghy98!
I don't have a step side bumper but I want to try to mod my fleet side bumper before I give up and just put a repro chrome one on. The bumper right now is a safety hazard at car shows. I was thinking about just shortening it and closing the bed side holes. Any Other Ideas? I am going to try to hunt down a long step side barden bumper but I am not going to bet on it.

[murphy98]

Originally Posted by WhippinSaw

Thanks for sharing this excellent write up. The pictures and a detailed
walkthrough make your mod very clear. Well done murghy98!
I don't have a step side bumper but I want to try to mod my fleet side bumper before I give up and just put a repro chrome one on. The bumper right now is a safety hazard at car shows. I was thinking about just shortening it and closing the bed side holes. Any Other Ideas? I am going to try to hunt down a long step side barden bumper but I am not going to bet on it.

Thanks very much for the + feedback.

I can really see what you mean by the ends of your fleetside bumper being a hazard. I like your idea of closing up the ends as shown in you lower photo, you should be able to extend the side sections to meet up with your fender sides without too much trouble. Before you do any cutting on the ends, I will see how wide my bumper is to see how much you would need to trim if that is any help to you?
Oh, by the way, I have seen this style of bumper referred to as a "Barden" bumper. Can you tell me why? Was Barden the company that made these bumpers? Thanks.

[WhippinSaw]

Originally Posted by murphy98

Thanks very much for the + feedback.

I have seen this style of bumper referred to as a "Barden" bumper. Can you tell me why? Was Barden the company that made these bumpers? Thanks.

I believe Barden Bumpers where installed at the dealer, my 63 was made in Oakland and has an Woodland California/Albany Oregon Barden bumper, There are probably other companys making these bumper too. Good thread on dealer installed bumpers here. http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=561195

Until I find a step side bumper I want to cut the tail off mine, keeping the contour and slide it over. Will I be able to use a cut off tool to separate the diamond plate from the angle iron by the white arrow and reattach the diamond plate to the piece I am sliding over without damaging? This will look better right away, its cheap and relatively easy compared to your mod and will give me some confidence to mod a real fender side bumper if I have to.
Thanks again murphy98

[TJ's Chevy]

Originally Posted by WhippinSaw

I believe Barden Bumpers where installed at the dealer, my 63 was made in Oakland and has an Woodland California/Albany Oregon Barden bumper, There are probably other companys making these bumper too. Good thread on dealer installed bumpers here. http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=561195

Until I find a step side bumper I want to cut the tail off mine, keeping the contour and slide it over. Will I be able to use a cut off tool to separate the diamond plate from the angle iron by the white arrow and reattach the diamond plate to the piece I am sliding over without damaging? This will look better right away, its cheap and relatively easy compared to your mod and will give me some confidence to mod a real fender side bumper if I have to.
Thanks again murphy98

I have that same bumper on my '64 fleetside C-20...I am thinking of pulling it and modifying it to fit my C-10...I kinda like the looks...also that is has a place to mount a ball, and that it will add some weight. lol

[murphy98]

Originally Posted by WhippinSaw

I believe Barden Bumpers where installed at the dealer, my 63 was made in Oakland and has an Woodland California/Albany Oregon Barden bumper, There are probably other companys making these bumper too. Good thread on dealer installed bumpers here. http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=561195

Until I find a step side bumper I want to cut the tail off mine, keeping the contour and slide it over. Will I be able to use a cut off tool to separate the diamond plate from the angle iron by the white arrow and reattach the diamond plate to the piece I am sliding over without damaging? This will look better right away, its cheap and relatively easy compared to your mod and will give me some confidence to mod a real fender side bumper if I have to.
Thanks again murphy98

Thanks for the info on the Barden bumpers WhippinSaw,
My bumper originally had a small steel tag riveted to it about the same as your tag photo but it was rather faded and mostly unreadable (so I removed it) but I believe my bumper came off a US West coast truck so it most likely is a Barden made bumper. Also thanks for the thread on dealer installed bumpers, found it most informative! I will post photos of mine there as well.

As for your question about using a cut off tool to separate the diamond plate from the angle iron, I imagine you should be able to. I was not trying to save the piece of diamond plate to reuses so I just cut along the perimeter weld across the top of the diamond plate so as not to damage the angle iron. However in your case you may want to try cutting the weld bead at a 45 degree angle to the diamond plate/angle iron & use the thinnest cutting wheel you can in order to minimize "shortening" (due to the thickness of the cutting wheel) of the diamond plate, if that makes any sense? That way you can slide the bumper end contour piece under the diamond plate and re-weld a new bead, I am sure the weld will be able to fill the gap between the diamond plate & angle iron easily and look just like the rest of the bumper. Good luck with it, try to take lots of pics while you are doing it and post your results. Looking forward to seeing you modification.

[murphy98]

Originally Posted by markeb01

Thanks for capturing and detailing all the work required. Nice job. Love the finished result.

Thanks very much for the kind words, I was hoping the instructions would be easy to follow. This style bumper is not nearly as common as the standard (non step) style bumper but I really love it!

[Softpatch]

Injoyed the post with great pictures nice job on both truck....thanks Sp

[Jeff La]

Great job and thanks for documenting it.

[murphy98]

Originally Posted by Jeff La

Great job and thanks for documenting it.

Thanks!

[TJ's Chevy]

Hey WhippinSaw I have the same bumper on my 64 C-20 and am contemplating on doing a similar swap..only difference would be is mine is a shortbox stepper. If you have any tips later on I'd be happy to take any advice. And like Murphy said..Please take pictures! LOL!

[WhippinSaw]

Finally warmed up enough to start working on the truck. Took the bumper off and straighten the rear sill plate and the diamond plate where it meets the sill. The diamond plate is still bent down some by the barden tag an I will fix that later. The floor jack worked good to get the bumper in position. A factory small hole on the frame lined up with the far slot in the bumper and I used a small bolt to tilt the bumper up and down to find the best angle. It went up about 3/4", and went towards the rear 1 1/2" and had tilted it down some. Just had to drill the small hole out bigger and drill a new hole for the other.Looks good so far, got nothing to lose so I'm ready to cut, If you could check some overall measurements, I can measure it twice and cut once, I got 66 1/4' under the rear sill and think that will be around 55 after Its cut and 76 5/8" overall not sure what that should be. Thanks murhy98

[murphy98]

Hey WhippinSaw,
the gap under the cross sill is looking really good after your adjustments. I just checked the two measurements you asked about on my bumper. I got 55 1/4" for the width of the vertical portion of the diamond plate under the cross sill, so just about what your measurement is. For the overall width of the bumper I get 73 5/8". Perhaps you can take a carpenters square and put the short leg along the rear edge of the bumper and have the longer leg just touching the rear fender but long enough to reach just short of the molded lip area of the fender see last photo in post #18 above for reference (maybe put some masking tape on the fender so the square does not scratch it) then draw a line on the top of the bumper to simulate the end of the bumper and repeat on the other side then measure the overall width of the bumper going by those two lines and see what that comes to before you do any cutting. Check that measurement against mine to see if you are close. Let me know if you need more info, happy to help!

[richards72chevy]

Nice it looks like it should have came from the factory that way.Great detail.

[WhippinSaw]

Originally Posted by murphy98

Looking really good WhippinSaw! I see what you mean by needing to cut a bit more of the diamond plate to get rid of the rust underneath it. I had the same problem on one area of my bumper as well but it was more confined to the outer curve area. As you said, should not be a big deal to correct this issue. Looking forward to seeing the finished product, keep up the great work!

Hey murphy98, I have one side mocked up but wanted to get some advice about the diamond plate. The more I cut out the more it sagged, never worked with any of this stuff so any input is welcome. I ended up using 3/16ths channel and flat stock for the frame. The thicker metal was harder to bend, so I just put the bumper tip in a vise at the line and bent the triangle over to match the molded area. Pictures are worth a 1000 words so here ya go.


[QUOTE=richards72chevy;6612914]Nice it looks like it should have came from the factory that way. QUOTE]

Thanks for the encouragement richards72chevy, I am thinking the same thing, its worth the effort to find out.

[murphy98]

Hey WhippinSaw, you are making great progress! Side pieces are looking really good! I must admit however that I am not sure why the vertical section of diamond plate is sagging? I did notice that in your last pic on post #33 you can see that there is a downward dip in the vertical piece of diamond plate & a downward dip in the horizontal piece towards the vertical. That distortion may be due to the rust build up at the outer edge? So perhaps when you removed the extra flat section of diamond plate the vertical piece took on more of the slope downward due to the missing horizontal section. Hopefully once you add in the new section of horizontal (step section) of 1/8" diamond plate under the vertical piece, the vertical section can be pushed up with a floor jack and tack welded to see if the sag is corrected. Not sure if that makes any sense? Kind of hard to describe. This was my first time working with diamond plate too so I'm afraid I'm no expert! If the sag is not corrected when the new horizontal piece is installed you may need to cut some of the vertical section further towards the center of the bumper and splice in a new piece. Not sure if this is of any help but I hope the sag can be corrected. Keep us posted!
Murph.

[WhippinSaw]

Thanks for the reply murphy98, the floor jack and some massaging might work. If I have to I can try to re skin the whole thing. Im getting ready to make the final adjustment on the fender tip spacing and was wondering if the bumper tip touches the fender or do I leave a small gap.

[murphy98]

I was going to suggest if the sag can not be corrected that you may need to consider (although I know it's a ton more work) redoing all the diamond plate with new stock but did not want to overwhelm you! Glad you are considering it if the jack does not work, hope it does however. I left just under an 1/8" gap between the edge of the diamond plate/end tips and the fender. This allowed me to use left over fender welting to fill the gap and prevent the bumper from scratching the fender.