Well my brother called me up and said he couldn't go with me to do some
4wheelin and scouting for deer,.....he is the low man on the totem pole at
his department(police), so he got called into work.
I decided to finally fab up a radiator guard. Since I dont have the factory
air dam on my truck, cause it hangs down toooo low, and I have actually
ripped it off 2-3 time 4wheelin, about 4-5 of the bottom of the radiator is
exposed. All it would take is a rock or something to fly up into the
radiator, and really cause some havok and some $$$ for a new radiator. For
those GenII Dak owners out there, you know the piece of thin metal which is
screwed onto the front frame crossmember and it comes up and gets bolted to
each side of the frame?........Well I used this piece as a guide to help me
build my new radiator guard. I will refer to this as the bottom 'engine
guard', cause it kind of does protect the front lower part of the engine.
This item is still on the truck, just is covered up by the 'radiator guard'.
I started out with a piece of aluminum, 24"x18"; 1/8" thick. I removed the 2
self tapping screws which hold the 'engine guard' to the front frame
crossmember and I measured and centerd this piece of aluminum over these two
holes. I drilled two holes in the 'radiator guard' and fastened the
'radiator guard' over the 'engine guard', using the factory self tapping
screws. I bent the 'radiator guard' so that is follows the contour of the
'engine guard' and then fastened the 'radiator guard' to some holes in the
bumper. The factory aim damn was/is connected to the bumper via holes in the
bottom of the bumper, on a 'lip'. I used these holes on the bottom bumper
lip to bolt the 'radiator guard' onto, using stainless steel hardware and
LocTite. I then took 2" flat aluminum stock(1/8" thick) and bent it to the
contour of the 'radiator guard' bends, to help reinforce the aluminum sheet
and help to make it sturdier. I used about 15" of flat stock on both edges
the 'radiator guard'. I bolted the flat stock to the 'radiator guard' usings
stainless steel hardware and LocTite. It looks really good and resembles a
'PreRunner' style front plate. If I starts to look bad over time, I will
have it sprayed with LineX and never worry about the finish again. Hope this
was not too confusing. My next project is to finally mount up some tow hooks
I have from a 1985 Blazer 4x4 or from a 1994 Chevy 2500 4x4, both of which I
rubber coated; I have not yet decided which ones I will use. I will snap
some pics of everything once I get the hook on. Any questions, just ask.
Kyle
93 Dakota 4x4 V6
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 11:50:45 EDT