I was back in Chestertown today to work on the bumper with Mr. Scout after a holiday hiatus. When last we left, I decided to ditch the hinge we originally bought and ordered a new top-mount spindle design, which we planned to adapt and fit to the bumper face. The first thing we did was bolt the new one on and do some test-fitting to see how things will line up.
Allowing for the height of the spindle, we decided to move it outboard of the tailgate by 1/2″ and scoot it down as much as possible. This means the swingarm no longer sits on the face of the bumper. Now, when it’s closed, the bottom of the swingarm aligns roughly with the top of the bumper. (We couldn’t simply mount the spindle through the top of the bumper, because the spindle is only 4″ tall and the bumper is 6″).
With that in mind, we trimmed the end of the swingarm to fit the round weldable sleeve of the hinge and tacked it into place. Then we pulled the bumper off and mocked it up on the garage floor to eyeball everything.
What we found was that moving the hinge further outboard moved the swingarm offcenter by about 1″, so we pondered this over a delicious steak lunch (thanks, Mr. Scout!) and glass of IPA, and then got to grinding the swingarm triangle off the bar. After we cleaned up the edges, we moved it 1″ and tacked it back together then mocked it up again to check the fit.
One surprise benefit to the new design is that it frees up the face of the bumper to mount a Hi-Lift directly under the swingarm, as opposed to the swingarm itself. So we tacked in two square rests and made provisions to drill holes for mounting bolts through the bumper.
So the plan from here is that Mr. Scout is going to take the two parts to his welder and have him burn everything together. Then we’ll bring the Scout and the parts, mount the bumper, and get the swingarm just the way we want it before welding it on for good.
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Today also marks the first time Peer Pressure has run out of gas. I was about a mile outside of Centerville when I lost all power at the pedal and she slowly coasted to the side of the road. Thank GOD I wasn’t on the bridge when that happened. I emptied my 1-gallon jerry can into the tank, primed the carb, and she fired right back up again.
I put 5 gallons in as I was leaving home, and PP made it 54+ miles to Centerville before running out. It was extremely windy today, and I had my foot in the gas the whole way over (60 indicated, which equates to about 68MPH) but 11MPG sucks balls.