DIY skidplate

[Tachdriver]

I bought a piece of Aluminum diamond plate from Lowes yesterday - 2 ft x 4ft piece. Today I took advantage of the decent weather this morning and made my own skid plate for the rear. I used the rear two bolts to hold that end and made a 7/16" stud attached to the stock plate to hold the front. Easy to remove when I need to. Demension is 30" long x 18" wide.

Have a happy thanksgiving everyone !


later

 

[Argosy]

I'd flip the bolt so the head is down. The skid plate looks good but if you hang the bolt on something it will tear it up.

 

[buck12]

Neat work. I need to build something similar as I recently broke my hydraulic filter assembly on a log.

 

[Tachdriver]

IT's a stud, not a bolt. I can use a slicer and remove that extended portion of stud. :thumbsup:





later

 

[roma3112]

how did you get such nice even bends? I tryied to bend mine and it looks like crap?

 

[Shutesbury]

I bought a piece of Aluminum diamond plate from Lowes yesterday - 2 ft x 4ft piece. Today I took advantage of the decent weather this morning and made my own skid plate for the rear. I used the rear two bolts to hold that end and made a 7/16" stud attached to the stock plate to hold the front. Easy to remove when I need to. Demension is 30" long x 18" wide.

Have a happy thanksgiving everyone !

later

Excellent work! It's on my to-do-list, and I saw that plate at Home Depot, and thought of buying some. I'm admiring the clean lines, too, and I'm assuming the bends were easier with the aluminum stock than steel would be, but did you just clamp it under a 2x4 and flex or hammer it to the right angles... or do you need a metal brake to do it?

I caught the rubber boot on the shaft just before the fan blades and tore it up, but *fortunately* didn't get the blades. That flapping rubber really bounced the floor pan for a few seconds, and I was picturing the worst! Any opinions on my thought of adding a skid plate but not rushing into replacing that boot? There doesn't seem to be any lubed joint at the shaft/fan junction, so I'm not clear why they have a boot on the shaft end, and if I protect the area from dirt and debris with a skid plate, I'm thinking it will be fine until that part needs removal or repair down the road... ??

 

[Marveltone]

Beautiful work! Good looking and functional. :thumbsup:

Joe

 

[funwithahoe]

Sad part about that work is you can't see it unless you climb under.

Looks great.

 

[closs2sx]

Clamp it to bench with a 90 corner or clamp it to a piece of 1/4 thick steel and clamp the whole thing to a work surface high enough off the ground. Square it up by measuring from end of diamond plate to the edge to be bent over then measure to figure out where the next bend will be flip orientate and square up and re clamp to work surface and bend

 

[Tachdriver]

It's 1/8" aluminum diamond plate. I took a 2x8 and clamped it to the plate and my weld table and bent it evenly and steadily. Measure twice and bend once ! I will now make a plate for the front fan opening. I'll post some pics on that too..

Thanks for the comments.:thumbsup:



later