------------------------ > We've been through 4 back bumpers over the years. The stock > version is real flimsy. One little tap and they bend like a pretzel. > They're also not very easy to stand on (necessary for stacking > sailboards on top). ------------------------

Funny you should mention that. I just spent this weekend prowling through Junkyards to pull the bumper off a small pickup truck and/or SUV, drilling two holes in it and bolting it onto my Vanagon.

The final solution was to: #1) Remove the bumper mounts from the van. Cut the bumper mounts in half, welding on a thick piece of steel between the cut parts to create an "extended" bumper mount.

#2) Spend a rainy Saturday in Newark, going through Junkyards... Finally found one off a Toyota (SR5(?)) Pickup. The problem you'll have is that most of what you'll find in a junkyard is going to be either too wide (requiring cutting) or not wide enough. I settled for less wide, as cutting was going to be too much of a problem.

#3) Take off the stock bumper and carefully measure where the holes are going to be on our new bumper. Note that because the bumper you pick up at the junkyard should be made of much thicker steel, you're going to have two problems: A) If the bumper you choose is too heavy, it'll sheer the bolts off, and then you'll just have to weld the bumper into place. B) Regardless of the above, you'll at least need longer bolts. C) You're going to need good drill and some metal-eating drill bits.

#4) Since you're going to stand on it, it's also better if you take that into account when drilling and make the holes slightly more towards the "top" of the bumper, so that: A) When you're standing on it, it's laying right ontop of the extended bumper mounts, which help support your weight. B) This keeps it out of the way of the license-plate flap, so you can still get to your dipstick/coolant....

#5) Now you're ready to do the work. With your holes marked, tap each with a centerpunch and then use a small drill-bit to start the hole. Widen it with successively larger bits until you have the hole big enough to pass the bolts through.

#6) Mount your bumper, and use a big washer to ease the load on the bolt head.

It's important when finding a bumper that the mount points from whatever vehicle you pulled it off from are either less than 44 inches apart, or more than 48 inches apart, so they do not interfere with your existing bumper mounts.

If you're interested, I've started to post some images at http://www.obsolyte.com/~techrat/vanagon1.html -- but right now, it will only show you the extended mount, as it was raining too damn much this weekend to take photos. Although, 20/20 hindsight, I should have taken photos while I was doing it.

I hope this gives you some ideas. I promise to have some more photos up by later this week. TTYL!

Brian Cirulnick ----------------------------------------------------------------------- E-mail: techrat@vm.com URL: http://www.vm.com http://www.obsolyte.com -- where the antique is elYte!!