Rear Bumper Conversion On A 1989 Chevy S10 - Swapped, Shaved & Shined

1. To hang the new bumper, I used a jack and some stands to hold it in place while I figured out what needed to happen to the brackets. If you're going to do it alone like I did, make sure to cover the edges of the bumper with rags and use a pair of Vise-Grips to hold the bumper to the jack. The better option is to have two friends help you out for a few minutes while you mark the brackets.

2. As you can see, the brackets don't just line up. To look right on the truck, the bumper needs to be positioned a little lower than it would be on the Blazer. To get it mounted to the truck's framerails, all I had to do was notch the inner bracket a bit so I could push the bumper closer to the truck and drill two new holes in each frame section.

3. With the bumper hung, it was time to tackle the 14-plus impact-strip holes. To get a professional's guidance on the proper way to fill holes in a bumper, I went to Eightball Rods and Choppers and sat down next to Martin Lange. Martin is a sheetmetal guru, and I pulled him away from a bitchen '32 Ford coupe for my little bumper project. The first thing Martin did was pattern little filler pieces out of flat stock the same thickness as the bumper.

4. Martin employed a bandsaw and a bench grinder to cut and shape the filler pieces. He recommends leaving the filler pieces a bit smaller than the hole to allow the weld to get down between the pieces instead of most of it sitting on top.

5. A small magnet was used to hold the filler piece in position so Martin could tack it into place (inset). He chose to use a TIG welder for the job because he says it gives him excellent control and creates minimal weld buildup to grind off later.

6. Here you can see the weld left behind by the TIG. The weld is nice and small and will require only very little grinding to smooth it back down. If you're fortunate enough to own a TIG welder, we don't need to tell you how to use it. If you're like the rest of us and only have a MIG, don't worry because I had Martin use the wire feed on one of the holes just to see how it did compared to the TIG.

7a. It does work, but there's more material to grind off and a greater chance of unearthing small pits when you do grind it down.

7b. I snapped a shot of the settings on the MIG to show what was used to get these results .