Well guys, I decided I was going to need more practice with metal before I buy a MDB bumper kit and start trying to put it together.
A little while back, I picked up a 2'x4' sheet of 3/16" steel for making skidplates. Since I already had the stock oil skid, I decided to cut out a transmission skid. I didn't post a thread about that one because it is literally just a flat piece of sheet metal that I cut and smoothed out to keep big branches or anything from popping up and hitting the trans oilpan. Since the trans is already pretty high up and I've never even come close to hitting anything on it, I didn't bother reinforcing it. No welding or anything.
After making that, I've had a big "L" shaped sheet of steel leftover (like the one below). Yesterday I must have lost my marbles, because I decided to make an oilpan skid out of it.
You can see that I did't have the right shape sheet of metal to make the skid, so I cut off the top part of the "L" and welded it back onto the right side to fill in the gap and make a big enough square sheet. Yes, I know thats not as strong as a raw sheet and I run the risk of it warping, but I had the extra metal, and I like saving money, AND I needed the practice, so why not?
I laid the stock skid down on the sheet, traced it out, and marked where the drain plug was. Torched the whole thing out, and started trying to figure out how to make the dropdown for the drain plug. Basically just started copying every other oil skid you have seen for a trailvoy, and started layering strips into squares like nesting dolls, making a sort of pyramid. I finished the first layer tonight and I'll do more tomorrow.
I'm nowhere near done with it either. It's not even smoothed on the edges yet. I know its messy, but I'm really proud of it so far! I'm pretty much a noob when it comes to all of this, so I think its looking pretty good considering that.
Also, I'm time-lapsing the whole thing on my GoPro so later you'll be able to watch me scramble around my garage at the speed of light building this thing lol.
Let me know what y'all think!