General Lee push bar plans

[miller time]

Hello everyone I've looked and can't find them
I am a welder and fabricator, and I want to make a push bar for my 69 identical to the wide push bar from the show, I'm not going to weld it to the frame so bracket plans are welcome, I'm looking for pipe diameters total width height, bracket form,  bolt holes the whole enchilada if I can get it, I want it to be functional for safety of the car in case of a bump in and I like the way they look too!
And no I don't want to spend $300 and shipping on someone elses
Thanks for reading
Good bless!

[rebby]

This is the best documentation that I've been able to find on the subject thus far. This is for the wide style push bar.

[miller time]

Well thank you rebby! Do you have one of these push bars? I'm just wondering how think the up rights are, I'm thinking about 1\4 anything more is pretty heavy for a car also how far down from the uprights does the top bar sit?

[rebby]

I do not. I was planning on building one out of aluminum that would bolt on but managed to find a borrow bolt on last week. I'm going to give that a go and if it doesn't work out, I'll sell it and build one like this.

[Mike DC]

    
Gimme a day or two and I can post up some detailed specifics for this.  


The TV pushbars were 3" plating for the side vertical pieces, 1/4" thick.  The round tubing was 2.375" OD (2" ID schedule-40 pipe fits this).  The whole pushbar was about 45 lbs, with that weight mostly at the very front.  It was a heavy mofo. 

If you plan on jumping any rivers like on TV, the pushbars had to be entirely cut away below the chrome bumper for ramp clearance.



This isn't a TV car but it's a useful pic.  The nice rounded dip in the flat plating (for clearance under the valance panel) was crudely torched out on the TV cars.  The whole side plate was made of several straight 3" pieces welded together, instead of one larger elaborately cut shape here in the pic. 

[miller time]

Oh my heroes!   
Aluminum would be nice but it's more expensive and more of a pain to weld, plus I'm probably going to coat mine in truck bed liner
Mikedc does yours bolt on? If it does a few pictures of the bolts will help, plus distance from the push bar from grill, and do you think it'd look better sitting level with the hood and middle of bumper?

[Mike DC]

That pic above isn't my own car, it's just pulled off the net.  

Here's a shot from a pushbar replica seller.  It shows the shape of the side plating.  
Notice that the front section of the side plates (where the round tubes mount) is NOT exactly perpendicular to the long straight section that passes under the Charger valance panel.  




When it comes to GL replicas the pushbars are normally bolted on.  Usually, a bolt through the side plates & going through a factory hole in the subframes.  It's not as solid as welding it but the bar is attached tolerably well this way:  




The common attachment method for the chrome bumper is using the license plate bracket holes.  Check the little flat plate welded onto the back of this pushbar's lower round tube.  (Smith Bros picture)  If you choose to go this route then it wouldn't hurt to drill the bumper's holes out a size bigger for thicker bolts.  Or at least use grade-8 bolts on the small holes.

 


As for the mounting height, there was variation on the TV cars.  Sometimes the lower round tube was pretty much even with the chrome bumper's center protruding fold, other times the round tube was a bit lower.  The spacing between the round tubes varied a bit too.

[Brock Lee]

A big part of the difference in the mounting heights is in the rounded cuts. They were done last, after the whole bar was welded together. They vary quite a bit. The more shallow the cut, the closer to the ground they sit.