1946 Ford Roadster Pickup - You're Barred

With setup taking a matter of minutes, we were ready to begin bending. The tube was fed in between the die and follower as shown. Note, we used thin wall seamed tubing, so ensured the seam was on the inside of the die (on the top of the tube shown here), meaning it'll be on the inside of the finished bend, and hence only be minimally stretched. The seam can split otherwise, but this type of tubing was perfectly acceptable for our non-structural nerf bar.

The first task was to set up the bender for 1-inch tubing, meaning we had to swap out the die for one of the correct size. Attached with two Allen bolts, they're easy to change, though the recess the bolt sits in actually formed raised dimples on our tubing once bent.

The final step before the bender is ready is to fit the correct size U-shaped tubing support on the rear of the die. Again, fitment is as easy as pulling the shaft, though the die has to be moved for this shaft to clear the body of the bender.

Looking from the rear, you can see how the U-support will hold the tubing in place as the die moves in an arc to form the bend. While the bender has no measurements or protractor on it, it wouldn't be hard to add one, as the latter is especially useful if you need to duplicate bends of a precise angle.

Though designed to be bolted to a bench or stand, we clamped the bender down temporarily as we were only making six bends in lightweight tubing. A bottle jack provides the hydraulic force to push down on the die, which pivots to bend the tubing.

With the rings to hand, which I intended to use to mount the taillights behind, I could determine the distance between the upper and lower horizontal tubes of the nerf bar. The rings are 3 1/2 inches ID and 4 1/2 inches OD, making the tubes 4 1/2 inches apart. Once I'd made the first bend and could determine where the outer end of the nerf bar would be, I measured to the start of the bend (where the steel rule is). Knowing the width of my pickup bed and the length of each bend to the point at the ends of the nerf bar, I could determine the length of the straight section between the bends, and hence mark where the second bend should start. Got that? The instructions provide thorough details on how to measure where to start the bends.

Here's one of the dimples mentioned in picture 2. Whether they appeared because we used relatively thin wall tubing, or whether they're a common occurrence, I don't know. Not disastrous maybe, but not desirable on a piece that is being fabricated for appearance.

While at our local industrial metal supply house to source the tubing ($8 for two 8-foot lengths of 1-inch ID steel from the remnant section!), I took the opportunity to check out their selection of ornamental gate and fence accessories, and came away with everything you see here for just over $6. That makes the grand total for the whole project come in at under $15!

I then made a duplicate tube, laid a ring between them at each end, and used a straight edge to mark where each tube would have to be cut to form the points.