Iron, I have built a lot of grill guard, bumpers and headache racks for pickups, semi's and a ton of oil field winch trucks. In my opinion go 3-D! Something beyond the x and y!
That's an interesting idea Knuckle. Do you have any pictures of your work? Being a blacksmith, I'm also a fairly good fabricator but my design skills suck.....
I have been thinking of buying one but what are friends for....