Fabbed up rear bumper (56k beware)

Well, since the stock rear bumper was fubar and ugly, I decided to do a little work and fab up one myself. A lot cheaper than buying one, but lots more work. It was a fun project, and thinking about selling them.

Started out buy buying some steel.
6"x2" 3/16" wall tubing
1/4"x4"x6' flat steel
1/8"x3"x6' flat steel


Ripped off old bumper.


I cut out the mounts, that attact to the unibody. They are 7" long, by 1/4" thick.


I had to go get some more steel, so I picked up some 2"x3"x1/4" wall tubing. This went from the rear unibody mounts to the bumper. Cut them at 3 1/2" and welded them in.



Next, I took the ends off with a 10* slope.


Then, cut out some 6"x2"x3/16" flat plate to cover the ends.


Here it is all smoothed out. The metal was V'd for good penetration and holding.


I cut out 4 tubes of 1/8" wall, 6" long, and 1.5" OD to fill in the gap between the bumper and the rear quarter.


Oops, one is just a 1/4" too tall.


Capped off the ends, and smooted out.


Notched it down the middle of the tube 2" then up to mount to the end of the bumper.

Welded them on, but then decided to smooth them out since I fawked up on one of the tubes.



Finished ends, with them capped off too.


Took the D-ring brackets to my uncles shop, so he could weld them on with a stick welder. Then I went back over them, but they look like crap. Thats what paint is for, cover up the mess!

Look what happens when you run out of gas. Ohh well.


Now to fill in the ends, I added a 1/8" plate, 3 3/4"x3". Welding looks crappy.



I added some plate to fill in between the bumper and the tail lights.



Finished the other end, and mounted it up.






Flame away!

i hope you tie it into the framerail similar to a receiver before using it for recovery. other than that, the design looks good

IntrepidXJ said:

i hope you tie it into the framerail similar to a receiver before using it for recovery. other than that, the design looks good

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Yes, that is up in plans. Will tie into the 'frame rails'. But, I do have a hitch, so I won't be using the bumper for recovery anytime soon. The 8 stock bolt holes are NOT strong enough to be pulled out with.

Is that a squareback, notchback or fastback behind you?

Nice bumper! Are you going to fab up some cool rocker guards to match and continue the tube look into the body?

karstic said:

Is that a squareback, notchback or fastback behind you?

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1970 Fastback. Rare automatic.

XJCreeper said:

Nice bumper! Are you going to fab up some cool rocker guards to match and continue the tube look into the body?

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Yes I am. Also will continue the side tube look on the front bumper, similar to the rear.

I prolly would have went with 3" wide instead of 4" for departure reasons(i seem to drag ass on EVERYTHING), but it came out pretty sweet!!

I like how the design is really unique. Good job, but continue to beef it up

Jeffro600 said:

I prolly would have went with 3" wide instead of 4" for departure reasons(i seem to drag ass on EVERYTHING), but it came out pretty sweet!!

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He's aleadry got a receiver hitch on back...so that would hit first anyway. Looks nice, Eli. You have PM.

-----Matt-----