Homemade bumpers on ma Heep

97 Sport 107k miles bought for 2k with damage to the front bumper, header panel, and fenders. Trimmed fenders, added a 2" spacer lift and small add a leaf. Looking for a set of 15" steelies with 3-4"backspacing and 31x10.5 tires.

Homemade bumpers
I work at a computer all day and dont know much about metal fabrication or welding and it shows... haha. I started around 1pm on Friday and finished at 5pm on Saturday. The rear took all day Saturday getting the hole patterns right and more cutting and welding.

The 10' of 4"x2" 1/8th wall square tubing was 60 bucs along with ~20 buks worth of scrap 1/8th sheet and 2x2 square tubing. The welds didnt turn out like I wanted. I think the wire feed is changing speed. Going to fix it and redo some of the welds later. I wish I could justify buying a Lincoln 220v 300a so those welds would look professional.

Still need to close up the ends. I may shorten the front and cut them at an angle. Need to add some D-rings

Next will be the rock rails, transfer case, and gas tank skids. Hopefully Ill get better at this.

HF Mig 100 welder remanufactured for 96 buks shipped


HF Angle grinder 10 buks, Also bought a HF drill press for 80 buks


Front connection


Front


Rear connect


Rear

You front mounts need to be longer (picking up all 7 mounting points)and penetrate through the bumper if you are planning for D-rings.

To be honest, that scares me. I am not trying to knock the work, because kudos to you for doing it yourself, but you will definitely want to re-weld that or have someone else do it. I would think with a few potholes, you may end up running over the bumper after it falls off. Or worse, it comes off and goes through someones windshield.

If you ever intend to use the bumper as a recovery point (which is why I assume you are doing this?) you will want to extend those brackets, and add at least a couple more bolts on each side. On the drivers side, you should make the plates long enough to include the steering box bolts. Like RCP said, you will want the plates to co through the bumper in order to tie into a d-ring mount.

If you are building it just for looks, at least get it re-welded. Good luck, ~James

Are other 4 mounting points marked on the frame already? Mine go back pretty far but I don't know if they go back far enough.

89heepxj said:

Are other 4 mounting points marked on the frame already? Mine go back pretty far but I don't know if they go back far enough.

Click to expand...

Look at the pic,you can see most of them.

I think I effed up time to drill and weld drill and weld!

keep practicing w/ the welder, far away from your jeep., make sure your cleaning the metal before welding.

Also, with those cheaper little welders, the speed control is usually not that great, and the wire comes out too fast for the lower amount of amperage. Turn the wire speed WAY down, and the voltage WAY up. Go SLOW. Watch the puddle of steel. By the looks of the welds in the one picture, you are moving too fast, and you are getting zero penetration. A weld like that, with two new peices of clean steel doesnt get much easier. I assume you tacked the front bumper to the brackets, then pulled it off to fully weld it? Just takes practice....