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$30 custom front bumper

HaZakated

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Fairfield OH
If you ever thought about building your own front bumper and you want a hardcore off road look as well as a decent on road look, check out these links.
If your interested, e-mail me and i'll send ya instuctions. We also made a couple of modifications to it since we installed. We braced the outside of it to the frame for more durability, and bolted the skid plate to the center front frame. It can take some hard hits and keep on tickin.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y41/HaZakated/100_1859.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y41/HaZakated/Project1.jpg
 
all the metal on this bumper was scrap.....the only thing that costed any money at all was the wire for the welder and the electricity to run it. I love welder!!!!!
Brian
 
find a long piece of rectangle tubing that is wide enough to be a bumper. I used steel rack from a warehouse. The cross beams make great bumpers.
Take off your front bumper and measure where you want the bumper to have an angle....this takes some basic math skillz. I used 20 degree closest to the middle for an angle, and 70 degreez around the outside of the bumper. Measure twice; cut once!
use a speed sqare to drop lines on the rectangle tubing where you want your angles.
use a chop saw or any cutting blade (sawzaa, grinder..ex..ex)
leave the front portion of the tubing alone, dont cut...make a wedge so that the front of the bumper looks professional. bend the wedge to the desired angle. weld the cuts you just made, which will leave you with the angled tubing.
Get creative on the grill bars.....there easy to make....just make sure and make your angle's percise. Use a bender if you have access to one.
you can use a varity of tactics for mounting the bumper. I built a little H type bracket and bolted it onto the frame with 3 grade 8 bolts for each side. you can probebly think of better ways to mount it though. Ive seen people use the stock brackets and they work fine.
U can use any type of thick metal to make a skid plate. I welded the skid plate to the bottom of the bumper. I connected the skid plate to the center front frame by laying it against the frame and bolting it directly to it.
I then painted itand added decals.

There are many ways to create a front bumper. Mabey you can use something ive done here for yours....I just hate to see people pay ridiculous amounts of money to buy bumpers and other accesories when we are perfectly capable in making our own stuff. Alot of products that these magazines offer are very great engineered products. But common, 600$ bones for a hunk of metal.
Brian
 
HaZakated said:
I built a little H type bracket and bolted it onto the frame with 3 grade 8 bolts for each side. you can probebly think of better ways to mount it though. Ive seen people use the stock brackets and they work fine.


Stock brackets work fine?? If you plan on anything serious, or recovery points.. the stock brackets are useless...
 
I agree ludicris, I didnt use the stock brackets....I also reenforced the sides of the bumper to the frame. If you modify the stock brackets, they can be used though. Cut and weld, cut and weld....BOLT. cut and weld, bolt.....lol
I love constructive critisisim. It makes things stonger.
Brian
 
Im thinking of getting a 5 foot piece of frame from a tuck and using that to fab a bumper. I mean im not going to just mount it im going to cut it and bend it and make it look good. Ill keep you guys updated on how i make out.

Has anyone tried this???
 
that seems a little big to me, but I havnt seen the truck it would be coming off of. You could always cut the piece of frame down and weld it a little smaller. I know a few people that use standard 3" or 4" square tubing to make bumpers. You can access that at any metal fab shop or scrap yard. For the grill you can go to any hardware store and pick up some tube for cheap. Benders work the best but, I just cut the round tubing and welded it. I love welder! Big Mini sledge hammers are great too.
Brian
 
1/4" steel tubing....not flembsy at all, very solid all around. didnt mama ever teach you to never judge a book by its cover? just playing man....I love critisisim. Bottom line is...I paid 30$ to fabricate a great solid bumper. I dont plan on droping off a 20' cliff and if I do, I'll have much greater problems than a broken bumper.
Brian
 
why not use channel it is incredibly stout... and if you going to use tubing why not go to a mechanical supplier and get weld 90's and 45's and use sch 40 pipe. i know sch 40 probably isnt as strong as dom.... but it is stronger than the unibody it is attached to. that would look alot better
 
renegade_z71 said:
why not use channel it is incredibly stout... and if you going to use tubing why not go to a mechanical supplier and get weld 90's and 45's and use sch 40 pipe. i know sch 40 probably isnt as strong as dom.... but it is stronger than the unibody it is attached to. that would look alot better


Sched 40 1", about 20$ in to it.

1112402419_dscf0534.jpg
 
ErikL said:
that bumper looks awesome.... i might have to try this one of these days

Really? I think it looks like you are running around with an engine crane on the front!
 
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