Just another homemade front bumper
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Joined: Mar 2011
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From: Lexington Park, MD
Year: 2000
Model: Cherokee
Engine: 4.0L I6
After twisting up my stock bumper on a couple different occasions and not really having reliable tow points I decided that it was time for some real steal on the front. So here we go.
Started with an 8 foot piece of 6x2 rectangular tubing 3/16 thick. Also grabbed a 2 foot by 40 inch 3/16 thick drop sheet for cheap. I ordered 1/4 inch frame tie in pieces from IronRock Offroad.
Sectioned the ends so that I could angle them by bending the front to meet the sides. Worked pretty well
Started with an 8 foot piece of 6x2 rectangular tubing 3/16 thick. Also grabbed a 2 foot by 40 inch 3/16 thick drop sheet for cheap. I ordered 1/4 inch frame tie in pieces from IronRock Offroad.
Sectioned the ends so that I could angle them by bending the front to meet the sides. Worked pretty well
Thread Starter
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Joined: Mar 2011
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From: Lexington Park, MD
Year: 2000
Model: Cherokee
Engine: 4.0L I6
Don't worry, I cut the center section down to the same height as the sides. I welded the angles of the main piece together and smoothed them out, then added gussets and frenched the frame mounts into the main 6x2 of the bumper body.
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Joined: Mar 2011
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From: Lexington Park, MD
Year: 2000
Model: Cherokee
Engine: 4.0L I6
The fun part was trying to keep anything from warping so I did it a little at a time, welding one side then moving to the other, going in about 6 inch welds before letting it cool. Didn't want to take any chances.
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Joined: Mar 2011
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From: Lexington Park, MD
Year: 2000
Model: Cherokee
Engine: 4.0L I6
I forgot to take pics of the end caps and side wraps while I was doing them, but you can see them here. I added two 1/4 inch plates, one to each side, of the tab of the frame mount I have sticking out the front. So my shackle mounts are about 3/4 thick, fully welded and the main piece runs the length of the mount.
Last edited by mickey_00xj; Mar 11, 2013 at 06:04 AM.
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Thread Starter
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Joined: Mar 2011
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From: Lexington Park, MD
Year: 2000
Model: Cherokee
Engine: 4.0L I6
And after a few coats of primer and paint, all mounted up. Let me know what you think. Over all it took me about a week of doing it in my spare time. With 50 hours of work a week and 2 little kids it's hard to find a lot of time to work on things, but I put in a couple hours a night where I could. I think it came out pretty good. I left room to recess a winch in the future, but I'll tackle that when the time comes.
Thread Starter
Senior Member
Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 693
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From: Lexington Park, MD
Year: 2000
Model: Cherokee
Engine: 4.0L I6
Damn, apparently I made a crappy bumper that looks like a bull dozer. Well whatever, it looks good to me and serves more than it's purpose.
I built my own bumper that looked similar to yours. I added hoops to it too.
Again, great job on the bumper!
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Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 693
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From: Lexington Park, MD
Year: 2000
Model: Cherokee
Engine: 4.0L I6
My bad, misunderstood. And I'll add a hoop too it once I recess the middle section to mount my winch, whenever I get it. But I definitly think it'll hold up to some abuse.
I ll tell ya one thing. After installing the bumper on my xj, I always felt so tempted to "bump" into stuff. It made me felt invincible lol.
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Joined: Mar 2011
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From: Lexington Park, MD
Year: 2000
Model: Cherokee
Engine: 4.0L I6
Oh definitely! And adding winch will make it look good! I put two inch reciever on mine cause I didn't want a permanent weight of winch on it while I use it as a DD.
I ll tell ya one thing. After installing the bumper on my xj, I always felt so tempted to "bump" into stuff. It made me felt invincible lol.
I ll tell ya one thing. After installing the bumper on my xj, I always felt so tempted to "bump" into stuff. It made me felt invincible lol.




