Fabrication & builders section. All fabrication posts go here.
XJ/MJ/ZJ/WJ Only projects go here. Questions belong in modified tech.

Just another homemade front bumper

Thread Tools
 
Search this Thread
 
Old Mar 10, 2013 | 07:32 PM
  #1  
mickey_00xj's Avatar
Thread Starter
Senior Member
 
Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 693
Likes: 0
From: Lexington Park, MD
Year: 2000
Model: Cherokee
Engine: 4.0L I6
Default Just another homemade front bumper

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
Attached Thumbnails Just another homemade front bumper-100_1025.jpg   Just another homemade front bumper-100_1026.jpg   Just another homemade front bumper-100_1027.jpg   Just another homemade front bumper-100_1028.jpg  
Reply
Old Mar 10, 2013 | 07:36 PM
  #2  
mickey_00xj's Avatar
Thread Starter
Senior Member
 
Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 693
Likes: 0
From: Lexington Park, MD
Year: 2000
Model: Cherokee
Engine: 4.0L I6
Default

Bent the ends over to meet the sides to give it an angled look but retain the rounded edge appearance.
Attached Thumbnails Just another homemade front bumper-100_1029.jpg   Just another homemade front bumper-100_1030.jpg   Just another homemade front bumper-100_1034.jpg   Just another homemade front bumper-100_1035.jpg  
Reply
Old Mar 10, 2013 | 07:39 PM
  #3  
kasper80nar's Avatar
Newbie
 
Joined: Mar 2013
Posts: 4
Likes: 0
Model: Cherokee
Default

Originally Posted by mickey_00xj
Bent the ends over to meet the sides to give it an angled look but retain the rounded edge appearance.
Looking good cant wait to see more
Reply
Old Mar 10, 2013 | 07:48 PM
  #4  
mickey_00xj's Avatar
Thread Starter
Senior Member
 
Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 693
Likes: 0
From: Lexington Park, MD
Year: 2000
Model: Cherokee
Engine: 4.0L I6
Default

Added the lower pieces and angled them to match the ends and give better approach angle.
Attached Thumbnails Just another homemade front bumper-100_1036.jpg   Just another homemade front bumper-100_1037.jpg   Just another homemade front bumper-100_1038.jpg   Just another homemade front bumper-100_1039.jpg  
Reply
Old Mar 10, 2013 | 07:52 PM
  #5  
mickey_00xj's Avatar
Thread Starter
Senior Member
 
Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 693
Likes: 0
From: Lexington Park, MD
Year: 2000
Model: Cherokee
Engine: 4.0L I6
Default

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.
Attached Thumbnails Just another homemade front bumper-100_1041.jpg   Just another homemade front bumper-100_1043.jpg   Just another homemade front bumper-100_1045.jpg   Just another homemade front bumper-100_1046.jpg  
Reply
Old Mar 10, 2013 | 07:55 PM
  #6  
mickey_00xj's Avatar
Thread Starter
Senior Member
 
Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 693
Likes: 0
From: Lexington Park, MD
Year: 2000
Model: Cherokee
Engine: 4.0L I6
Default

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.
Attached Thumbnails Just another homemade front bumper-100_1049.jpg   Just another homemade front bumper-100_1050.jpg  
Reply
Old Mar 10, 2013 | 07:57 PM
  #7  
mickey_00xj's Avatar
Thread Starter
Senior Member
 
Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 693
Likes: 0
From: Lexington Park, MD
Year: 2000
Model: Cherokee
Engine: 4.0L I6
Default

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.
Attached Thumbnails Just another homemade front bumper-100_1057.jpg   Just another homemade front bumper-100_1058.jpg  

Last edited by mickey_00xj; Mar 11, 2013 at 06:04 AM.
Reply
Old Mar 10, 2013 | 08:01 PM
  #8  
mickey_00xj's Avatar
Thread Starter
Senior Member
 
Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 693
Likes: 0
From: Lexington Park, MD
Year: 2000
Model: Cherokee
Engine: 4.0L I6
Default

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.
Attached Thumbnails Just another homemade front bumper-100_1051.jpg   Just another homemade front bumper-100_1052.jpg   Just another homemade front bumper-100_1054.jpg   Just another homemade front bumper-100_1056.jpg  
Reply
Old Mar 10, 2013 | 08:24 PM
  #9  
Bossokee's Avatar
Senior Member
 
Joined: Jan 2011
Posts: 645
Likes: 1
From: Dalton, MA
Year: 1998
Model: Cherokee
Engine: 4.0 H.O. 180K miles
Default

That looks prime dude, you could really take out some saplings with that

But of course, you should tread lightly...
Reply
Old Mar 10, 2013 | 09:18 PM
  #10  
XJwonders's Avatar
CF Veteran
Premium Member
 
Joined: Jan 2013
Posts: 19,219
Likes: 45
From: west chester, pa
Year: 1999
Engine: 4.0
Default

Originally Posted by Bossokee
That looks prime dude, you could really take out some saplings with that

But of course, you should tread lightly...
With that, I think we should call his jeep the bulldozer lol.
Reply
Old Mar 12, 2013 | 05:55 AM
  #11  
mickey_00xj's Avatar
Thread Starter
Senior Member
 
Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 693
Likes: 0
From: Lexington Park, MD
Year: 2000
Model: Cherokee
Engine: 4.0L I6
Default

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.
Reply
Old Mar 12, 2013 | 06:30 AM
  #12  
XJwonders's Avatar
CF Veteran
Premium Member
 
Joined: Jan 2013
Posts: 19,219
Likes: 45
From: west chester, pa
Year: 1999
Engine: 4.0
Default

Originally Posted by mickey_00xj
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.
Don't take us wrong, it looks excellent. U did a good job! We r just saying that it look so sturdy that it can be also used as a "bulldozer".

I built my own bumper that looked similar to yours. I added hoops to it too.
Again, great job on the bumper!
Reply
Old Mar 12, 2013 | 06:37 AM
  #13  
mickey_00xj's Avatar
Thread Starter
Senior Member
 
Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 693
Likes: 0
From: Lexington Park, MD
Year: 2000
Model: Cherokee
Engine: 4.0L I6
Default

Originally Posted by XJwonders
Don't take us wrong, it looks excellent. U did a good job! We r just saying that it look so sturdy that it can be also used as a "bulldozer".

I built my own bumper that looked similar to yours. I added hoops to it too.
Again, great job on the bumper!
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.
Reply
Old Mar 12, 2013 | 06:40 AM
  #14  
XJwonders's Avatar
CF Veteran
Premium Member
 
Joined: Jan 2013
Posts: 19,219
Likes: 45
From: west chester, pa
Year: 1999
Engine: 4.0
Default

Originally Posted by mickey_00xj

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.
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.
Reply
Old Mar 12, 2013 | 06:47 AM
  #15  
mickey_00xj's Avatar
Thread Starter
Senior Member
 
Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 693
Likes: 0
From: Lexington Park, MD
Year: 2000
Model: Cherokee
Engine: 4.0L I6
Default

Originally Posted by XJwonders
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.
Lol, some idiot slammed on their brakes in front of me the other day and I was tempted to just nudge them a little so maybe they'd learn to pay more attention. But I didn't want to scratch my new bumper. LOL Once I get some rock rash on it I won't care so much anymore about simple scratches
Reply



All times are GMT -5. The time now is 01:45 PM.