Mike Brawley

So for obvious reasons I set out to get rid of my stock bumper and build a full wrap bumper. Pictures of finished bumper are at just below, If you wan to read the write up on the build process keep scrolling. Also have full cost and pricing at the bottom if anyone is interested in what a project like this costs.

I had a couple key aspects I wanted to achieve

• Side Protection
• High and Tight for maximum clearance and departure angle
• Flush receiver I hate receivers that stick out
• Bombproof mounts

I will brake this down into the following sections.

• Cut and Fold
• Mounts
• Main Bumper
• Bumper Sides
• Cost/Conclusion

But first. Here is the bumper!








Cut and Fold
Not a lot to say here, if you dont know how to do this, go watch the Bleepin Jeep video on Youtube. I did it a little different. The inside piece I only cut about 4 inches long, outside piece I cut 5 inches long to reach all the way back to the main floor. Before folding the outside in, I drilled 5 holes in it with a unibit about 2 inches down from the fold. This was later used for rossette welding. When I folder the outside piece in, I opted to put the pinch seam inside the section instead of on the outside. This made for a much cleaner look that no one will see... I fully welded that back seam and front seam. And then stitch welded the inner seam and rosette welded the holes. The reason I rossette welded it was to keep the inner piece from vibrating and it added a lot of strength. I then came back and caulked the inside as I only stitch welded part of it.





Mounts
Well the mounts where definitely the most time consuming part of this build. I wanted the mounts to slide all the way into the frame as far as I could. So I first cut out the back of the frame rail.
The drivers side has the gas tank fill lines going through your frame. So that limits that side. I took measurements on the to decide how much I had to cut off the end of the tubing, and cut it so it was only 1" tall.

The passenger side had a 2" piece of flat stock welded into the inside of the frame on the bottom that was tapped for a mount for something, it had two bolt holes that where tapped. I ended up determining this peice was about 1/8" thick, so i cut an 1/8" out of the end of my mount and welded in some flat bar so it was still capped off.

The main mounts are made out of 2"x4"x.120 tubing


Passenger side, You can see the piece of metal welded into the frame with my spacer on the back side.


Passanger side spacer I made to go on the back side of the piece in the frame.



I then took 1/4" angle iron. 2"x2 for the outside and 1.5"x1.5" for the inside, I did have to cut the 2" down to 1.5" on the tubing side as I wanted my bumper to only be about 2" away from the rear body. I also cut the bottom and inside off the tub 2" back so when I weld on the rear bumper the mount goes all the way to both sides on the outside and top of the mount and is welded to the front and back of the main bumper piece.

1/4" thick angle iron welded and drilled for factory bolt holes


So the tubing now looks like this.

Once I had the angle Iron welded on and the tubing mounted to the frame I marked 5 holes on both pieces. I then drilled for 1/2" bolts on my drill press and welded in captive nuts... This really sucked and was hard to get to the nuts in the middle of the tubing. Drivers side not so bad but as the passenger side was about 16" long, getting your mig gun down in there was difficult. not pictured as it was not drilled yet is a large hole for the upper shackle bolt to pass through the mounts. Yeap thats right, your shackle bolt extends into the frame rail. So to remove my bumper you have to back the upper shackle bolt out.

Drilled and captive nuts welded in

Remember that spacer I made to go way back in the frame on the passanger side. Well the last thing I did was weld that in. So I removed it, and drilled 4 holes in the bottom of the frame with a unibit. I then put the piece back in marked and drilled it out a 3/4" hole for the 1/2" mounting bolt to pass through to the bumper mount. I then put it back in, installed the bumper mount, bolted down the bumper mount and rossette welded the spacer to the frame

Ressette welded spacer, be sure to have that rear frame bolt in so the spacer is sucked down tight to the frame.


Main Bumper
The main bumper was made out of 2"x5"x.120 tubing. You could go for .188 thickness, I just don't think its necessary. Depending on your wheelin style it might be.
This was fairly simple, I ended up doing this in 3 pieces. First cut a center section to go between my frame mounts.
Remember how I left the frame mounts cut in an L. Well they got welded to the front and back of the main bumper tube.
I also marked and drilled for my receiver before welding these up. a little easier before you weld them so you can use your drill press



I then cut the side pieces leaving them sticking out past the side of the body about 1/4" inch. The reason why I did these in 3 sections, one it was easier, two the outer pieces have a slight angle to them as they are angled inward to follow the body line a little more.


I marked both the outer sections 2" down and 11" in and buzzed them off with a cutt off wheel. This will add a nice look.

Bumper Sides
The sides I made out of 2"x3"x.120 wall tubing. I set them 1/4" away from the body and they stick out 1/4" past the body. The front side was cut at a 50 degree angle and capped off(before doing this I drilled and installed 1/2" captive nuts).
I also cleaned up the frame for a piece of 4"x.120 flat stock. making this as long as I could before the frame started to curve. This was going to be for some side support mounts to span from the frame to the bumper sides.
The mounts that span to the frame are 1.25"x.120" round stock welded to 2"x.120 flat stock the bolt mounts.
So the only thing with the frame plate is I wanted to have captive nuts on it for the support mounts. so I drilled the frame out large enough for the entire nut to pass though. That way the nuts could be welded to the back side of the frame plate. The only issue with this is there was not enough room for the nuts to clear the inner bumper mount tubes. so I ended up double stacking the frame plate with another plate. So the 4" frame plate was drilled out to 3/4 just like the frame. So a 1/2" nut can pass all the way through. The nuts where welded to the back side of a 2"x.120 flat stock that was then welded to the 4" frame plate that was then welded to the frame. If that makes sense. this spaced the nuts .120 out of the frame giving enough clearance for the bumper mounts to clear when you slide the bumper in. Holes where drilled in the inner bumper mounts for the bolts to pass though. the bolts are removed before removing the bumper so it can slide out.


You can kinda see the double stacked frame plates



frame cleaned up to be plated


frame plate tacked and side supports tacked up to the mounting plates



Some things not pictured are the receiving install. Nothing special 5" long receiver tubing welded on the front and back of the bumper. Hole was drilled 2.5" back from the front to allow room for the bumper and the welds.
The ends of the bumper where fully capped after reaching in and welding the inside of the bumper the best I could with the mig gun.
The bumper sits so close to the frame that I had to cut out the middle of the frame to allow the receiver to pass though it and give room so you could install the hitch pin.
Shackle/Clevis mounts. These where placed with the outside edge on top of the welds for the frame mounts. So technically they are welded to the frame mount tubes and the main bumper. I beveled them greatly with a flap disc and put about 7 beads on both sides and 3 on the top and bottom. There on there. This is the only place I feel as if .188 thick bumper could be better, or if you got longer shackle blocks that could have been welded along the bumper mounts for a few inches so they weren't just welded to the back of the bumper. as they are on the seam and welded to the end of the tubes that slide into the frame I think they will be plenty strong enough as long as you pull straight.



Clearance for receiver and room to get the hitch pin in.

The bumper then received a nice coat of primer and 3 coats of Rustoleum Hammered!

All painted up. You can see the side mount supports in the background.


Conclusion and Costs
Overall I love the bumper, I love that its up close and tight to provide maximum clearance and departure angle. The only issue with it being so close is its a pain in the butt to get the bolts in the factory bumper mount holes. I have to slide a ratchet in from the cut out in the frame for the receiver and use a wrench on the outer ones. Also having to cut out the cross member on the back of the uni-body sucks. I thought about strengthening this but as the bumper is bolted in between the two frame rails its now the cross member.
Even though I welded most all of the main bumper tube that's between the two frame mounts when the frame mounts where bolted up. I experienced some warping. This cold have also been from the heat I put to the bumper when welding the shackle tabs on. I should have let it cool more inbetween each pass.
Bumper is attached with 26 Bolts total.

• 8X 10mm bolts in the factory location
• 10X 1/2 bolts, 5 along each frame rail from the bottom.
• 8X 1/2 bolts for the sides, 2 on the frame side, 2 on the bumper side.

The only other thing I will probably do is get frame stiffeners in the back which will plate the bottom of the frame where the bumper bolts through.
I was going to plate the corners of the bumper to fill in below the tail lights, I opted to not do this as I am going to make custom tail lights that will be longer and will fill in this area.


Costs
Total Cost was about $175 plus welding gas/wire/time. Also wear on cut off wheels :-)
I do get a discount at both places I purchased the metal and bolts.
Tubing 4"x2".120 4ft = 24.29
Flat Bar 1/8"x4" 5ft (only used about a foot.) $7.68
5x2x.120 Rectangle tubing. 6ft $38.58
3x2x.120 rectangle tubing 4ft $19.78
1-1/4"x.120 Round 3ft $6.44
Flat Bar 1.5x.120 2ft $1.16
Flat Bar 2"x.120 3ft $2.69
2" Angle Iron (dont have price)
1.5" Angle Iron (dont have price)
Receiver Tubing 6" $4.95
Cutting Charge $15
8X 1/2"x1" Zinc Grade 8 bolts $5.37
10X 1//2x1.5" Zinc Grade 8 Bolts $8.63
18X 1/2" Zinc Grade 8 Nuts $3.69
18X 1/2" Zinc Grade 8 Washers $14.35
2 flap discs $4
2 4" Cut off wheels. $3



Let me know your thoughts, what would you do differently.

GreaseMonkey17

unidentifiedbomb

Looks good! One thing my IRO diy rear bumper didn't include was taillight fillers, that really made it look complete when we made some, I'd recommend you do the same but other than that it looks great.

Mike Brawley

Thanks for the suggestion, I purposely didn't build those as I plan to build new taillights out of 1/8" plate. Like the sheet metal lights you see companies make. When I do that I am going to make the tail lights longer so they go all the way to the bumper.

unidentifiedbomb

That'll be cool to see!

XJ_200XC

Bumper looks awesome, and thanks for doing the write up. I've been planning on building one and this will be a huge help

RockinRonnie

Sweet bumper and great write up Nice Job!

caged

looks good

PNWCherokee

Anyone that wants to follow this build I created a build page.. I also created a new screen name as my last one was connected to Facebook and didnt work correctly.
Working on the jeep nightly and have lots of projects in the works.
Follow the build at https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f46/my...-build-249545/