[01grander]

First off ill be getting an arb in august for sure and was now looking ahead for a rear bumper. I wanted to make a roof rack and was also considering doing a rear bumper myself. How hard would this be? I know how to weld so-so but def not extremely well but im not going to buy a good welder unless i can build a rear bumper myself. I was figuring that i wouldnt attempt this until next summer but id go ahead and get a welder to do the roof rack. Will this be too much to take on for a novice? I figured though that once i did the mounts everthing else wouldnt be too difficult but..........im not very well experienced and many of yall are. Also i wanted to maybe upgrade my shocks but can i get ones that are designed for 4" of lift or will those not work? Im guessing not but i figured id ask b/c ill just hold off if thats not the case. Thanks

[PumaZJ]

I started off by fabbing my own roof rack, you can see pics of it in my sig. Depending on how complex of a design you want to make it can be pretty easy or pretty difficult. I made mine about 4" up front and 6" in the rear via a 45* upper center-section so that the spare tire that was on the roof could be held more securely or i could carry more cargo, also there were four light mounts on the front and 2 on the rear.

As for a bumper, you'd probably be just as well off getting a 4x4 shop to build you a bumper, especially since it is near impossible to design one to go with the contours of a WJ. Also if you are "so-so" on welding you would not want to rely on your tow points when the time came.