Started building this bumper a few weeks ago and now its almost finished (need paint). This is the first thing i'v fabricated for the jeep since i bought my welder a few months ago so sorry for all the pics. i'm happy with the way it came out :2thumbsup: All done with Hobart 187 and an angle grinder (man do i want a plasma cutter, chop saw, and drill press now! :rofl
Let me know what you all think. i'll run you through the build...
First, this is the steel i started with, 2x4" 3/16 thick rectangle for the bumper and 1/4" plate for the top and winch/fairlead mount
Cut the ends at the angle i wanted and also cut the holes for my shackle mounts that are welded on both sides of the bumper.
Shackles welded in place
Then tacked and welded the end caps in place
Finished end after grinding and smoothing with a flap disc
Tacked the top plate to the bumper while fitting everything to the frame
Thats how the bumper sat for the last few weeks while i waited for this :2thumbsup:
Now i could continue working on the winch and fairlead mount. Started fitting this together
Tacked into place
placed the winch and roller on to make sure everything fit before burning it all in
Stitch welded the fairlead mount to the bumper and winch plate. This is the front
Back
This is just to show how i offset the welds on the front and back
Okay so that finished up the fabricating part. Here it is mounted up unpainted. Whatcha think?
Don't mind at all Started as a 2"x4"x48" piece of 3/16 rectangular tube. after i chopped the ends it ended up just under 48" end to end. winch, fairlead, and bumper mounts are all 1/4"
let me know if you have anymore questions. I'd be happy to answer
Finished up my steering box skid today. I painted it yesterday and installed it today. pretty happy with the way it came out. Only pulled it out of the garage for the pic, alittle snow last night and it feels like its about 20 degrees today :thumbdown:
Thanks for looking
Bumper looks great! The only thing I'll add is next time you cap something make the cap a little smaller than the tube, this will give you some room for the bead and makes grinding easier...:thumbsup:
Thanks :thumbsup: yea i figured that out when i was building the bumper and thats what i did when i was building the steering box skid. Saved a lot of time grinding the edge smooth. Thanks for the tip I still have a lot to learn from you more experienced fabricators on here
do some spikes or bolt heads on the next project, add some character to it!!
Besides that you did an awsome job!! are you sure you never welded before you got the welder cuz you should get your licence to weld cuz you would make the money like crazy!!!
Haha thanks! i'll be sure to keep that in mind on the next project :laugh:
I think what helped me with welding was doing a lot of research before i got into it. I believe buying the right machine really makes a difference in your ability to learn and progress so the HH187 was one of the best tools i'v ever purchased. I wanted to get a welder that could handle anything i plan on doing to my jeep and that I could grow into as I learn. The 187 almost makes it easy for me to lay down good looking beads even as a novice welder :thumbsup: The second best thing i did was going straight to gas MIG welding. After i finished wiring my garage for 220v i went straight to my LWS and picked up a cylinder of C25 and some solid .035 wire and I think that makes it a whole lot easier for a beginner like me to see the weld pool resulting in a much cleaner looking weld.
Thanks! I painted it soon after i bought the jeep because the rust color just wasn't doing it for me :laugh: For some reason the sway bar was the only thing that was rusty on my high milage '97. That and the side mirrors which i took care of as well
im looking at doing the under coating to mine like i did to the truck... im also looking into buying a rhyno bed lining kit to to the interior of the jeep as it came with no carpet
Have you looked into the U-Pol Raptor truck bedliner kit? A bunch of people on JF have used it to line the tub with great results. I'm hoping to do the same with mine sometime after it warms up.
ok so i got the plating for the winch mount and i came up with something more useful for myself... ill get the plating on and mount a 1'7/8 ball in the middle that way i can put the winch on the front or back of the jeep and I can also have the winch stored in the back... And with the ball on the front i could also tow trailers around on the front for manuverability!!
Your going to put a ball hitch in the middle of the plate? i don't see how thats going to work. There is no way to mount a winch to a ball hitch that i know of?
They make receiver hitch mounted winch plates that slide into a 2" receiver, so you could put a receiver hitch in both the front and rear bumpers and then have the ability to move your winch to the front or back that way.
Maybe i misunderstood what your saying?
Thats interesting i'v never seen something like that before.
So do you just hang the winch plate over the trailer ball or does it latch down like the tongue of a trailer?
Edit: Btw, any chance you were driving down 50 across the bridge earlier today? I passed a black golden eagle TJ with what looked like 30's and 2-3 inch lift
Nah wasn't me, I was stuck in PA and DE all day. I won't be on these 30's for much long either! New 33's coming next Friday or the following Monday! :thumbsup: I love your bumper, I keep looking at all these pre-fabbed ones too and I'm having a hard time making a decision, I might just go balls deep and buy a welder with my tax money
Hey man thats what i did :thumbsup: I kept looking at all those pre-fabbed bumpers and just couldn't find one i really liked. Not to mention the fact that most of them are in the $500 range. So i just decided if i was gonna spend over $500 i might as well get myself into fabrication and just build my own bumpers, cage, and other parts i have planned. I can tell you that it feels great to finish a project like this and the best part is having the ability to build it however you want to get the look you want.
Next project is a rear swing away tire carrier and bumper. I'm hoping to get all the steel and stuff for that soon and get started! I really wanna get my 33" MTR off the stock carrier
For my spare I'm gonna use OBA and carry some tire plugs! I don't drive my jeep all that much so a spare is a waste for me. Dude could you email me the specs for that steering skidplate? I figure that should be easy enough to try first!
I carry tire plugs and i have onboard ait to install too. But the spare is there if i cut a sidewall or loose a bead on the trail where the plugs and air may not be able to fix the problem :thumbsup: I picked up a brand new 33x12.50 Goodyear MTR on a steel wheel for $75 on craigslist. To me the spare is worth that much. I believe the guy i bought it from didnt know what he had because the new MTR alone costs 3x that lol
I can try to get a few measurements on the steering box skid for you. I don't have any on hand because when i was building it it was sorta off the top of my head with a lot of holding it up to my jeep to check and then cut. It was fairly simple though
The clevis mounts you posted are flush mounts. I wouldn't recommend using them. They make clevis mounts that are 4.5" long and you cut an appropriate sized hole in the front and back of the tube and slip them all the way through leaving about 1/4-1/2" on the back.
What everyone means by "weld the shackle mounts on the front and back" is just that. You weld on outside surface of the face of the tube and the outside surface of the back of the tube
Also I got my clevis mounts from a fab shop on ebay for 12.99 a pair. I think it was like $20 shipped. I'll see if i can dig up a link or the sellers name
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