Front & Rear bumper fab

[Lucky2000TJ]

Hey y'all, I am starting the process of fabricating front & rear bumper w/tire carrier swing out. Before I start the process I was seeing if anyone has fabbed any before and had any advice. Pretty much I've just been looking at what's online for sale and pulling idea's from that. So far was going to use maybe 3/16-1/4 thick cold rolled 1018. I have some s/s steel tubing to weld a stinger on the front. Debating on how to go about the winch plate only because I haven't picked one out yet or have the cash for one at the moment.

[HuLuD44]

Havent made any bumpers yet, just my sliders which were easy. Are you following another write up? The winch plate should be the easy part. Buy one and bolt it on. Just get it before you make the bumper so you know how much room you need. Keep posting any progress...

[Lucky2000TJ]

Hey Hulu, I found a pretty nice write up for the rear bumper with the swingout on JF and ordered the parts for the spindle & bearings already. I just started to measure out the front and with the clearance from the bumper and the front platform I should be okay as far as winch plate and location. I will take a lot of pics and do a write up as the progress happens. I am mentally preparing for a lot of skinned knuckles and back to the drawing board scenarios haha.

[565matt]

Ive built a few. Usaully Ill use 1/4 for the mounts and winch plate and then 3/16 or 1/8 for the sides to keep down the weight a bit, but still strong enough to bounce off an obsticle. The ones ive built were all out of plate though... no tube

[HuLuD44]

Yea tube for the body of the bumper requires a lot more precision with cuts and welds. Plate is def easier and prob stronger. Im not a fan of the baja tube style myself. I like stubby strong bumpers. But its all preference...

[Lucky2000TJ]

Not a big fan of tube bumpers at all, to each his/her own I guess but that looks kinda lame on a Jeep IMO. The template I am going to base my front off of is similar to the Bestop Highrock front bump, we will see how it goes with the welding of the angles but I like how deep it is and how it comes underneath the front fenders. It was either that or try and go the ARB stub layout. Like I said this is going to be an interesting project but I have the facility and capabilities to try and hash this baby out.

[565matt]

Build the whole thing out of cardboard first. Then you can change things to make it fit and also have templates of each piece to cut out

[Bandit1]

cardboard is your friend, do mockups first then use as a template, cut out, weld in place and your good to go. Though I have never fab a bumper before, this is how i would do it if i made one.

[Lucky2000TJ]

Yeah that's what I started doing, good looks on the cardboard idea! The parts came for the rear swing out for the tire carrier the spindle part and the latch! I'll keep everyone posted.