[dyolfknip]

Well after about 3 weeks of after work and weekends the bumper is done. When I first thought about doing this I thought "how hard can it be?" How naive....I now know why these things cost so much.....with me doing all the shiat work and my buddy doing all the welding and designing it probably took us a total of 25-30 hours.
In the end I paid $150 for the steel. $60 for the various coatings (2 coats rust proof primer and 4 coats Duplicolour bedliner). And about $40 in various other crap. So total I spent about $250 on this thing.
I am extremely impressed with it. As far as I am concerned, not only does it look great but it was PROVEN yesterday on a run I did . Winch was put to the test as was the skid plate and even the front of the bumper got acquainted with a large rock. Everything held up great. With the winch I was pulling a lifted TJ uphill and the bumper didnt even flinch. Not bad considering the design doesnt have the winch really sitting on anything but the bumper itself.

Some may recognize what design I based this off of....the Smittybilt. I prefer mine though because the winch is hidden a bit better. I did however run into a problem with wanting to mount the stock foglights...oh well the Hellas fixed that.

Anyway here she is. Tell me what you guys think....
The plate location is temporary until I relocate it in front of the solenoid box.




Here she is before coating and tubes...I was pretty close to leaving it a stubby and it is STILL an option..I just think the tubing finishes it off nicely.



And lastly, to show you guys some of the work involved:
notice on the left the holes are round? Well I wanted to use carriage bolts. Those shackle plates are 1/2 " steel. notice how the holes on the right are square? notice the square file? Ya...that sucked doing by hand....1 hour per plate.
You can see in the pic where we tried to weld an air hammer adapter to it to help out...didnt work though



So there it is...is it absolutely perfect? No...there are flaws, but no one noticed them yesterday until I pointed them out.
I am biased but IMHO it is one of the nicest bumpers I have seen.
..also if anyone has ANY questions about specific stuff...dont hesitate to PM me....

 

[airric00]

Nice job mate!! One of the best looking do it yourself bumpers I have seen... Cheers to you!! You're right the brush guards did set if off... Looks good..

 

[Bigjerm]

looks very good! I wouldnt worry with flaws, I sure cant see any.

 

[skibum]

Looks great. Then again, I have a Smittybilt SRC on the front of mine so I'm probably a bit biased.

 

[dyolfknip]

thanks a lot guys.....I am so happy with it....:bounce:

 

[CO Hummer]

My thoughts.....

Looks friggin great! I like how you integrated a skid plate into it.

I might have angled the bottom corners a little bit in for clearance instead of doing a 90 degree. Like this: \___/, instead of this |_____|. I know that's more work though.

If you didn't through-weld those clevis tabs to the plates, I'd at least strap a saftey strap to them (use your tree-saver strap) the first time you actually put a huge load them. You might want to do that instead of testing your welds by hoping a flying shackle doesn't kill someone. Hopefully, you beveled the edges and did an underlying pass before the final pass at welding them on. Maybe it's just the angle of the pic, but it looks like the weld is predominately on the plate and not the tabs (not centered on the 90 angle). It's probably fine, but I'd do a good test before using them unsecured.

Question: Did you allow for easy removal of the winch for maintenance? It's hard to tell by the pic.

 

[dyolfknip]

My thoughts.....

Looks friggin great! I like how you integrated a skid plate into it.

I might have angled the bottom corners a little bit in for clearance instead of doing a 90 degree. Like this: \___/, instead of this |_____|. I know that's more work though.

If you didn't through-weld those clevis tabs to the plates, I'd at least strap a saftey strap to them (use your tree-saver strap) the first time you actually put a huge load them. You might want to do that instead of testing your welds by hoping a flying shackle doesn't kill someone. Hopefully, you beveled the edges and did an underlying pass before the final pass at welding them on. Maybe it's just the angle of the pic, but it looks like the weld is predominately on the plate and not the tabs (not centered on the 90 angle). It's probably fine, but I'd do a good test before using them unsecured.

Question: Did you allow for easy removal of the winch for maintenance? It's hard to tell by the pic.

Those tombstones are not going anywhere. There is a hole cut through the 1/2 inch plate, edges 45 on the front.....on the rear the tombstone was also 45'd. then welded on both sides. But you are right safety is paramount so I will strap them just in case...

The winch can be removed if needed. Hardest part is lining up the holes.

Thanks for the compliments though...

 

[CO Hummer]

Those tombstones are not going anywhere. There is a hole cut through the 1/2 inch plate, edges 45 on the front.....on the rear the tombstone was also 45'd. then welded on both sides. But you are right safety is paramount so I will strap them just in case...

The winch can be removed if needed. Hardest part is lining up the holes.

Thanks for the compliments though...

I made a plate like that for myself and plan to saftey strap them, just in case. Actually, with the winch on the front I'll probably just attached the winch line to the d-ring as a saftey strap.

haha. I'm still laughing at "tombstones". I haven't heard one that before.

 

[dyolfknip]

LOL ya, the guy who I helped make the bumper with calls them that...when you buy them that is what they look like though...

 

[Guest]

You made a nice job of that and it's one of the first bumpers I’ve seen with the bars at the sides that I like.

It’s not all about the cost and I bet you and your buddy had fun hanging out playing with power tools (not in a gay way ).

 

[dyolfknip]

You made a nice job of that and it's one of the first bumpers I’ve seen with the bars at the sides that I like.

It’s not all about the cost and I bet you and your buddy had fun hanging out playing with power tools (not in a gay way ).

so funny you said that
youtube link

And you put the smoking emoticon in your message too...GET OUT OF MY HEAD

 

[YmansJK]

I love that video. That's what you get for shopping at Harbor Frieght

 

[dyolfknip]

I love that video. That's what you get for shopping at Harbor Frieght

nope that is a Canadian Tire Special.....
www.canadiantire.ca

Canadian HOBBY (not a real one) hardware store