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Building a simple front bumper. Opinions wanted

13K views 28 replies 11 participants last post by  Espo78  
#1 ·
I am looking at building a front bumper that is similar to the military J8 bumper.

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Would this really be as simple as using some C Channel like this:

http://www.metalsdepot.com/products/hrsteel2.phtml?page=channel&LimAcc= &aident=#p1089

I am looking at the 6" x2" x1/4" in a 4 foot length. It would be $60 shipped to my door. Then I would just need to drill the mount holes and install the D ring brackets like these:

http://www.teraflex.biz/d-ring-mount-2007-wrangler-raw-no-paint.html

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Are there any snags I would run into with this plan? Is there any place to get the D ring mounts cheaper? What do you guys think? Is it too ugly? I also want a winch eventually. I figure I should be able to bolt a winch plate to the frame and not interfere with the bumper. Is that assumption correct?
 
#8 ·
looks like it includes grade 8 bolts also, thats a pretty good deal.
 
#3 ·
1/4" C channel will be plenty strong for a winch. Get a winch with a removable solenoid box and mount it behind the bumper between the rails. Just have to cut a hole for the rope. I like the simplicity. :beer::beer:
 
#4 ·
Alright I made some progress tonight. I found a local welding place that had C channel in stock. I ended up getting 4' 6" for $45. It is 6"x2" and about 1/8" think maybe a little more.

I unbolted the factory bumper and placed the C channel on the frame horns to make sure that it would clear. It does.

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It seems to stick out pretty far from the Jeep. I'm not doing any cutting or welding of the frame so that's pretty much going to have to stay like that. Covering the hole makes it look a lot better. Eventually I will put a winch plate there or a piece of steel.

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Before bolting up the stock bumper again I took the cover off and bolted up just the metal frame. Honestly it doesn't look half bad if the rugged military bare bones function over form look is what you are after.

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#5 ·
I've seen people take the stock steel bumper grind off the goofy crash cans, fill in the fog holes, and shorten/chamfer the ends and have it turn out pretty nice.

The C channel has the same potential, i'd definitely get some shackle mounts though...
 
#6 ·
Yeah shackle mounts are a must. Otherwise it looks like a flat plank bolted to the front. I think I got too long of of a piece. Originally I wanted 4 feet but changed it to 4.5 to give me a little more tire coverage. I think shorter looks better.
 
#9 ·
Well I did some research and the Rough Country ones will not work as far as I can tell. They are made for the bumper but the bumper does not use the same location for mounting to the frame. There is a seperate flange that mounts to the frame. I did find that there are other manufacturers though, but they are all right around $100 for a pair. PureJeep, EVO, MBRP, Teraflex and Olympic are what I've found so far. PureJeep comes with grade 8 button head bolts so that is the direction I'm leaning.
 
#10 · (Edited)
This is what I did and it is close to what you are wanting. If I can help just let me know. http://www.jkowners.com/forum/showthread.php?t=77722

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I always build my tabs like this and weld them front and back. Welds could fail and it still would be in the bumper with this design.

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Pulled the hooks off and used grade 8 bolts and washers.

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#11 ·
Nice work! I can't quite figure out what makes the J8 bumper look so good to me. I've seen other similar bumpers and even the metal I bought just doesn't look the same to me when I test fitted it. I think for that J8 I posted they shortened the frame rails to bring it closer to the body. That's all I can think of.

I really want to learn how to weld and fab my own parts but it's just one of those things I never have time for. I'm hoping to make this a no cut/no weld project for now so other less skilled people like myself can make something work for very little money. So far at the least I will have $150 in materials and it would be half that If I could fab my own D ring mounts.
 
#12 ·
The J8 bumper is looking like 3/16" plate that was broken on a press to create the c channel look, also. It appears to kick out a little top and bottom. Yeah, I think the crush zones are shorter/not there.
 
#13 ·
This might be turning in a weird obsession. I took some stills from a youtube video of the J8 to get a better idea of the actual production bumper dimensions. It looks longer than the one one in the first prototype picture I posted. It actually looks about the same width as the one I'm building. It may be a bit narrower top to bottom though I'm not sure. My Jeep is also at stock height so once I lift it and get meatier tires, I think it will look better too.

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#14 ·
I made some progress last night/today. Last night I went ahead and drilled the mounting holes for the bumper. The easiest way for me was to put the bumper on the Jeep then mark the holes. This worked fairly well but it was not perfect. I was able to get the bumper bolted up but the factory tow hooks did not fit due to my bad tolerances on the hole locations.

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Today my head was clearer than last night so rather than dismounting the bumper and trying to fix it on the bench I just left it on the jeep and rammed the drill bit through it a few more times and presto, the hooks fit! It is a very tight fit though. I tried to step up from a 1/2" bit to 5/8" bit to give me some wiggle room, but my antique Makita Drill (no lie..my dad used this thing before I was born 34 years ago) didn't have a big enough chuck for the bit to fit it. Anyways here are the mounted pics with the hooks.

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The bumper will get painted tomorrow with Rustoleum Satin Black, so we will see how that turns out. I still haven't bought the D rings but right now I'm at $45 invested in this bumper and and I may just leave it like this for awhile.
 
#16 ·
Yeah it's definitely not for everyone. Possibly not even for me haha. I'm going to finish it up and see how it looks painted. It's growing on me and I think it actually looks better in person than the pictures. Are you talking about cutting an angle at the bottom corners? I had thought of that but I'm not sure how that would look.
 
#18 ·
Well the bumper is now done, until I decide to order the D ring mounts. The fresh paint really made it look 100% better to me. It blends into the Jeep more now and doesn't look as obtrusive as it did before. I apologize for the terrible pictures but it has been overcast here for the past 4 days and I'm using my phone so it's hard to get a good picture.

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#20 ·
FWIW, I notice a lot of the rental outfits around here, like Farabee Jeep Rental, just pull off the JK's plastic POS cover on the front bumpers and run the sheet metal under-bumper with the crush cans and tow hooks. Actually looks pretty good.
 
#21 ·
I bought a Harbor Freight universal winch plate for 30 bucks and started hacking it up to fit. At first I was thinking about mounting it upside down like some of the stock bumper hidden winch setups, but that would have been overly complicated and not allow easy access to the winch, so I just went with mounting it right side up. I still need to clean it up grind down some of the uneven cuts, then repaint it and bolt it on, but this is how it should look.

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Total investment so far:

C channel: $45
Paint: $7
Winch plate: $30

Total: $82 +100 if I ever order the D rings. Not bad.
 
#23 · (Edited)
That's good to know, as they are a lot cheaper. I watched the install videos and it did not appear that was the case.


Edit: Here is the install video which clearly shows a seperate mounting flange to the frame. The D ring mounts shown in this video are made for the bumper and appear narrower than the JK frame horns.

http://www.roughcountry.com/jeep-jk-winch-bumper_1054.html

Maybe Rough Country makes a seperate D ring mount for the JK frame horns?
 
#26 ·
I really like the idea. Thanks for the updates and pics. I'd like to try this on mine but would not want the winch mounted on top. Was there enough wiggle room to mount it upside down? It doesnt look like there would be enough space to do so. Seems as if that winch plate extends all the way to the outside edge of the c-channel. How would you get it under the top part of the bumper? My assumption is that you would have to notch the top part of the c-channel to lay the winch plate down.
 
#29 ·
To mount the winch plate upside down you would have to notch out the parts by the frame rails at all 4 corners. You are right the plate comes all the way over the C channel. One of my thoughts was to notch the C channel opposite of how I notched the winch plate, creating a puzzle piece that would fit together nicely. The problem with that is I don't exactly have precision tools. I used an angle grinder with a cut off wheel and then switched to a sawzall because it wasn't cutting fast enough. I also wasn't sure if notching out the C channel would decrease its strength. The other idea I had was to notch the corners then lay down the winch plate and then somehow try to fit the C channel over the winch plate then cut out the fairlead hole. The C channel clears the frame horns with a couple mm to spare but I wasn't confident this would work and I didn't want to cut the front of the winch plate if it wasn't going to work. I took the easy way.

Mounting it up as pictured was a little difficult. getting nuts inside the frame rail to bolt down the winch plate and then bolting on the bumper afterwards and getting it under the winch plate was a fun challenge. It is possible though.


The Ruff Country part number you need is 1046. The original link I posted is the right one.
Thanks Tiltz!