Building a Heavy Duty Front and Rear Bumper for my 86 B2!

[jkufen]

Well after my first offroading trip my buddy ripped off my front bumper so to avoid this issue in the future I am building a new heavy duty front bumper. Well I cant lie I am not building it all I am doing is paying for it my buddy who restores cars for a living is doing it. I am building it out of 3/16 metal plate. The local metal shop wants $155 + TAX for a 4x8 sheet. I am going to use a sheet for the front and probably another sheet for the back and roof rack. My buddy and I made a mock up of the front driver side and we are just going to flip the mock up and make the passenger side. The reason we did this is because my passenger fender is bent a little and we wanted the shape to be true to the shape of the truck. My buddy said he is going to charge me $175 for labor because I am using all of his tools and welding equipment which is fair. The James Duff bumper is like $500+ not including shipping and this bumper is made to my specifications. This bumper is going to come off the front of the truck about 9 inches because that is how wide my winch will be and it will be about 8 inches tall! This thing is going to be pretty massive!! I am going to get the metal between Christmas and New years and he is going to start building it after the first when he comes back to work. He says he can get it done in less than a day. Then I just have to find someone around here that does that scratch resistant powdercoating.

Here are a few pics of the mock up bumper. I am going to add foglights that are built into it. They will go right under the headlights and they will be centered in the bumper. Plus I am going to add a round tube that kind of makes an upside down bull ring. On that I will add probably 3 KC lights. Then ill have the two fog lights and then on the roof rack I will have probably have 12 lights and then the back bumper is going to have at least 2 lights built into it so I am looking at running 19 lights!! I will be the new sun! Better put yalls shades on near me :icon_welder:

This is the front driver side.

This is to show how thick this bad boy will be!

 

[jkufen]

More pics to come as I get them. Probably wont be till the 1st of the year!

 

[chrwilkins30]

That will be heavy. Prob need some spacers to keep it from sagging.

 

[jkufen]

Its going to be supported with metal from a 3/4 inch i-beam i am going weld the beam all the way up to the front of it so there wont be any sagging plus im reinforcing the ends of the frame so there is no twisting.

 

[Bennybooster]

He was referencing your springs sagging in the front and lowering your truck because of the massive boat anchor you plan on welding to your truck

 

[brinker88]

You DO realize a bumper doesn't need to be massive to be strong, right?

 

[jkufen]

Yes I get that concept

 

[brinker88]

So.....why the big ass square bumper? Use some imagination and make it unique. Granted that's unique, but looks like shit. (IMHO)

 

[jkufen]

It's not going to be as heavy as expected. It will weigh about the same as the James Duff bumper depending on the winch I mount to it. Alot of the metal in the middle is not going to be there that is just the basic shape. The bumper has to be 9 inches from the grille because that is the width of the winch. Most likely what I will do is take the front piece and angle it back so that the bottom will only be about 4-6 inches thick. Its going to be a hollow bumper made out of 3/16" steel it won't be too heavy but it will be solid. Heck the one my buddy bought for his jeep is made out of 1/4" steel. That is just a beginning design I have almost a month to tweak the design which I will.

 

[jkufen]

So.....why the big ass square bumper? Use some imagination and make it unique. Granted that's unique, but looks like shit. (IMHO)

It will be tweaked some I am going to add in foglights in the bumper. I am trying to keep a somewhat boxy shape to match the shape of the truck.

 

[jkufen]

I will probably follow the cut that I made on the left of the bumper and turn this 11 inch flat bumper into a 6-7 inch bumper with a bottom piece that is inset. This is more for a functional purpose than a cosmetic certain parts have to be large because of the winch and other pieces that I am adding to it. Whenever I get it changed a little I will show you what I am looking at. This was just a blank slate we made and my buddy said sleep on it and make the changes you want.