Making myself a bumper

Walt Jaquith

Walt Jaquith

YJ Enthusiast
Supporting Member
Joined
Apr 12, 2020
Messages
111
Location
Lafayette, OR
Been a while. The Jeep's in winter quarters, the 8.8 project is on hold and I've been concentrating on... other things. But I scored a Badlands winch on sale, and wanted a bumper to mount it on. I wanted something more than just a raw plate, but a lot of the commercially available bumpers are just too busy for me. I like the clean, uncluttered look of my rig. So I designed my own, and am fabbing it up. Here's a sneak peek...

It's made of 11ga steel, doubled in strategic places with bent lips and gussets for strength. Aside from the 3.4in shackle mounts which will go in the rectangular holes, the whole thing nested for cutting onto a 34x40 in chunk of steel, My son works at a shop with a burntable, so aside from welding consumables, I'm into it for about $85 so far.

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Very nice! I'm a fabricator too, looks like something I would build!
Though I would have gone heavier than 11 gauge, but you gotta work with what you have, I get it.
Looks nice, can't wait to see the finished product!
 
It's at the powdercoaters now, so I should have final pictures soon. The 11ga was deliberate. The design doubles it and features gussets in the places that need the strength. I didn't want a bunch of extra weight.
 
This is cool! Once it's powder coated that might be one of the better looking TJ bumpers I've seen.
 
Slight drift.... what kind of fenders do you have?

(mine are rusting away, and my thought was aftermarket flat fenders would be easier than finding non rusted ones around here (reeeeally unlikely) and possible cheaper as well)
 
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Nothing wrong with 11ga, especially if your reinforce where it counts.
I used to work with a lot of it because it's easy to bend and form.
Using the lightest material you can is the mark of good fabricator, anybody can overbuild.
In my Jeeping experience, extra weight on the front was a good thing.
That was with an 80" wheelbase flat-fender and they were wheely machines anyway, of course just weight of the winch helped.
Probably not so much for these longer machines.
Anyway, Good looking piece!
 
Been looking at Poison Spyder "Defenders" for mine, though there's nothing wrong my stocks, but that's not very high on the priority list.
I just don't like the "Funny Fender" look. Flat-fender guy, Guilty of being biased...
 
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