JAKEJAKE'S Big Thanksgiving Week Bumper Build Extravaganza (Pic Heavy)

Started the day off with boxing in the backside of the bumper. This part was much faster than the front curve.

Tapered the ends to flow into the fender line.

This shot you can see the side bars are fit and tacked into place.

Skid plate started as cardboard before drawing it and plasma cutting it out of 12ga. After a few designs I landed on a couple of 2" speed holes and a spot for the front recovery receiver to poke through. The bend line is cut on the plasma leaving 1" tabs. Makes bending a wide piece like this much easier. I will ultimately weld that seam.

Skid plate clamped in place and some cardboard templates for the rest. These "wings" be cut out of 14ga as they aren't really protecting anything.

Looking at these now I'm not in love with the weird bump to expose the tube mount sexiness. I may smooth that out, but in the moment I couldn't resist.

Jumping back in first thing tomorrow!

 

Started the day off with some layout. Everything is based off of the trucks centerline.

Test fit the OEM skid plate

You can see the factory mounting holes just poking out from under the cross member.

Drilled the spot welds and cut for clearance.

This is the only piece of 1 1/2 x 1/8" material I had on hand. It gets cut to fit to stiffen the front of the skid plate, and provide some more meat for mounting bolts.


Welded, new mounting holes drilled.

New front skid (air dam?) gets mounting holes marked out and drilled.

Drilled and tapped the crossmember for 1/4-20 fasteners from OEM skid and front plate.

All bolted up.

Got the side wings cut/fit/tacked into place.

Im quite pleased with how everything is coming out. Tomorrow I'm going to tackle all the little details like capping the end tapers, fabbing the front receiver, cutting the little triangles to tie in the front a little better etc. That should be pretty much it other than final welding and some kind of finish coating when I do my other paintwork.

 

I love this design. If all armor was made like this, I might actually consider it. Great flow!

You're really turning lemons into lemonade here!

 

Thanks shifty! I've gone somewhat design-blind to it. Glad to have another set of eyes that appreciates it.

 

As-is it kinda has a "sleek MadMax" aesthetic. But I'm sure that'll polish out. It may take a different appearance once painted though. Only one way to find out!

 

Soon. I'll probably shoot it with some cheap alkyd to protect it until the spring when my schedule opens up. Im tempted go two tone with the final paint. Body color on the curved section and match the lower section with whatever black the frame/underbody gets.

 

I mean, I'm trying to think of a way this could possibly look good, just tossing out thoughts more than anything. Maybe it sparks a thought in your head.

I almost feel like any horizontal you could apply like that would be great. Maybe pre-drill for a bumper strip, for example. Something that's easily adapted from another vehicle. One of those things a casual stroll around the local JY could bring to light. I remember my '99.5 GTI had a specific style of black plastic or rubber snap-in bumper insert which was painted on some models but all the guys on Vortex would plastidip.

Just no spikes. Don't need to for-real channel the MadMax.

 

Im trying to talk myself into adding some lighting to it, but with the retrofit projectors I just got that seems a little extra.

I'll keep my eyes open the next time I'm at the salvage yard. A little trim garnish may be just what it needs.

 

Thats looking great. Oughtta sell your plans to coastal or whoever.

or my bad, forgot you said you were cncing stuff. Put together a price list & sell precut kits.

 

Thanks bee!

 

Light day today finishing up some of the details.

Started by cutting a 5" piece of 2 1/2x2 1/2x 1/4 tubing for the receiver.

Cut some doubler plates

A little weld action. I designed these to TIG the inner weld pockets, only to find that I'm out of argon . Let's just say there's a reason you don't see any up close finished shots of this piece.

Set into place

Conveniently the pin will be easily accessible, but only when the hood is open.

I would have liked to drill the pin bore today, but my only 5/8" drill looks like hell and I wasn't about to fight it through 7/16" of steel twice. I have a fresh one on order.

Backwards Nevada Caps

Cut these spacers for between the front skid and crossmember

In location

I'll tack these into place next time the bumper is off. That will ease reassembly, and prevent losing them.

Somewhere in there I added the small triangles to smooth out the transition from the front to the sides.

Heres a parting shot of the bumper in its mostly complete state.

In the future Im going to fab up a front tag bracket that uses the front receiver.

I still need to finish all the welding, design and install some reinforcement plates for the factory bumper mounts, and hit it with some temporary paint to keep the rust off over the winter. It will eventually get media blasted and some nice paint.

 

Throw a 2nd gen main leaf (with the eyes cut off) across the main span to spread any load.



the secondary leafs from a first gen pack match the factory bumper support pretty well, too. I know you bypassed your crumplezone, good call, but consider cutting all bracing so the bumper takes the brunt, instead of the frame horns.

 

I may add a small filler piece in that location to close up the gap between the grill and bumper. I have a limited grill on the way which may fill the gap enough.

Nothing is really braced to the frame horns, but given the low profile nature of the bumper, any kind of front end impact will be going into the frame. I'll cross that bridge if it ever comes.