esde

Stock bumper was wrecked, and is thin as hell, so I decided to fab up a new one. Front is 3/8, sides are 3/16, and the mounts are 1/4" wall 3x4 angle. Just got it tacked together on the truck, will pull it off tonight to complete the welding, grinding, and plasma cut the holes in front for the driving lights. I know it's not going to be as stout as some of the other aftermarket bumpers, but for what was sitting around, and an afternoon (so far) it is pretty strong. Any thoughts?

DIESELWRKS

I agree the stock is thin POS. good job looks good do it yourself. you have plenty of room on the front of it if you ever wanted to put a grill bar or bars outlining the lights later too. on mine it now serves as a great step for anytime I'm under the hood. good job.

Backwoods Bumpers

I wouldn't worry about stout........ That's impressive. I hope you have a buddy to help you lift it! Most aftermarket bumpers are 3/16 with 3/8 mounts. Yours sounds heavier than most. You should be able to bash about whatever you want!! I do this for a living and that looks like nice work. Good Job

Colo_River_Ram

Looking good so far be sure to give the front fenders / grill room to move in their rubber mounts and weld both sides.. Are you going to paint, powder coat or have it LineX'd ?

hardtarget870

Looks real good. I have been looking to do that as well. Doing a lot of internet research. Here are a couple of sites that I found that are helpful for ideas.

http://www.yotatech.com/f88/4307s-re...thread-158798/

Looks like a stealth fighter.
Another

http://www.erikburrows.com/index.php...m+Front+Bumper

He also has a version 2 on the same Land Rover.
Keep up the good work and pictures. Subscribing.

Backwoods Bumpers

Very true. I have seen a bumper on my truck hit the headlight on one side and have a 2" gap on the other side when I was flexed out on a pile of rocks. This was with about a 3/4" gap sitting level. Might be worth the time to drop it down a little? who knows.

esde

Very good point about lowering it to account for any frame flex, I hadn't thought of that. At this point I'll have to slot my mount holes to do so. A few things I've learned from doing this: The front of my truck isn't exactly symmetrical. My 3x4 mounts are square and true, and my top plate is the same side to side. When installed centered on the frame, there was a 3/4" gap on the driver side under the headlight, and no gap on the passenger side. I suspect that when I trashed the front bumper the frame got bent somewhat. So I cut one side of the mount a bit to get things even. Also, for anyone thinking of doing this, the top plastic cap from the original bumper makes a nice template for your top plate. As for the finish, I'm thinking of having it dip galvanized, though after the front end rebuild, torque converter, and drive shaft ujoints, I'm not sure there'll be enough funds to pay for it. We'll see. Thanks for the feedback. SD

Midnite

When you're done you should get a bumper sticker that says,

"YOU are my crumple zone"

sloth

Looks great

DragonSlayer

I like it! I like the way it looks. I want to do something similar on mine.

Tallguy67

Ok, I am a hobby welder and a fair to middlin shade tree mechanic, but that is a good piece of work. That might be a good winter project when things freeze up in Alberta.

esde

Just took it off the truck for final work and finishing. I scored the corner plates with a grinder and bent them to the final shape, instead of cutting them fully through. I'll cut the holes for the lights, and mod the mounts to drop it down away from the lights a bit. Galvanizing is coming out a bit too much $$$ for me right now, so it'll get rattle canned for the time being.

high bid

with all of that hard work....atleast get it powerd coated....looks good

rockcrawler304

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esde

For the record, or the curious..
Galvanizing is $500 for a 1500 lb minimum. This is a nice heavy dip galvanizing, I'll consider it after I get my new flat bed with drop sides done to bring the weight up. The bumper itself is probably only 200 lbs.