TOTM: Bumpers/body protection

[rstrucks]

Stock sucks, what works better? Build or buy? How did you do your rocker cutouts? Materials used?

As always, pictures help.

[biggoofy]

Ill post up my pictures starting tomorrow when I cut into the rockers. I will be using 2x4 .25 wall for the main and 2x2 .25 wall for the kicker very similiar to the KOR design just pushed out a tad more 1x1 .25 wall to tie into the uni frame after its plated in 3/16 where the 1x1 will tie in 3/16 will then be welded over that to smooth it out and prevent hang ups

as for other protection I have 3/16 rear armor (still need to add backing plates)


for belly protection I'm using the IRO belly skid

[WJJEEPIN]

Ill play.

Using Rocky Road Sliders
I know people think the company is butt but their sliders are tits


ARB Front Bumper
Its fine for what it is. Kinda a Crummy design, need to pull to much with the winch. Hurts approach angle. I plan on going with a tube/plate for light weight.
4" lift 31's



I got the KOR Tcase skid

[zj-on-the-rocks]

Built a front bumper for a winch out of 2x4 .120 and a pre bent 1/4" sheet to use as the base for the winch. Alot cheaper than buying one! Don't have recent pic of it being complete (capped and D ringed) Maybe tomorrow I'll take one.

[5.9 ANDY]

got any more info on those rear quater panel renforcement?

[biggoofy]

There isn't really much more to it than you can see. I will be making countoured backing plates that should brace it up very well if i ever really smack them aside from that I will also be using pan head bolts here soon instead of the standard bolts to prevent the heads of them from being sheared off by rocks. I would have liked them to have been 1/4" but they should be fine at 3/16 for the price I paid I couldn't pass it up.

[rstrucks]

Front bumper



Bumper brackets


__________________

Modified for winch




Fender protection and rocker skids







I used 1/8 and 3/16" plate for the bumpers. For the rockers I used .120 square tube plated with 1/8" on the front surface and a 3/16" wall rub rail that has held up well. It has plenty of scrapes on it but no dents. The fender protection is .120 wall. My gas tank skid and t-case skid are from Rusty's. Everything has held up well so far.....

[xj-to-zj]

Stock sucks, what works better? Build or buy? How did you do your rocker cutouts? Materials used?

As always, pictures help.

Yes, the stock, plastic bumpers, suck butt. The first thing I did when I got my ZJ was remove them, front and rear. That alone made a lot more room for tire clearence. I looked around on the internet for some real bumpers front and rear. I then realized how expensive they are to buy pre made with all the brackets and everything. So first I went out bought a cheap welder and tube bender and then went the route of buying some 2x4 rectangular steel and tubing and built my own. The steel was around $150 for all of it, I even have some extra to build my sliders. Anyways I've just found it to be a lot cheaper to build your own. In addition of it being cheaper its a lot of fun and rewarding to work on your jeep yourself and make it your own. Thats just my experience.

[ajmorell]

I don't know what I have for pictures, I will have to look later. Pretty much all of my armor is bolt on stuff though.

Sliders - JCR. Local to me and a great product, no real complaints but don't necessarily think they are anything better than most of what else is out there
T-Case - KOR HD X-Member. It is just okay. It was a bitch to get it to line up right and I bent the hell out of the rear arm on it without much effort. KOR is well aware of the problem (I'm not the only one who's mangled this arm) but as far as I know hasn't changed the design any. Honestly I would not buy this again, I originally had intended to have JCR make me something but I found a good deal on the KOR HD X-Member second hand

[squashman702]

There isn't really much more to it than you can see. I will be making countoured backing plates that should brace it up very well if i ever really smack them aside from that I will also be using pan head bolts here soon instead of the standard bolts to prevent the heads of them from being sheared off by rocks. I would have liked them to have been 1/2" but they should be fine at 3/16 for the price I paid I couldn't pass it up.

1/2"? Holy extra weight for no reason. If you're having that much trouble wheeling that you need 1/2" on the sides of your jeep, it might be time to retake driver's ed.

[AgitatedPancake]

Cut out rockers and beginning of boatside


Door sill gone too, I welded the inner (2") tube to the pinch seam for the entire length




Underside (more support to be added):

[AgitatedPancake]

Rear bumper build


Hacked out the rear sheetmetal bumper and a ton of extra material under the tail lights


Plate beginnings














And a hitch

[rodd88]

I took a crash course in welding and fabricating junk and I did my first bumper, its 3/16th if IRC, and it was scrap we had laying around the ranch. Pics now
brackets... they weigh a good 10lbs easy, I'm looking into making it lighter for next time


sorry no assembly pics



It held the weight of the Jeep well. I've gone back and redone all the welds, since they sucked bad.

The plan is to try and figure a way to mount a winch, and add a clevis. Ill more than likely add a BTF clevis mount. I'm open to ideas and comment by all means. I want to look into putting a few holes to reduce the weight a tad.

[conedizzle]

If you've got the tools, building things yourself is definately the way to go. My bumpers cost about $120 each in steel to build as opposed to the $800 or so that most bumpers cost. Front bumper is made with 5" channel and 3/16" plate. For the rear bumper, the mounts are 2x4, the main part of the bumper is 4x4, and the sides/corners are 5" channel and 3/16" plate. I also cut up my tow hitch and integrated it into the rear bumper. For other armor I've got the Clayton's belly skid and KOR rock sliders.
Pics:
front bumper

rear bumper
mounts

in progress

tow hitch

complete

belly skid

[FortCollinsZJ]

I originally had a pair of tomken bumpers, and was happey with them, not the prettiest, but they were steel. I like being able to ad a tire carrier to the rear bumper, that was important. I eventually sold them, and built my own custom bumpers, then sold them aswell, buecause they were way too heavy. I now have a ultra light rear "bumper" that I was able to lift overhead with one hand. In the end, I am very glad I went with a smaller, tighter, and much lighter bumper. The jeep handles alot better after dropping all that weight.

A couple obvious but sometimes overlooked points:

~High clearance at whatever cost. Cust as much as you are comfortable with, then cut a bit more. In the end you will be happy that you have the added clearance and space.

~Engineered strength> brute strength
We alll know a 2/2 1/4" wall slider will be very hard to bend, but designing a slider or bumper with additional gussets in key points will help ad strength, and allow for thinner material.
Again, the weight decrease is apreciated later

[biggoofy]

I must say a plasma cutter is the way to go when doing a boat side saved me a few hours at least. What really takes a lot of time is cutting and reshaping the A and C pillars then re-welding them **** that thin *** sheet metal.

first cut was with a sawsall to oper her up and take a look


C pillar after being cut and modified


A pillar during cutting and rework


view after 90% of the cutting they are cut as high as i can go with out cutting the doors or floor pans


A,B, and C brackets welded in


2X4 welded in and painted sorry for the ****ty pic


2x4 welded into the A pillar bracket


2x4 welded into the B pillar bracket


2x4 welded into the C pillar bracket

[dp96zj]

Just an idea: don't double post the stuff from your build thread into here. I'm sure the general consensus would agree that you post the entire process in your build thread; then simply post in here with your final product, a few "work in progress" pics, and a link to your build thread. That way there's a lot less excess "stuff" in this thread.


To keep this on track, some of you guys have built multiple bumpers (mainly fronts) over the years, and usually the latter designs are "smarter" and lighter. What recommendations would you give to someone who is just starting to work on their first bumper? Any designs to recommend or ignore? My personal favorite

[Jeeptech01]

It is hard to decide how you want the bumper to look until it is on the rig. My advice is to design strong brackets and install them on the rig then build off them so you can see everything take shape.

[AgitatedPancake]

Haha we all gotta start somewhere eh? The second revision was a little better!


I think the building of the protection is good to include, so as people find the thread while searching for ideas, they will see everything about the project they are going to tackle, inside and out.

[downtowncb]

Holy HUGE bumper

I don't think I've ever seen this.

[AgitatedPancake]

Hahaha don't be dissin on my tank killer! One of my first fab projects evar, and it never let me down. Had a better approach angle than anything out there though

[blackbeer]

When using box steel inside the uni for bumper brackets do you cut the box in half weld in nuts then weld box back together? Or drill holes bigger then nuts and fill gaps w weld? I'm thinking option a. But haven't seen the process and all pics can't see weld putting box back together.

For the rear is it best to use box in uni AND beneath where stock hitch is bolted? Sandwich the bottom section of uni?

AgitatedPancake did you just cap the pillars beneath rockers? Did you cut the bottom seam of the doors and reweld? Build thread?

[96JGCL]

When using box steel inside the uni for bumper brackets do you cut the box in half weld in nuts then weld box back together? Or drill holes bigger then nuts and fill gaps w weld? I'm thinking option a. But haven't seen the process and all pics can't see weld putting box back together.

For the rear is it best to use box in uni AND beneath where stock hitch is bolted? Sandwich the bottom section of uni?

AgitatedPancake did you just cap the pillars beneath rockers? Did you cut the bottom seam of the doors and reweld? Build thread?

niether, drilling through the framerail and the box steel itself and than sandwiching with steel plate worked for me.

Since the my frame rails were gone from the 6" forward from the back, for my rear bumper i opted too drill right through the floor and sandwich it between the box steel and some very large 1/4 plate. Its held up so far.

[Jeeptech01]

Make a nut strip and slide it into the tube then drill two holes and rosette weld the strip into the box tube. Or if the tube is thick enough you could drill and tap it.

[blackbeer]

Make a nut strip and slide it into the tube then drill two holes and rosette weld the strip into the box tube. Or if the tube is thick enough you could drill and tap it.

That is exactly what I was not thinking of thanks