NTX JK

I looked through a ton of bumpers, but nothing really caught my eye. I liked a few of them, and would of bought them, but I am just . So, I did the next best thing, I made my own. Since my dad has all of the tools, I didn't have to buy anything except for some cut off wheels, flap disc's, and some bolts. I am a draftsman with not a lot of work to do at work, so I had plenty of time to draw my own. I started by measuring the front of the jeep, and the frame, then started to design my bumper. I took some inspiration from a few bumpers, but I ended up making it my own. I started with a AutoCAD drawing:





Then I blew it all up and printed out all of the pieces I needed to cut:




After that I cut all of those out on some cardboard, and made me a template that I could stick on the the jeep to see if it would all fit:





It was a little wider then I wanted, so I took 2" out of the center part on each side of where the fairlead mounts to (so 4" total). After that looked good, I started tracing and cutting. Since the metal was used, there was paint on it so I had to scrap all of that off (and I swear I am never doing that again, it took at least 6 hours to grind all of the paint off, and my thumb still hurts a week later). Much thanks goes to Brian (CJ's automotive) and Mike (ClassicRocks) for letting me use their special tools (I will keep it a secret so everyone doesn't come bugging you to let them use it). Then I started welding once everything was cut and all of the paint was gone:





Then I installed the hoop, d-ring mounts (made from 4 pieces of 1/4" steel welded together), and finished all of the welds. I painted it with the spray on bed liner, which I kind of ended up being disappointed. I had to use an inner-shielded wire since I couldn't find the gas tank for the mig, so there were a lot of gaps in the weld once grounded down, and I was hoping for the bed liner to cover it all, but oh well. Also my pipe bender dented the tubing where the rollers where at, but I did the best I could with the tools I had. All in all, I am happy with it. Here are the finished pictures:

RubiKing

That looks incredible! I can now see why bumpers are so expensive.

rubious

great work!

bluejk09

The bumper looks great! Did you use the cardboard mockup as a stencil to cut out the metal or did you send the cad rendering to a shop to have it cut?

Kalamari

Looks real good! I like the width. Makes me wish I had some skills since I'm bumper shopping right now. Then I could get exactly what I want. Maybe a tube version of what you've got...

rcdude3

looks good! looks like it has a handle bar mustache .

aggie sig

looks awesome!

much cleaner than my homemade bumper build!

NTX JK

I used the cardboard to mark up the metal and used a cutoff wheel for most of the cutting then used a plasma cutter for the rest. I wished I would of started off with the plasma cutter because it would of saved me an entire day of cutting.

Darth JK

Great job! I so wish I had your skills. I prototype myself but in a whole different feild, I use clays, waxes, silicone, and polyurethanes. I so need to learn welding and metal working. Some of the posts for custome work on these jks amazes me. You got skills man keep it up.

highergr0und

Nice..... Looks like an expedition one only mid width and probably a good bit cheaper.