A client came to me the other day and asked if I could fab up a good looking, strong front bumper to protect his rig out on the trail and most of all could it be done for less than $1k or even less than $500. I told him to bring it by and lets see what we could come up with.
Since he does some rock crawling out here in Arizona he wanted something that was a bit narrower than the bulky front bumper on his JK. He also wanted something a lot stronger.
The Fab:
1) Was to get his front bumper off and get an eyeball and what was behind the plastic shell
2) Remove the steel bumper
3) Take 1/8th cold rolled steel and plasma cut to face it and leave enough to roll the steel around the ends and weld it on
4) Mount the front bumper, primer and paint
Tools:
Plasma cutter
Cutoff wheel w/40 grit flap sander, .45 cut off wheel to score with, steel wire wheel to clean paint and prep the surface
Deep socket 15mm
Time: About 5 hours total
Worth it factor: Saved the client mucho dinero over the name brand bumper and gave it a nice appearance, strength over the OEM and a much better approach angle with the tighter bumper.
NOTE: Bumper is in raw welded stage and not finished; due to other appointments he had to leave for the day, but will return for the finish, grind out/flap sanding and primer. Pics to follow...