Clean bodied 1985 Toyota 4Runner

[Brucker]

Front winch bumper

Our client prefers plate style bumpers over most tube style bumpers. But he doesn't like what is currently available on the market (too big and bulky like the ones made by ARB). So he gave us the green light to let our creative shine and dream up and fabricate something just for him.

Here are the few guidelines he gave us:

-must be a plate style bumper
-must have accommodations for some flush mount lighting
-must offer great protection while staying close and tight
-prefers open winch design over it being enclosed
-Use an XRC8000 winch with synthetic line

While trying to take everything into account, we are able to come up with a rough idea of what we are after. Though, keep in mind we are going to be creating this on the fly so things may change as we go. I will let the photos do most of the talking, but will try to highlight some areas with some more explanation. But as always, if you have any questions as to why we did something a certain way or about anything really, just ask.

We start by designing a simple "backbone" for the bumper that will be bolted directly to the frame

We then layout, cut, drill, and bend up a simple winch tray

Test fitting the tray to the backbone

We then bolt the backbone onto the 4Runner using the factory hardware

 

[Brucker]

Tack welded the tray onto the backbone

Designed and cut the top plates for the wings

Tack welded a couple risers and the top to each wing into place

Then added the front plate. You notice it's odd shape as it will hold the fairlead and it has provisions cut on the sides for some flush mount LED lighting from Rigid Industries

And a couple more plates fab'ed up and tacked into place on each side. An internal vertical support and the first pieces of the sloped section of the front face.

 

[Brucker]

Now with the addition of the aluminum hawse fairlead. The front bumper is starting to take shape, though, keep in mind that we are making this one up as we go. This means you might see a few changes as we progress.

We cut a couple pieces of angle iron for the front face then tack welded the angle into place and modified the front plate to add a slight slope upwards.

Another set of internal vertical support plates tacked into place on each side.

Next piece is cut and fit into place

 

[imhighlander]

Way cool! Excellent progress and thanks again for such a great thread.

 

[mikeyhcrana]

How much for another bumper just like that?

It would be so awesome if you sold pieces as a kit one could weld himself!

 

[Brucker]

Way cool! Excellent progress and thanks again for such a great thread.

Thank you for the kind words.

How much for another bumper just like that?

It would be so awesome if you sold pieces as a kit one could weld himself!

As a rule I never reveal what a client has paid for work done. If they feel like sharing, I have no problem with it, but it is up to them. I do however offer estimates or quotations, which are ballpark figures. If you would like a real estimate written up for your vehicle, call me at the shop and I would be happy to do so.

Custom work is expensive, though I have been told I have a fairly low shop rate for Boulder County. My shop rate is $80/hour and I charge for all time and materials. For this bumper, including all design, fabrication, and coating, I will have between 30-50 total hours into it when it is all said and done.

I have no plans to date of ever producing a bumper like this again. It is a custom one-off. To date, I don't offer any product lines or have any plans to. I enjoy doing the custom stuff, so that is what I do. Luckily, I have been able to maintain a full and busy schedule since I started. And hopefully it will stay that way.

If you have the knowledge and abilities it would take to properly weld together a bumper like this from kit form, you should easily be able to make one from scratch, thus, not needing a kit. Everything I have done besides the plate bending could be done with a tape measure, straightedge, drill, cut off disc and grinder (or any other metal cutting equipment), welder, and a sander. I just may use different equipment because I happen to own something that may make one of those processes quicker and/or easier, or I feel more comfortable with one over another. And the plate bending isn't needed. You could just cut and miter and weld everything together.

Hope that this helps.

 

[rover67]

Looks sweet! Live dangerously and make the wings of the bumper air tanks!

 

[Brucker]

Picking up from where we left off, we add the last couple of inner vertical supports to each side

With all of the inner pieces tack welded into position, we are able to make the rest of the plates to finish out the front faces.

The next couple of plates on both sides needed slight bends in them in order to make them fit properly

 

[Brucker]

The next plates installed on both sides

And the last set of plates for the front faces tacked into position

 

[imhighlander]

Will you be fabbing up a plate-type rear bumper to go with the front, or is client keeping the tube-type on the back from earlier in the thread?

 

[Brucker]

Will you be fabbing up a plate-type rear bumper to go with the front, or is client keeping the tube-type on the back from earlier in the thread?

The rear bumper is staying put this time around. The plan is to build a custom one for the rear at a later date when funds allow. As mentioned earlier in the thread, we purchased the TG rear based off it's price compared to it's protection offered. Best bang for the buck. So he won't be out that much once it gets replaced. He would eventually like a custom rear that has a tire carrier, Hi Lift mount, and provisions for jerry cans and the like.

 

[Brucker]

The last pieces that we will add while the bumper is on the vehicle are the D ring (or shackle) mounts. Not only will they provide the obvious, they also will provide a LOT of strength and rigidity to the winch tray itself. We use our mill to cut the desired thru hole size.

Smoke flared up once I reopened the coolant line (had it shut off to take a better photo):

You gotta love it when you get chips like this. Not only do you know the speeds and feeds are set right, you know there wasn't any chatter and cleanup is SO much easier.

The plates fresh out off the mill:

We didn't have the right tubing in stock for the next parts. So instead of ordering a whole stick of material and having to wait on it's delivery of next week, we decided to cut our own. We happened to have some thicker walled tubing of the same OD which we could easily modify. So we put a length into one of our lathes and went to work:

 

[Brucker]

With the tubing now having the correct ID, we pull it out of the lathe and part off the two pieces we need using a horizontal band saw so the lathe could get back to work on making the parts we had interrupted.

The left over section of tubing shows just how much material we needed to remove:

Then insert the tubing into the plates that were just made

And then welded them together

The hangers will be able to except the more common sizes of D rings in this industry, 5/8", 3/4", and 7/8" shackles

Now we are able to tack weld them into place

 

[HoneyBadger]

Looks great. I like it.

 

[Brucker]

Looks great. I like it.

Thanks for the kind words

 

[Brucker]

The majority of the work left on the front bumper will be done with it off of the vehicle. With it removed and sitting of the fab table, you are able to see the inner support structure better.

Our focus turns towards making the mounting plates for the flush mount lighting from Rigid Industries. We have used their products on multiple builds now and they have yet to disappoint. Some of the best lighting, if not the best, you can buy. Here is a shot from an earlier build showing what one of their 50" light bars can do:

On this bumper we will be using a set of their Dually D2 driving lights. They won't pack quite the punch as the 50" above, but should produce more than enough illumination for our needs. Here is one fresh out of the package:

We make a set of mounting plates

Then bend up some round rod to use as spacers so the lights will be truly flush with the front face of the bumper

We make the final cuts to the plates and start to fit the rod

Once the rod is welded to the plates, we smooth the edges

Added cage nuts

And test fit them into place

We then clamp the bumper to the fab table and tack weld the mounting plates and front face plate into place

 

[imhighlander]

Beefy! I dig it.

 

[AxleIke]

LOVE the flush mounted light work. That is a killer idea.

BTW, I'm looking at some lighting options. would you mind posting up pics of these small guys when you get them all done, similar to the light bar? Just so we can see how far and bright they are. I really like the idea of small compact lights.

Cheers!

 

[Brucker]

Beefy! I dig it.

LOVE the flush mounted light work. That is a killer idea.

Thanks for the kind words

 

[Brucker]

With the bumper still clamped to the fab table, we cut another set of plates to be used as inner gusseting. These will be positioned along the front faces and the winch tray. It will give added support if/when we decide to put a hoop onto the bumper for extra winch and radiator protection.

The next steps would include finishing the backbone of the bumper. This will require a slight modification to what already exists. So we need to unclamp it from the fab table. After doing so, I decided to add in the caps for the angle iron pieces on the front face. So I cut the 4 pieces needed and tack welded them into place

Then made the slight modification to the existing backbone structure. Before:

After:

Then bent up some round rod to finish out the top of the front face. Once fully welded into place and getting smoothed out, it will not only add strength, but a clean, finished look of a rolled edge. Here is the rod tack welded into position

After the addition of the new pieces, we are ready to to start on the backbone once again. We once again clamp the bumper to the fab table