Today, we got an early start on building Joe's 4X4 Labs bumper for his 80 this morning. Greg and Ramon built his yesterday so Greg came over to guide us through the process. Joe showed up with his stock bumper pulled so all we had to do was start cutting and prep the new pieces to put it all together.
I'm very impressed with this "kit" and ultimately, the complete bumper. I wish they made something like this for the FJC.
The first thing is taking the first step of no return, cutting of the stock bumper. Thanks to Greg's guidance from doing it the day before, getting busy with the sawzall and cutoff wheel made pretty quick work once we got a fresh blade on the sawzall. On a side note, Greg discovered the value in the Dewalt blades for such work. WAY different in cutting ability through the frame rails, like night and day. Spend the extra to get the Dewalt blades.
When we got to this point, we had to jab at Joe, asking if he was sure this was the bumper for the rear and not the front.
What we have to start with, hopefully, it will become something substantial in a while...
First cut...
Trimmed to the right length...
The scrap pile begins...
First piece goes on...
Clearing the exhaust for side two, Greg is taking cover from all the dust coming from exhaust...
Now, for side two...
Its starting to take some shape...
Skip ahead to the install after all the grinding, welding and grinding (did I mention we did some grinding?)...
I know that Joe took some more pics as did Greg with his build yesterday. Again, I'm very impressed with the outcome. This bumper is a TANK, well thought out and now custom fit to Joe's rig. Joe has some grinding to do before its read for paint. I went a bit "heavy" with the welds, wanting to be sure to get full penetration and not have an issues.
The recovery points are particularly beefy and could probably be used to pick the rig up with, as in suspended in air.
Fun project, good guys to work with, not a bad way to spend a Sunday before sitting on my @ss watching the Tar Heel game this afternoon...
I'm very impressed with this "kit" and ultimately, the complete bumper. I wish they made something like this for the FJC.
The first thing is taking the first step of no return, cutting of the stock bumper. Thanks to Greg's guidance from doing it the day before, getting busy with the sawzall and cutoff wheel made pretty quick work once we got a fresh blade on the sawzall. On a side note, Greg discovered the value in the Dewalt blades for such work. WAY different in cutting ability through the frame rails, like night and day. Spend the extra to get the Dewalt blades.
When we got to this point, we had to jab at Joe, asking if he was sure this was the bumper for the rear and not the front.
What we have to start with, hopefully, it will become something substantial in a while...
First cut...
Trimmed to the right length...
The scrap pile begins...
First piece goes on...
Clearing the exhaust for side two, Greg is taking cover from all the dust coming from exhaust...
Now, for side two...
Its starting to take some shape...
Skip ahead to the install after all the grinding, welding and grinding (did I mention we did some grinding?)...
I know that Joe took some more pics as did Greg with his build yesterday. Again, I'm very impressed with the outcome. This bumper is a TANK, well thought out and now custom fit to Joe's rig. Joe has some grinding to do before its read for paint. I went a bit "heavy" with the welds, wanting to be sure to get full penetration and not have an issues.
The recovery points are particularly beefy and could probably be used to pick the rig up with, as in suspended in air.
Fun project, good guys to work with, not a bad way to spend a Sunday before sitting on my @ss watching the Tar Heel game this afternoon...
R
