Stage 2: Front Bumper Design (1 Viewer)

[bhicks]

If any of you are wondering why the main bar that runs under the grille is crooked, well.... It's a bent frame. When I purchased it I noticed the front passenger side fender, fender flare, and bumper had all been repainted. He told me his wife had brushed up against a pole in a drive thru and so he repainted it. Once I got the factory bumper off and started making measurments to design my new one in CAD I realized that guy was full of craaap. She may have "brushed" up against a pole but probably going 30mph. The end of the frame on the passenger side is pushed in 3/4" towards the drive side and pushed up almost an 1". At that point I new that there was no way I could buy an aftermarket bumper anyways. It would sit HORRIBLY crooked. My bumper had to absord the bent frame. I did my absolute best to disguse the bend by having each section absorb 1/4" here and a 1/4" there. I think once it is painted black then it will blend in with the black paint and you wont see the goofy angles; at least I hope.

edit: pics of the finished fabrication are at the end of page 2

 

[bhicks]

I finally got it done. Here's pics after I removed it and welded the back side and did a little grinding to hide my ugly welds.

 

[bhicks]

Primer time

 

[bhicks]

And finally the finished project

 

[mr jits]

Awesome work, just like your rear bumper. Watch out for trees though, you will hit the body with that tight tube work.

 

[bhicks]

Awesome work, just like your rear bumper. Watch out for trees though, you will hit the body with that tight tube work.

I used the same rule of thumb for the front bumper as I did for the rear bumper; which is to leave a finger gap (3/4") between any tight spots of the bumper and body. I did this for the rear and after some heavy wheelin and some seroius bashing it has not come in contact with the body. One factor I didn't account for occured last week on the trail. I was wheelin the John Bull trail here in socal and slammed the front bumper on a rock. I literally had the entire weight of the vehicle come down on the frount main tube. At that point the bumper was only welded partially in the front. 70-80% of the welding was not finihsed so the bumper was quite weak. When I got back to camp I realized the bumper DID bend a little due to lack of welds. The driver side 3/4" gap was no more like a 1/4" gap. No good! My plan was to simply hook it up to another rig and winch and yank it straight. Well after a few days of camping and wheelin I totally forgot about the tweeked bumper. I got home and immmediately got to finishing the project. Then yesterday after the bumper was fully finished and installed I noticed/remembered the 1/4" gap. Craaaaaap!!!! Now I have to toss a tow strap on the outer driver side section and HOPE I can still pull it into place with another rig and winch AFTER I fully welded it. I have a local 80 guy (SocalFJ) right around the corner. Hopefully I will be able to talk him into to helping me with my dilema. He has a nice set up with a nice winch. If it doesn't work then I'm just gonna leave it and hope for the best. If it becomes a problem and I have to cut off some tubing and redo a section then that's what I will do. I enjoy the fabrication process so it's no big deal to repair things.

 

[Newps]

I loved how it turned out, great job. The only I would have done differently would be to plate in the lower part of the bumper. Just a personal preference for me, I don’t like seeing all the crap below the grill. You and Dave (SOCALFJ) are stoked to have each other in your small town. He is a great guy and always willing to lend a helping hand.

 

[bhicks]

I have had a few people ask me about the budget on this bumper so here you go. The grand total was close to $260. Here's the overall break down.

-30ft of 1.5" .120 tubing HREW/DOM combo $65
-2 18" Trailer Hitches (Harbor Freight) $34
-Waterjet services to cut out the frame plates $50
-3 two lb spools of welding wire $56
-4 cut off wheels, 2 grinding wheels and 2 flap wheels (harbor freight) $20
-2 cans of krylon metal primer and 3 cans of rustoleum black satin $28
-2 10.9 grade 5/8" bolts and locking nuts $6

That is a total of $259

The rear bumper was in that same ball park on price. I used to wonder why co.'s charged so much for bumpers. After building my own I now understand. I have close to 40-50 hours into CAD design, fabrication, and painting. I have probably 20-30 hours just in the building/painting part. If I was charging a standard shop rate in the $40-75 range plus material; I couldn't even compete with other co.'s. Even if I only charged $25 an hour plus material for this bumper it would still be in the $800-$900 range. That's just not a great deal. (ofcourse I'm sure I could cut down on the fab time if I wasn't a noob and wasn't using all cheapo harbor freight fabrication tools). My props go out to the co'.s that can build and sell a tube bumper for below that and still make a decent enough profit. Hat's off to metal tech and a few others.

 

[bhicks]

I forgot to add that the bumper weighs 72.5 lbs. That is close to what the rear one weighs in at. With the the rock sliders added in I'm close to 250lbs of added weight. If you add up the weight of the items I have removed (factory running boards, bumpers, 3rd row, tow hitch, spare tire and winch, rear section of the frame, and front sway bar) the total weight is real close to the weight added. It's actually a little more. My goal was to build my 80 in a way that kept it capable offroad but as light if not lighter then stock. I didn't want my already poor fuel economy to get any worse with building this rig. It looks like I achieved that goal. The rest of the build is now interior stuff and under the hood. I shouldn't have much weight change anymore.

 

[UnderDawg]

Nice work Bill, first I saw of this.

 

[r2m]

So after starring at the stinger for the last couple days, I realized I just didn't like how it looked BUT I also didn't like the bumper without the stinger. I knew something was missing so after some google images search I got one last idea. I added a bar around the head lights to frame in the front end and add some support around the front corner of the rig. I am now happy with the look and am ready to start the build. The metal used in the openings is standard expanded metal. You can get it pretty cheap at any hardware store. That part I am not sold on yet. i planned to use diamond plate in the openings but it's CRAZY expensive. The expanded metal is about 1/10th the cost. Here's my final design and the closest to what my final bumper will look like.

This may be the first tube bumper I've seen that actually looks GOOD!
Q: what software did you model the bumper in? And do you have a 3D model of a 100 series? I only have some crummy 3D line type of model of a 100 series and it doesn't translate well into SolidWorks.

 

[bhicks]

I used auto desk inventor and autocad. I made a really rough model of the frame for an 80 series. I will be doing the same thing for the 100 series and trying to come up with a design that I like. It probably won't get designed until I have a break this summer. With work and my little 3d printing business I have been crazy busy.

 

[r2m]

Bhicks, if you want to PM me I can send you what I have for a 3D 100 series CAD files. They're not great, but at least it would be something to start with and save you 10's of hours having to mock one up. Who knows, if you like them enough, maybe I could get a discount on one of your bumpers!! Just kidding about the discount, but I wouldn't oppose it, anyways, these are gratis no strings attached.
I have it in the following formats: DXF (which I know is AutoCAD), STL, ASXII and MAX.

Cheers!