A few years back I picked up a used Smittybilt tube bumper (free, and an improvement over my beat up OEM front bumper). Last weekend I finally unearthed it after being buried deep in my garage. A couple tabs are bent, which I can easily fix, but I'm wondering what the best way to go would be to repair the one crunch it picked up at some point on the end. I'm thinking just heat, massage and a full afternoon to get it smoothed out enough to look okay and pop a new cap in place. But I'm open to suggestions if anyone has a better method in mind.
This then leads me to how to mount it. My right side front bumper mount is all bunged up, so I can either attempt to straighten it and use the existing mounting tabs on the Smittybilt, OR (since I ultimately want to have a bull bar style bumper on the front with a winch) go ahead and remove the bumper mounts now, along with the mounting tabs from the bumper itself, then use some scrap 5/16" plate I've got access to and fab up mounting plates for the bumper that'll let me bolt it directly to the frame. This seems to be the move that'll put me ahead in the long run, though the Smittybilt isn't exactly a high end super strength bumper that requires super heavy duty mounting (at least compared to a winch mount bumper).
The bumper mount in question. Thoughts?
This then leads me to how to mount it. My right side front bumper mount is all bunged up, so I can either attempt to straighten it and use the existing mounting tabs on the Smittybilt, OR (since I ultimately want to have a bull bar style bumper on the front with a winch) go ahead and remove the bumper mounts now, along with the mounting tabs from the bumper itself, then use some scrap 5/16" plate I've got access to and fab up mounting plates for the bumper that'll let me bolt it directly to the frame. This seems to be the move that'll put me ahead in the long run, though the Smittybilt isn't exactly a high end super strength bumper that requires super heavy duty mounting (at least compared to a winch mount bumper).
The bumper mount in question. Thoughts?
