Fabbing XJ Bumpers -

**bggrnchvy** · August 22nd, 2008, 11:43 PM

A longtime friend of mine has had a 92 XJ since sophomore year of highschool. As of now it's sitting on 4.5" of lift with 31 AT's, as it's his DD for college, and he really wanted a set of bumpers for it. Myself being out of a job and really not able to start one until after Moab in 3 weeks things came to line up.

Reed wanted a front bumper with recovery points, low profile and not overly heavy with accommodation for a winch down the road. For the rear he really wants a spare tire carrier and recovery point back there as well.

I picked up 200lbs worth of 3/16" plate, 1/4" strips, 2x6 .120 tube, 2x2 .120 tube and will be using some of the 1/4" plate I have leftover and a foot 2x2 .250. I also had him order a swing away tire hinge kit based around a trailer spindle and a set of both weld and weld through shackle mounts.

The front bumper design was finalized in Solidworks, handy tool to have at home. Some .jpegs of the quick model. Sorry no rendering.

Reed dropped the XJ off this afternoon on his way out of town for a week so I have plenty of time to work on it. I tore the stock bumper off and shot out the base of the brackets and cut the main 2x6 tube and rested it on top.

I'll update as it gets finished, hoping to get to work on it for a majority of tomorrow.

**cbbr** · August 23rd, 2008, 06:23 AM

The trailer spindlemade me nervous when I made my bumper, so I went with a double shear 1" grade 8 bolt. I welded a seam all the way to the bottom of the bumper and a nut at the top and near the bottom so there is contact all of the way down. There is a brass bushing under and over the swing arm so it will pivot smoothly.

**5280k5** · August 23rd, 2008, 01:57 PM

Looks good so far. Question for 'ya: When using solidworks do you print out a template for cutting brackets like those or just works with dimensions?

**bggrnchvy** · August 24th, 2008, 08:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cbbr

The trailer spindlemade me nervous when I made my bumper, so I went with a double shear 1" grade 8 bolt. I welded a seam all the way to the bottom of the bumper and a nut at the top and near the bottom so there is contact all of the way down. There is a brass bushing under and over the swing arm so it will pivot smoothly.

There's nothing wrong with the spindle, you just can't leave to hold the load going down the road all on it's own. Just build a mount on the opposite side you can lock it into tightly with a threaded fastener.

Quote:

Originally Posted by 5280k5

Looks good so far. Question for 'ya: When using solidworks do you print out a template for cutting brackets like those or just works with dimensions?

I guess I could if I just made .dxf's without ref dim's but I really just model it so I can get a good picture and reference it for critical dimensions. So in short, no templates.

Not a whole lot done. No work on Saturday and I only had time to work on it for a couple hours tonight.

At least now the 2x6 has some form. The flat plate welded upright is just to keep the 2x6 level until I weld on all the supporting plates.

**bggrnchvy** · August 25th, 2008, 09:09 PM

The afternoon saw big additions to the bumper and lots of welding. Hoping it's all tacked together, if not welded out, by the end of tomorrow night so I can work on the rear bumper a bit until I recieve parts.

Full welded on the front.

Full welded to the mounts on the inside and stitched along the other seams.

Out of angle welding and welding within could still use some work.

**bggrnchvy** · August 26th, 2008, 09:37 PM

Nightly update, not quite done. I was lazy this morning and didn't get out to work until noon

Another 1/2 day of work and then it's time for paint. Mike was over and snapping pictures so the first couple are from him. Pretty lights...

Just need 4 caps cut and welded in, 2 stiffening plates for the plate taper, cover plates for the back, holes for the fairlead and lights and some cleaning for paint. Wahoo. I'll just tape off an area around the shackle mounting holes for now so it doesn't rust at all while I wait for them to arrive.

Mr. Pickle · August 27th, 2008, 05:49 PM

Nice progress but I would highly suggest putting some more attachments to the frame. Also, lots of guys crack their frame and or steering box so I would also suggest to extend your brackets to include the steering box bolts to go through them. This would give you more bolts holding the winch on and a plate making your steering box area stronger. I bought a Detours Backbone winch plate for this reason. JMO

None the less it looks cool and I look forward to seeing the finished product.

**bggrnchvy** · August 27th, 2008, 11:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr. Pickle

Nice progress but I would highly suggest putting some more attachments to the frame. Also, lots of guys crack their frame and or steering box so I would also suggest to extend your brackets to include the steering box bolts to go through them. This would give you more bolts holding the winch on and a plate making your steering box area stronger. I bought a Detours Backbone winch plate for this reason. JMO

None the less it looks cool and I look forward to seeing the finished product.

Yup, did that this afternoon actually. Stupid unibody.

All done.

Working on getting uniform long continuous beads.

Extra plate to help disperse more load on the unibody and works as a huge backing plate for the steering box.

Painting it in the morning, didn't want to spray it at dusk. All it's missing are the d-ring mounts and aluminum fairlead.

Anybody hazard to guess what it weighs in current trim?

**bggrnchvy** · August 28th, 2008, 09:23 PM

Painted, installed, wired.

**5280k5** · August 28th, 2008, 11:44 PM

Nice looking bumper, definitely stronger than the Jeep it's bolt to. After having worked on some Cherokee's at work that get wheeled, man I will never own anything with a unibody for a truck.

**bggrnchvy** · September 3rd, 2008, 10:06 PM

Yea, unibody's suck.

Well I convinced him that the paint choice wasn't working. Hammer finish gray it is. The clevis mounts came in as well and I got those welded up, smoothed the deck out a bit and tr