Chaplain

Long story short……..


……. It was time for a prerunner bumper anyway.


Finally made some headway on a new bumper so I thought I would go ahead and start a thread as this bumper gets finished up (suggestions welcomed).
First I need to thank some folks: Yves Braun out of Denver who provided me with the chrome-molly tubing to make it happen. John Cooley of Alumi Craft in San Diego for use of his radius bender, which made this bumper unique. And mostly Jamie Campbell of RaceCO USA in Irvine for bringing my vision to reality. Jamie is an artist with a welder; all the gorgeous welds you see are his others are mine.

Cutting it all off


I put this cross bar in and notched it to clear the a/c condenser's hardline.


The beginning of the boxed in uprights.


This was harder then it looked to make the box and the radius tube look like they grew together. The consistent angle of the radius really made things harder.

Jamie making quick work out of the MIG and laying down some art, ya he has worked for Robby Gordon, Cameron Steele, Penhall Fabrication etc. Truly a top-shelf fabricator!!


Where I'm at as of today. Just need to make a skid plate and burn some tabs on it to hang the skid and some KC HiLights. Oh and I almost forgot I still need to tie-in the top tube ends back to the frame. What do you think? Ideas to help me finish it up.

waskillywabbit

iTrader: (-1)

No winch mount?

:wabbit2:

Chaplain

No need.

4ever4running

iTrader: (1)

pretty cool looking bumper! It just looks a little bare to me...I would add some more tubing on either side to fill it in a little, and maybe add some steel plating either on the inside or outside to make it look a little more "complete".

Philbert

iTrader: (2)

Looks great!

Feel bad for the next Mini you hit....

sebastianholmes

if you read, its not done yet he is gonna mount a skid plate on it. also, do the end bars have any support at all? the look very vulnerable to taking a hit and bending

Chaplain

End bars will tie into the frame above the shock reservoirs. I think I can do that without interfering with wheel travel. That location will also triangulate and give me another mounting plane. Bumper is a work in progress when I find time between traveling, raising kids and helping Jamie prep other people schtuff. Thanks for the complements and insight.

sebastianholmes

okay that sounds pretty coll. kust didnt want youto smash something and have it bend right through your fender into that amazing TC suspension!

4ever4running

iTrader: (1)

yeah but a skid plate only protects the bottom of the radiator and isn't going to protect the center of the radiator from damage.

Chaplain

The skid plate will be in two pieces. Top piece is 1/8 thick aluminum with grill inserts to allow flow and runs from the top tube to the frame. 2nd piece will run from the frame rail, underneath the oil pan, diff, and steering rack making its way to tie into the BudBuild belly pan. It will also be made of aluminum but be much thicker. Even though the two piece design wont look as swoopy it will make it easier to replace the workhorse piece when it gets thrashed. Its more of a form follows function design vs. lookn' good. I wanted to maximize approach angles/clearance.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the radiator clearance.

blake.nemitz

thats beef and super clean. im likin it

SCToy

Looks trick, I am excited to see where it goes. Makes me want to buy some dimple dies.

4ever4running

iTrader: (1)

Ah okay got it. I wasn't sure how high up the skid plate would go because normally a skid plate is underneath the truck, not in front, but it sounds like you have everything all planned out. Function is definitely more important over looks when it comes to skid plates and protection.

Chaplain

Been busy traveling but finally made some progress on the bumper. Built a removable lightbar and finished up the first piece of the skidplate.
Got these cool lightbar bungs from RaceCOusa which makes the removal/attachment of the lights quickish yet secure. Unfortunately I don't NEED lights attached all the time in this cement jungle so they are easily removable when not needed to prevent theft. (excuse eyephone pics)


The TIG welder was in use at the time so bungs were MIG welded into place.



"Bean" of RaceCOusa TIG welded the light bar together for me to hang the KC's.





The light bar matches the radius of the bumper and sits behind the bumper to protect the KCHilights for a form follows function design. Be easy on me the skid plate was the first one I've made.

tlrskunk

I think the front skid plate looks sweet man. and i like the removable light bar set up.

sherminator866

it will deff serve its purpose. who cares what people think it looks like. better than stock imo and its deff different. plus its made by you so that always makes the job that much more satisfying.

wii_tarded

I don't know much about fab work, but it looks as if you could take on some debris from under the headlights. Looks kinda vulnerable compared to the beastliness of the rest of the rig.

revenantdead

wii has a point. theres no protection under the headlights. the upper bar wraps around to protect the front and side but not much underneath.

Chaplain

Thought I would post a pic of the finished skid-plate. One piece design that ties into the belly pan. Turned out ok.

Still haven't tied the corners into the frame with some tubing. I'll get to it one of these days. Should I paint the grill black?

Not sure of a driving situation where I'm going to be damaging the underside of my lights? Maybe falling off of a ledge while rockcrawling, but the FUNrunner doesn't see much hardcore rock crawling. As you can see from the pic above my biggest problem is keeping my lights from popping out. lol

drew303

awesome work ! looks sick