Custom Front Bumper

[Apex]

Okay, I finally have something worth posting some pics of. It's not finished yet but I got a few coats of paint on the done parts. The steel plate is 3/16" I'm waiting on my tax return to get some LED turn signal/markers to replace those chunky factory units. Next I'm going to make some brackets and mount a bull bar/brush guard, then I'm adding my front integrated skid. Later on I'll open up the bumper to the left and right of the ball hitch mounts and install some 3" fog lights. Maybe eventually I'll be cool enough to own a winch too.

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Many thanks to Durangotang for pioneering this idea. I also used the Backbone winch mount as inspiration. I wanted to expand upon what he discovered with the ball hitch mounts and see if I could build a viable recovery setup. By looking at pic #3 you'll see the two vertical and two horizontal bolts holding the unit to the unibody. Drilling these holes was probably the sketchiest part as there are a lot of vulnerable parts in the area. I used a piece of .5" steel bar to fit between the ball hitch mounts and hold the horizontal bolts, making the two units into one. Ironically a TJ winch plate made for the factory bumper has about the perfect span length to fit on top of the ball mounts as well, and already has the correct spacing. I was given an old brush guard for a '80s ford something-or-other, so I chopped it up and used it for the skid plate framing. I still have a lot of reinforcing to do, and some more plate work in addition to light pods but I'll get there.

 

[Myke]

Wait did you make this? I really like the look of it. Will it be able to hold a winch? Anyone with experience know if it looks safe or sketch in terms of the strength?

 

[Apex]

Wait did you make this? I really like the look of it. Will it be able to hold a winch? Anyone with experience know if it looks safe or sketch in terms of the strength?

It'll be overengineered when I'm done. Better than underengineered I'd say.

Yes I built it.

It will hold a winch. (TJ winch plate from Quadratec in pic 3 of first post)

One 5/8" class 8 bolt will damn near lift the KJ off the ground from an engineering standpoint, I have two 5/8" class 8s running vertically through the unibody and into the ball hitch mounts just behind the grill in the tow hook recesses. I chose the rearward tow hook mounting hole on each side for alignment. It's not a perfect shot so I used a die grinder to wallow it out top and bottom to match. After I got the ball hitch mounts installed I welded them together with a steel bar as one piece for strength on the outside so I can still take off the bumper. Then I drilled two holes all the way through the unibody bumper and ran 1/2" class 8s through them.

When all is completed this bumper will do the job and then some.

I'll try and get a weight on the completed product as well, and of course more pics.

 

[Myke]

It'll be overengineered when I'm done. Better than underengineered I'd say.

Yes I built it.

It will hold a winch. (TJ winch plate from Quadratec in pic 3 of first post)

One 5/8" class 8 bolt will damn near lift the KJ off the ground from an engineering standpoint, I have two 5/8" class 8s running vertically through the unibody and into the ball hitch mounts just behind the grill in the tow hook recesses. I chose the rearward tow hook mounting hole on each side for alignment. It's not a perfect shot so I used a die grinder to wallow it out top and bottom to match. After I got the ball hitch mounts installed I welded them together with a steel bar as one piece for strength on the outside so I can still take off the bumper. Then I drilled two holes all the way through the unibody bumper and ran 1/2" class 8s through them.

When all is completed this bumper will do the job and then some.

I'll try and get a weight on the completed product as well, and of course more pics.

Any plans to sell these?

 

[Apex]

I completely forgot that I never posted pics of the (mostly) finished product. By mostly finished, I mean I haven’t finished the front skid or added my winch. Got a few small welds to finish as well, grinding, etc.... License plate is off center because it’s just bolted in one of the fairlead mount holes lol. I also wanted to add that the main wing sections are built from 1/8” plate, not 3/16”. I still have to unbolt it and add some gussets on the inside as well, but I’ll get to it eventually.

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[duderz7]

Looks pretty darn good!

 

[Apex]

Thanks man, I appreciate it. I tried to upload more pics but I keep getting the red X in place of them.

 

[Apex]

Fixed the photo issue, file size too big. I uploaded a teaser pic for my current project a few posts back, feels nice to have all that plastic gone.

 

[JasonJ]

I like that a lot, EXCEPT for the two angled light pods per side.. to me, that looks weird as hell. I would have just done two of the 4-light pods, straight, like the one straight one you already have in there.

Those are probably your new turn signals, yeah?

 

[Apex]

Yea, the straight ones on each side are the turn signals, the two angled ones on each side are the marker lights and share a circuit with the small corner ones.

When the marker lights are turned off, all three of the lights in the pods under the headlights illuminate when using turn signal. With marker lights on, the straight ones alternate with the two angled and small corner lights. I can try to make a GIF or something.

Fog lights used factory H10 connectors, all I had to do was make brackets inside the bumper.

 

[HoosierJeeper]

Man that's a sharp bumper.

 

[dchadjohnson]

@Apex - that looks amazing! I wish I had the skills to fab something like that for my 07. nice work!

 

[BreeOge]

Apex do you happen to have the pictures, that are not on photobucket. I am looking to Fab me a bumper, and from what I can see I like it, but dang watermark keeps me from seeing it well.

Thank you

 

[05Rene]

Thanks man, I appreciate it. I tried to upload more pics but I keep getting the red X in place of them.

What did you use for your rear bumper? Another wrangler bumper?

Thanks man, I appreciate it. I tried to upload more pics but I keep getting the red X in place of them.

What did you use for your rear bumper? Another modified wrangler bumper or fabricated?
Also what size tires were you able to squeeze on?

 

[hilaryjohn]

Well Hey! Must be the season for customs! I am just about finished with a custom one using the same tow hook mount points -supposedly good for 5K pulling pounds, per side. Should be adequate. I took a really stoopidly placed Curtis front receiver hitch and flipped it over -rides across two stub-out bars of 1 1/8" solid steel that are bolted right where the tow hooks were (re-uses the tow hook mount brackets for that). The cool thing is, the curtis receiver enables one to not only have a winch plate bolted to it -but also the 2" receiver tube can be used to mount either a trailer ball or a tow hook there. If anyone is interested I'll shoot pics and give narrative on how-to (all was photo-documented).

 

[Apex]

The rear bumper was built from scratch, I have so many pics and I just spent a few hours messing with photobucket this morning trying to get the images hosted. I have them uploaded, and I can view my photos on their site, but when I link the photos in a post here they show up with the "Sorry, this image is currently unavailable". Photobucket is a joke.

 

[tommudd]

Joke for sure, I have over 2500-3000 pictures on there, may as well be gone forever