Prerunner bumper

Precummer bumper

Hey, since I just became ELITE, I think I should celebrate by posting the latest mod. Last weekend me and sirhk100 built a prerunner bumper for my X. He did most of the work, while I chilled and drank beer . It was fun though...

The thing is made outta .120 wall mild steel tubing. I will take a few more pics today after I put the skidplate on. I bought a piece of metal for it yesterday from IMS for like $15, so I guess it was a smokin deal. The skidplate is made outta .125 aluminum sheeit. Enjoy!!(if I can figure out how to post pics)

 

[TravisC]

Looks good, how'd you bend the tubing? How much did is cost you?

 

[Josh S.]

Oh and btw, we didn't have time to plate in the ends of the frame or the ends of the main bars, but I'll get to that eventually.

Tabs for skidplate, lower reinforcement...

 

[Josh S.]

Originally posted by TravisC
Looks good, how'd you bend the tubing? How much did is cost you?

With a bender...

We used a model 3 JD2 bender (www.jd2.com). Worked real good. I bought $77 of metal (50'). We only used about 15' of metal for my bumper. So not very much money at all.

 

[TravisC]

Originally posted by Josh S.
With a bender...

really??? Did you already have the bender or did you buy it?

 

[akcrogers]

So you built your "Precummer bumper" with a bender... sounds dirty.

 

[jimbo74]

"PRECUMMER"

they have other words for that...

 

[ALYZ1FLR]

Hey Josh

I did mine like this what do ya think?

 

[RFR2212]

Did ya weld the bumper to the frame, or am I seeing things?

 

[AlaskanJack]

Oh yea, I'm loving the look. I am especially oooing over the fiberglass fenders. Man I can't wait for mine to arrive to start the ranger front conversion.

 

[Josh S.]

AJ-Ranger conversion...whu???

ALz1f4rsdfkjhwd-yah that looks REALLY good dude. Cant wait to do mine. Me and another dude (TDG) welded some tabs for limiting straps on today too. Well, I guess he pretty much did the whole thing, but hey, it woulda turned out like hell if I did it. Oh wait, it sorta did turn out like hell...(joke directed towards TDG) (I'm faded right now and its 430 in the dang morning) (damn I hate putting lifts on Dodge Rams)

jimabeana(lol)-Oh whoops! did i say precummer?! I meant prerunner

akrogers-I think the "bad girls" will definitely dig my precummer bumper

TravisC-Well, the bender and all the welder crap was khris's. He bought the chit not too long ago, so it was kinda his debut run w/ the new bender. Turned out good for the first time.

I don't have my own, but I am FOR SURE gonna get a bender and welder yada yada yada. I'm starting w/ the small stuff (bench grinder, new dewalt drill, chop saw) then when I save up a little more coin and finish moving, I'll setup shop in the new pad and get the bigger tools

Pete-we welded it to da frame yes we did. theres a new crossmember in the front between the framerails, then where everythign goes down in the back, theres another hoop-type crossmember to supprt the skidplate.

BTW, skidplate (/manual hubs) will go on tomorrow if I can get that damn Dodge outta my driveway. We got everything on for that freakin 5" skyjacker lift, but couldn't get the damn draglink back into the pitman arm!!!!:fire: :fire: :fire: :frustrate :frustrate :frustrate :fire: :frustrate :frustrate :frustrate :fire: :fire: :frustrate :fire: :roll: :exporange :mattmoon:

 

[ALYZ1FLR]

I like the fenders

 

[SCEXPLORER]

What did you use to paint the bumper?

 

[TDG]

Originally posted by Josh S.
Me and another dude (TDG) welded some tabs for limiting straps on today too. Well, I guess he pretty much did the whole thing, but hey, it woulda turned out like hell if I did it. Oh wait, it sorta did turn out like hell...(joke directed towards TDG)

Ya get what ya pay for...

Seriously though, we need to redo those ASAP. I'll bring the Miller210 over one of these days provided we don't have any landlord issues with pulling 220 from that sub panel for the A/C. (Does her A/C still work?)

You'll probably have to either move the mounts or remove more stuff so we can get the gun in there, and it would help if we could start welding before 9pm so we can see what we're doing without a flash light. They don't seem to work well with a welding helmet, auto darken or not. While we're at it we can weld the end of the frame up.

 

[TDG]

Oh yeah in RE to the dodge... try this or this

I'll even help and I'll do a good job.

 

[AlaskanJack]

AJ-Ranger conversion...whu???

Its coming just have to wait a while. I'll have lots of pics and small write up.

I got some 93-97 4" flare fiberglass fenders for real cheap and so I am swapping the header panel, grill and lights from ranger to mine and I guess the hood as well.

Should be fun!!!!!!!! Oh plus adding the offroad bumper I just bought from KirbyN

 

[Josh S.]

Sweetness everybody...

TDG-Yah man, I'll try and get some straps this week sometime. Man, I didn't have time to put my shocks back on b4 taking Mitch home, so I ballsed it out w/o them. Made for one wild ride at 4 in the morning! Anyways, we'll see how they hold up, but that would be sweet to fix up those tabs a bit more slash cap the ends of the frame. Maybe even taper them like alz1frasdlfj; did. Thats nice.

AJ-should be sweet man with the conversion

scprecummer-I used paint ...I used spraypaint actually...I would never use more. Turned out pretty good eh?

POS dodge is finally outta the driveway. **** that thing sucked hardcore. Was able to get my manual hubs on yesterday, slept till about 330 today so wasn't able to throw the skidplate on . Will def. get it on this week though np. Just gotta find time. Oh yah and TDG, the f'n AC still works

 

[sirhk100]

I should be doing the bumper on mine this weekend. It's gonna be kinda like Josh's but with some variations... I'll get photos asap and see if I can get them hosted somewhere reliable to post photos. If you're looking to buy a bender I TOTALLY recomend the JD2 bender... Josh's was my first attempt at a bumper from scratch. Here's my 2nd one ever...

Hey Josh, this truck look familiar?

I also did another one this weekend. I'll post photos of it when I get a chance...

Also, this weekend as I do mine I'll take photos of it as it progresses and show you all the tools I'm using to build these.

These first couple ones are welding on perminant. If you wrecked and bent it up it wouldn't be too difficult to hack it off though because of how they are built. I'm going to be doing a bolt on one soon though...

 

[TravisC]

Very very sharp, nice work. I just wish I was creative enough to invest in a bender. I want a bumper like that really bad but I don't have $400 to spend on one, heck I don't even $250 to spend on it.

 

[sirhk100]

Thanks for the compliments, I wasn't sure what to expect and for a 1st try it turned out pretty good. Some of the welds could use some work but that was due to notching screwups. Believe it or not notching the tubes is the hardest part!!!! At least so far... I can get a decent weld if the gaps aren't HUGE but some of Josh's unfortunately were but I guarantee they'll hold!!!

Once I settle on a design that I'm really happy with I'm going to build a bolt on version and do a fixture off of it so that I can build them off of the vehicle. I'm sure shipping to your neck of the woods on a bumper like this would be EXPENSIVE but that's eventually what I would like to be doing. I think there's a market there to make a little side $$$.

As for the bender, I bought mine used for $100 with no dies. I think new they're like $350. I have a 1" and a 1.5" die and they were around $150 each. I want to get a 1.25" die and that'll be enough for me for now to play and have fun with. I practicing on the bumpers because my first MAJOR project will be caging a toyota that I'm building to maybe desert race with.

Khris