My 4runner is currently in the shop getting a fresh paint job. I’m trying to make it look brand new. And the previous owner dented up the bumpers. Not horrible but enough to make it ugly.

I was looking at new bumpers and it looks like the chrome rear bumper for my 97 is like $350.

I’d be happy if I could find a cheap painted rear bumper but I didn’t find any.
A front bumper paint black is like $100


I figured I could get material and weld my own off road style bumper for that. But I see people sell their plans. I was wondering if there are any free guides. I can weld but I’ve never done a bumper so I want to see what I’m getting into before I drop some cash on a plan I’ll maybe never use.

I also found a lot of people selling kits that you weld yourself for like $600ish

I may just take my bumper off and build it with cardboard and get a better ideal of material cost.

Or if anyone has suggestions on cheap after market bumpers or if anyone’s got one for sale in so cal area.

It's not fully DIY (no welding required) but I ordered a Trail Gear Riock Defense tube bumber recently. It seems to be very well made and just needs primer and paint.

Rock Defense 1996-2002 4Runner Rear Bumper

You can find it for cheaper than this list price. I think I paid like $520 shipped on jegs.com with a new customer code. That was in late 2022.

Nice I’ll consider it!

Just for reference, a 4'x8' sheet of 1/4" A36 steel is going for between $375-$450 (consumer price) depending on the supplier and potential delivery costs. 3/16" thick sheet of the same size/material are going for $300-$400. If you only need a 4'x4' sheet of either, figure about $100-$125 less of either price. A 20' stick of 1.75" OD .120 wall DOM tubing is going for roughly $150-$200 each. If you have a business account at a steel supplier you can subtract 30-50% of the the price, depending on the volume of material or relationship you have with your supplier.

These are ball park prices, but that's only for the steel and not including any value added process like plasma/laser cut to specific dimensions, delivery or tube bending/coping. If you have a cutting or forming process available to you that helps cut costs. Also if you already have material available to you at no cost and enough consumables (cut off wheels, suitable electrode wire, shielding gas, contact tips etc.) on hand to complete the job that will help cut costs too. Otherwise it's going to run you about the same $$ to build one yourself as it will to buy a production item of your liking.

The benefit of building it yourself if the ability to customize it how ever you see fit, which you can still do to a production bumper but with less planning, lay out and test fitting than building your own.

I applaud your desire to build it yourself, but steel prices today are still running higher than many would guess or like to see. If you can get what you want without having to reverse engineer, "re-invent the wheel" or put more than 10 hours into a project for roughly the same price delivered to your door and only needing paint in my mind you'd be no worse off.

Just my 2 cents, I'm sure plenty others here will have specific bumper suggestions that can guide you more precisely. I hope this information is helpful to you, I certainly do not mean to discourage you from undertaking the build project.

I made this bumper for about $100 out of 1.5x1.5x1/4" angle iron brackets, 2x4x3/16" main piece and 1.5x1.5x1/8" square tube for the sides.

Having built a Coastal Offroad front bumper kit in a gravel driveway and bought a 4xinnovations rear bumper, unless you have a good shop space with all the metal fab tools you'll need, just buy a premade bumper. It costs more up front but man it's a hell of a lot less frustrating than having to run down to the basement because you welded for 8 seconds instead of 7 seconds and tripped a breaker.

If you have the tools though, it's rewarding to build your own.