Fabricating my first off road bumper for my 05 v8

[Topher88]

Fabricating front/ rear off-road bumper Topher88

I have 0 experience building anything like this but I do have a welder and time to burn so I'm going to give it a shot. I have been researching and looking at countless pictures of tubular and steel bumpers. I'm not the biggest fan of the steel bumpers like CBI so I think I'm going to go with a tubular one. This is an on going project that I hope to have done in the next month. The 4runner is my daily so at the end of each day I need to make sure it's still drivable.

First off I removed the bumper and trimmed up the inner fender wells.



Luckily I had some 1/4 sheets of steel laying around so I decided to use that for my base



I only have a cutting wheel on a grinder at the point so making cuts is kind of a pain in the ass and takes FOREVER. But I gotta work with what I got. Made up the plate that I'm going to weld too that bolts to the stock bumper location



On the frame there is a perfectly located 12m x 1.25 threaded sleeve that I'm going to use as a support for the whole structure. What do you guys think?





Then boxing it in





This is where I had to leave it since I had to go on the best fishing trip of my life anyways I still have a ton of work to do and will probably have a a shot do all my bends for the main bar... Moar to come soon. Any thoughts or criticism will be greatly appreciated!



Little update:

 

[LTDSC]

only thing i can say from having a one off bumper is those mounting locations, make the holes bigger for adjustment. With these vehicles any type of flexing or articulation those can and will move on you. One week my bumper is a little crooked, next week its straight. Just depends on what i did that week and angles i had while driving/offroading.

 

[kaizer427]

On the photo you show boxing it in, check the clearance on that line that is resting in the cut...on my demello I didn't quite bend it enough and it started wearing through the line, and quickly. Make sure you have plenty of room and the line is not touching anything.

 

[Topher88]

On the photo you show boxing it in, check the clearance on that line that is resting in the cut...on my demello I didn't quite bend it enough and it started wearing through the line, and quickly. Make sure you have plenty of room and the line is not touching anything.

I'm going to wrap the line with 10mm tape and put a rubber grommet around it as well. Thanks for looking out

 

[Topher88]

only thing i can say from having a one off bumper is those mounting locations, make the holes bigger for adjustment. With these vehicles any type of flexing or articulation those can and will move on you. One week my bumper is a little crooked, next week its straight. Just depends on what i did that week and angles i had while driving/offroading.

Good to know. I know after welding the brackets up one of the holes was a little tight. I'm going to ream it out a little just so it's a little easier to remove. Any photos of your bumper? I can't really tell from your small sig pic.

 

[ebg18t]

only thing i can say from having a one off bumper is those mounting locations, make the holes bigger for adjustment. With these vehicles any type of flexing or articulation those can and will move on you. One week my bumper is a little crooked, next week its straight. Just depends on what i did that week and angles i had while driving/offroading.

My ARB has been good so far. But I have the 8 regular bolts,4 lower frame bolts(secondary side support) and 4 more pinning it together after I got it adjusted.

 

[LTDSC]

My ARB has been good so far. But I have the 8 regular bolts,4 lower frame bolts(secondary side support) and 4 more pinning it together after I got it adjusted.

I have two bolt holes I haven't mounted yet on the lower support. Could help but I've noticed it varies.

 

[LTDSC]

Good to know. I know after welding the brackets up one of the holes was a little tight. I'm going to ream it out a little just so it's a little easier to remove. Any photos of your bumper? I can't really tell from your small sig pic.

Here's a good pic of the bumper.

Its a prerunner style which isn't well received here.

 

[HokieRunner]

Good to know. I know after welding the brackets up one of the holes was a little tight. I'm going to ream it out a little just so it's a little easier to remove. Any photos of your bumper? I can't really tell from your small sig pic.

Good luck on the bumper! Looking good so far. I just started welding as well and this looks like a great project to cut your teeth on!

The Shrockworks bumper has mounting brackets (plates on each side that bolt onto the frame horns) and these have pieces of plate that go back to where you've located the large bolt for the threaded hole. They have a system where you have the main mounting bolts which have oversized holes for adjustment.

Once you get the bumper on and lined up and 'gapped' - you'll want a 1/2" between the front headlight trim/fender body line for flex - then you drill a couple additional holes and tighten a few nuts and bolts to 'lock' the bumper in place.

If done properly, the bumper will flex, shimmy, etc on uneven ground but it ALWAYS returns the normal, properly gapped position on level ground. I ran mine down some washboards a couple weeks ago at a good rate of speed and it was very steady in relation to the line of the hood.

So the oversized adjustment holes and then locking in the final spacing with bolts seems to work pretty well. Hope that helps!

 

[robaroni]

Looks good so far. You've got me interested! I'll look forward to following your progress.

 

[Topher88]

Here's a good pic of the bumper.

Its a prerunner style which isn't well received here.

I like it man. It looks *****ing. I'm planning on having a winch in time so I need to make mine winch friendly. I wish I had a winch to moc up with.....

 

[LTDSC]

what bolt do i need for the side threaded spots? id love to get it bolted into there properly, i just havent had time.

 

[Topher88]

what bolt do i need for the side threaded spots? id love to get it bolted into there properly, i just havent had time.

 

[LTDSC]

Yeah that one. What's the size and thread

 

[Topher88]

Yeah that one. What's the size and thread

m12 fine pitch 1.25

 

[Brownfaux]

Good start. Looks like gas and solid wire. Welder info?

 

[Topher88]

Coming together very slowly but surely. Took me a while to get enough time to finally weld up all the seams that were just tacked up. Being a rookie fabricator I tacked in the piece with the holes (before the holes were drilled in....) so I had to drill them out to get the bolt on the inside loose so I could take it off and weld it all up. Had issues with switching out the wire but a few hours later I got it all sorted out. I'm using a miller 211 running on 220 and using .030 wire.

 

[bob3dsf]

Sweet build! So did you just pick up welding for the hell of it, DIY, home use, etc.?

I've been wanting to learn how to weld for a while but don't have any time right now, or extra "scratch" for a rig. I though about (GASP) the Harbor Freight flux core unit just for something to start with. I have the raw material to make myself a better rip fence for my table saw (biesemeyer clone). Just need to do a little welding. Maybe I can make an ORV bumper someday...

I know it's a HF tool and they are what they are, but that unit gets decent reviews so long as it's used accordingly. A welder friend recommends Hobart since it's basically a Miller in a different box.

 

[Topher88]

Ya I Have been wanting to weld for a while. I build classic Japanese cars like a 510 that my buddy did a lot of welding on and I thought I could do it too. Now I sold that 510 and picked up a 73 Nissan Skyline and thought I could do all the work on it but now it's at my buddy's house lol. So I thought it would be a fun project to make a winch bumper

 

[Brownfaux]

Good stuff.