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Thanks guys, gotta clean up the backside a little, and get some metal prep and Por 15 on there hopefully tomorrow. I also have to cut the excess width off my winch plate so it matches the profile of the rest of the bumper.
Here’s the bumper welded and ground, I’m bappy With how it turned out, there’s a few minor things I think I’d change but for the first front bumper I’ve ever done I think it’s good.
Tom I’d be interested in building you one. I’d have to think about what it would cost. I won’t use the Princess auto swing out hinges anymore, the tire carrier needs a hinge with bearings and a strong mounting surface. If you wanted a small swing out for a gas can, max tracks etc those small hinges are fine. I built that rear bumper with a grinder and a mastercrap 110 welder so I think the quality of one I could make now would be better.My brother-in-law sets up tradeshows for work I thought he’s pretty good with general tools but not so much on cars, although when we were looking at cars for him the last couple weeks I think he learned quite a bit. If I showed him how to the front brakes I think he’d have no issue with it, they just live in an apartment building so they have no where to work on stuff.
Making some progress today boys, I should have it finish welded and grind down, just no filler or paint
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Oil change and front brakes for the brother in laws new Matrix.
I’m actually really surprised your truck hasn’t sold yet. It’s tough find Tacoma’s without a million kms on them
The bumper itself will rest on the winch mount plate so it will hold itself there. I’ll be careful not to add too much heat when finish welding so nothing moves around too much. The mounting bolts will all have nuts welded on the backside, 4 are like that from the factory, and 2 I’ll add. So it’s just a matter of ripping them off with the impact to remove.
Im trying to take my time with this one. Here’s my progress after about 7 hours, lots of measuring.
Here’s what I’m going For, and here’s where I’m at. I decided to leave the winch plate separate, and I’ll bolt the actual bumper to the winch plate. If I need access to anything I just take off 6 bolts and then get right to the winch. Instead of dropping the whole big heavy thing.
There’s a couple on Facebook marketplace, not sure if they’ll fit or if you’re looking for a black one.
Here’s my review of the plasma: it cut great, super fast. You need to be sure you’re cutting straight up and down, rather than at an angle. You don’t touch the tip to the material, So it’s a little hard to free hand. On a long straight you need to have a guide clamped on. On a project like this with lots of cutting you’d go through so many cutting discs on a grinder, it’s nice not to have to change them out and get covered in dust. Not to mention discs can get expensive. It cut through 3/16 no problem that was my first test. And we cut off a mount on the Jeep frame that was 1/4” and again no issue. I like the machine itself is really small and light. We only used it on 220 so I can’t say how powerful it is on 110. This unit does both it just comes with an adapter. Overall I was really impressed it’ll cut a 30” long section of 1/8 in like 20 seconds. You do have to clean up some of the slag though after. So a little added time there. But for complex cuts and tight to reach places it’ll be great. It cut through a painted surface no problem too. If it lasts a few years of use I’d be really happy.
We only used 1/8 probably should have used 3/16 for his but wanted to keep the weight down.
I know nobody signed up for Jeep builds but here’s the start of the stubby bumper, it was the easiest of the two so we started with this. It still needs a fairlead cut into, and then we’ll cut the top out for a winch to sit in
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Oh ya the tires are big, I love it.
The trailer offroad isn’t too bad, in low range you can lug it around pretty good it just requires constant momentum. I’ve only taken them on a few tough obstacles but I’ve never had to winch.
The trails are here are so tight in a lot of cases, that’s more the issue. I’ve been toying around with something enclosed vs open. I really would prefer another pop up. But a pop up with a space on the front or back for an atv makes it really long. I really want quick setup, setting up and taking down camp is never exciting for us. We either want to get to relaxing quick, or when we’re leaving, get it down quick!
We’ll see what happens, I’m asking 5k for my tent and trailer which is basically what I have into the trailer plus a little bit. In my opinion that’s a good deal, I won’t want to sell it in the spring though, I won’t have enough time to build another once work starts back up.
