This is the first part of what is, and will continue to be an ongoing project. This post will just be about the first step of my Grand Cherokee build; the fabrication of my front bumper. A little about this project: The inspiration for the bumper came from Kevin's Offroad Grand Cherokee bumper design. I had some definite improvements to the design I wanted to make and some changes to the look of the bumper, but it was a good starting place and I think it's a pretty badass looking bumper to start with. I made this bumper over a 4 week period during my Christmas break from school. Pretty slow going, but I learned a lot and took my time doing it just the way I wanted things. My fabrication experience has been varied, but limited. I hope this bumper design will inspire some more ideas and I would be happy to help anyone that is interested in building something like it. I saved EVERY single template I made so the blueprints are there.


I started with a mock-up winch and a piece of 1/4" plating to reinforce the factory metal where the winch and bumper would be mounted. After this I used some angle iron to make a skeleton of the body lines I wanted to follow and set that up in place.
http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/m600/chase_vanetten/IMG_0120.jpg
http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/m600/chase_vanetten/IMG_0129.jpg
http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/m600/chase_vanetten/IMG_0122.jpg

After the plating was welded up I made some brackets out of 1/4" to mount the winch to and started on the winch mount perch. All this was made out of 1/4". There's a total of 5 1/2" bolts holding just the winch perch on to the Jeep.
http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/m600/chase_vanetten/IMG_0126.jpg
http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/m600/chase_vanetten/IMG_0127.jpg
http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/m600/chase_vanetten/IMG_0125.jpg

Next I started working on the actual body of the bumper. I built the lower section out of 3/16" steel. That's the part that runs diagonally down and will act as the upper part of the skid plate so I wanted it thick. The rest of the bumper was all mocked-up in cardboard so i could adjust things and eyeball it all before I took the plasma cutter to my nice new sheets of steel. If you've looked at the Kevin's Offroad bumper its all made out of pie-shaped pieces; I've done the same thing with mine. I worked from the winch mount out making all the pieces out of cardboard and readjusting as necessary. This was a slow process because I wanted things just right. This is also when i made the D-rings. They are two pieces of 1/2" and a piece of 1'4" TIG'd together then ground smooth.
http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/m600/chase_vanetten/IMG_0118.jpg
http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/m600/chase_vanetten/IMG_0123.jpg
http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/m600/chase_vanetten/IMG_0104.jpg
http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/m600/chase_vanetten/IMG_0116.jpg

I did this for the rest of the bumper as well then tacked everything up really well so i could take it off and weld it up. Behind the D-rings I welded up another piece of 3/16" and then ran the tube from the back of that piece to the plated frame where I welded the tube to another piece of 1/4" that gets bolted to the reinforced frame. I removed the bumper and MIG'd the back of the bumper solid then TIG'd the front up. I did this because i wanted sharp lines defining the pie-pieces and the less grinding I had to do the better.
http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/m600/chase_vanetten/IMG_0132.jpg
http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/m600/chase_vanetten/IMG_0130.jpg
http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/m600/chase_vanetten/IMG_0131.jpg
http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/m600/chase_vanetten/IMG_0138.jpg
http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/m600/chase_vanetten/IMG_0136.jpg
http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/m600/chase_vanetten/IMG_0134.jpg
http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/m600/chase_vanetten/IMG_0137.jpg

After I was done grinding and welding I stuck the bumper back up and had major distortion issues. It made me wish I had done more fitting during the welding process. I ended having to cut the bumper in thirds just outside of where the D-rings got welded up and move the outside pieces in. It only took maybe 1/4" to get everything fitting perfect again and then it was just a little more welding and grinding. I did some quick body on a few of the panels that "hopefully" wont get hit too much. The bondo work is extremely light. It was just to fill up a few of the deeper scratches and other minor imperfections. The reason I took the time to do this is that I sprayed the bumper with single-stage Enron paint. This is stuff that my dad uses on tow trucks that has chipped in over 2 years of hard abuse. It dries like a thick layer of plastic.
http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/m600/chase_vanetten/IMG_0156.jpg
http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/m600/chase_vanetten/IMG_0114.jpg
http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/m600/chase_vanetten/IMG_0157.jpg

I'll post more pictures of the finished thing. I've added a nice thick skid plate as well.

While your fab work looks great, that mount scares the piss out of me. You just welded that base plate to the front "bumper"? You know that sheetmetal skin is only attatched to the frame rails by spot welds right? That's the reason most people tube back into the frame rails. You might want to add some more support


Other then that it looks pretty dang good man

Its not just welded to the sheet metal. The sheet metal also got plated and where the tubes run back to the "bumper" there are four bolts that sandwich the whole thing together. In total i have 15 bolts holding the whole thing together. It might be hard to see from the pictures but the mounts have the piss reinforced outta em. Anything structural is made out of 1/4" steel and the load is spread through out the entire front end

I am sorry, but I do not see any tube that goes back into the frame rails and is captured by bolts. Just a horizontial piece of flat plate that spans the 18 guage sheetmetal and decrotive parts welded to that.

Ya the pictures aren't great. I didn't have a camera when I took them so I had to use my iphone. This is the most detailed picture I have of the inside even tho it's sideways :laughing:
http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/m600/chase_vanetten/IMG_0158.jpg
The green circles show where the tubing is with the 1/4" plate that gets bolted to the "bumper" and frame rail. Those bolts run through the 1/4" plate, the stock bumper sheet metal and the frame rail metal sandwiching them all together. Those bolts are 7/16. The red circles show where the 1/2" bolts are that connect the winch perch to the 1/4" tabs that are welded to the plating.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/m600/chase_vanetten/IMG_0134.jpg


:eek: it warped during welding, no way!

Ya who woulda thunk