And considering a patent takes some time to go through and costs way more then he made or will make from the bumbers.

In that case, does anyone who has one want to go visit a fabrication shop?

Lots of these places have 3-d laser scanners now, hooked to CAD systems and CNC milling machines. They can scan the bumper as-is, and then work it out to the individual pieces on their system. Possibly even design it out to be cut from flat steel by the CNC, so all you need to do is weld it together.

I would be willing to share the scanning costs with someone else who also wants one of these, and do all the welding for free. I have my own MIG setup, all I need are the pieces.

And for the donor bumper's time... I'm sure we could work something out so everyone feels happy at the end of the day.

But just because it's not patented does not mean he could not take legal action against you stealing his design.

Yeah patents aren't a cheap endeavor...just getting the initial application filed can cost on the neighborhood of $30K by the time the lawyers are hired and all of the searches for the prior art is done. ...and then there are the maintenance fees...total $1-$2 million if one keeps the patent active over it's 20 year lifetime.