finally a pic of my homemade rear bumper

KJ/toy · **Posted:** Sun Jun 14, 2015 8:13 pm

Jeepin'WNC wrote:

Looking Good.......

John3:17 · **Posted:** Sun Jun 14, 2015 10:36 pm

Wow looks like a home made Rock Lizard all except for the added parts below the tail lights.

Jeepin'WNC · **Joined:** Mon Nov 15, 2010 1:48 am **Posts:** 191

Yeah, I know it strongly resembles a RockLizard bumper....but rest assured it's not a modified RockLizard...I looked at lots and lots of other homemade bumpers, quite a few commercially available bumpers, both for Liberty's and other Jeeps, and other makes...Hey, let's just say I was inspired by Rocklizards bumper...my mounting and recovery points are quite different; my side pieces (for lack of a better term) tuck in to the body a good bit tighter to the body than a rocklizard...It's said that anything homemade has your blood, sweat and tears in it....I don't think there were any tears but I know there was a little blood... and LOTS of sweat....I started work on this bumper in the middle of summer, in a metal building...cutting, shaping, and welding steel in a metal building during the summer, is HOT...

JeepMorrison · **Joined:** Thu Jul 16, 2009 11:34 am **Posts:** 1236

Looks real good. I like it.

Guess i should post some spy pics of my rear bumper soon

WhitbyKJ · **Posted:** Mon Jun 15, 2015 2:13 am

I love that bumper, because you made it at home. Good job!!! How long did it take?

Jeepin'WNC · **Joined:** Mon Nov 15, 2010 1:48 am **Posts:** 191

It took quite some time....I couldn't say "It took three days, etc.." because I worked on it when I had a few minutes here, or a few minutes there...It was an ongoing project that stretched out about five months....When I started it was during the sweltering heat of late summer....When I finally bolted it on for the last time, after paint, there was snow on the ground....

Lancer · **Posted:** Thu Jun 18, 2015 6:11 pm

Congratulations, that looks really good.

DarbyWalters · **Posted:** Fri Jun 19, 2015 8:24 am

Love my old Trailready Bumpers on my 2002KJ...The Original GOAT. Since I started L.O.S.T. they gave me a screamin' deal and used these pics.
Front Bumper had the turn signals protected behind the shark like slits.

tommudd · **Posted:** Fri Jun 19, 2015 8:44 am

DarbyWalters wrote:

Love my old Trailready Bumpers on my 2002KJ...The Original GOAT. Since I started L.O.S.T. they gave me a screamin' deal and used these pics.
Front Bumper had the turn signals protected behind the shark like slits.

Bet a lot of people never saw a picture of the original!
Always did love those bumpers, too bad they didn't keep making them

DarbyWalters · **Posted:** Fri Jun 19, 2015 9:39 am

tommudd wrote:

Bet a lot of people never saw a picture of the original!
Always did love those bumpers, too bad they didn't keep making them

At the time they wanted (full retail) about $2300+ plus shipping...they were uber expensive at the time.

Jeepin'WNC · **Joined:** Mon Nov 15, 2010 1:48 am **Posts:** 191

Love the old Trailready bumpers....did a lot of looking at those as well while trying to come up with a design for mine....thought about trying to incorporate some type of tail light protection, like they had as an option...Also really liked the "straight across" center...I built a recess into mine, but through some miscalculation on my part, the "recess" wasn't actually needed... I thought it was needed as a "relief" for the spare tire to sit back in...the spare doesn't quite touch the bumper I'm short (5'5") so I often find myself on the top edge of the bumper on one knee, reaching for something in the back of the storage area....Having the entire width of the bumper would be nice at times...., but I guess overall, the boxed area of the recess adds strength to the bumper....so I'm not changing it now...the sides of the recess continue to the bottom of the bumper, and act, I guess, as a gusset...There are another pair of vertical gussets about halfway between the recess...The recovery points are hitch ball inserts with two sides of the box tubing cut away to make an L shape, welded to 1 1/2 x 1/4" angle, the bumper bolts on using the receiver hitch / gas tank skid bolt holes....for now there are only four bolts in it, but I'm going to go back in and add bolts to the other two holes that are there...

DarbyWalters · **Posted:** Fri Jun 19, 2015 3:20 pm

Didn't mean to change the direction of this thread. Always have to give cudos to those that take the time and effort to design their own stuff.

That looks like a meaty bumper that I would not want to meet with my front end anytime soon :JEEPIN:

Jeepin'WNC · **Joined:** Mon Nov 15, 2010 1:48 am **Posts:** 191

Oh, I don't think you changed the direction of the thread at all...I just brought up some after thoughts I had with my bumper...some things I may have done differently, and a little more about how I built my bumper...I used a couple of ideas I got from people on this forum on my mounting idea...I remember OHVKJ's (?) homemade bumper using angle at the hitch / gas tank skid mount bolts, and I also remembered seeing others use hitch inserts as front recovery points...so I combined both ideas to work for my rear bumper...I do know I love when people ask where I bought my rear bumper and I tell them "I made it myself"...I've had four people ask if I could build a bumper for their vehicle (one other KJ)...I really wish I had the time to do it....I know mine was rather time consuming; I do have one thing that would have made building my bumper a bit easier / quicker...I made a press brake for my 40 ton shop press...some of the smaller pieces , like under the tail lights, the sides, and the relief for the spare could have been cut, then bent and welded in as one piece....I cut each individual piece with a 4 1/2" angle grinder, held it in place, with one hand, and got a couple of "tacks" in place enough to hold it so I could weld a steady bead...

finally a pic of my homemade rear bumper

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