Custom Front Bumper for my '05

blakens

Test Drive
I always liked the C4 Low-Pro bumpers they've got for the 4Runners, and decided to make one for the X.
I stared by taking the front end apart to take pictures and get some measurements. I also traced the mounting plate for the front bash bar. That gave me enough info to start a rough design.

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I didn't hate this design, but it looked too flat in the front, so I kept messing with it.
Took inspiration from these 2 pics.

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There were other iterations and prototype pieces to get the measurements right (at least close), but I ended up with this.

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blakens

Test Drive
I work at an industrial fab company so I've got access to all kinds of awesome equipment, so I exported the flat patterns of the sheet metal parts and the framework to the CNC plasma table and stared cutting. the face of the bumper is 3/16". The frame is 1/2". Probably over kill, but whatever.


After that, some of the parts needed to be bent up, so it was over to the CNC brake press. being able to bend a lot of this took a lot of welding and grinding out of it.


I was so excited I had to slot the parts together in front of the car. You can see a bottom plate in the back of the next picture. This is where the winch would mount, but I some how forgot about the radiator, and this bracket ran into it by almost 2". I felt pretty dumb. I had to redo this part and it basically ended up being the same plate, but with the mounting tabs cut off the sides, so it currently only mounts to the front of the frame rails. I'd like for it to tie into the mounting holes on the bottom, so I'll probably add some sort of tabs down the road.

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You can see the revised winch plate here. I also had the square bar at the top to keep it from warping. It came out later.

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Once I tacked it all up, I test fit it to the car. I didn't want to cut the bumper just yet, so I couldn't see how it fit to the plastics yet.

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This was my first real foray into welding. I'd played with the home depot welders some in college, but the machines we've got are the real deal. It's been a fun learning process. I didn't take any pictures of the really bad welds. Then it was just welding, grinding, rewelding bad welds, and regrinding for the next little while.

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blakens

Test Drive
Now that the main bumper was built, I had to put the thing on the car to measure and position the bull bar part.
I'd reached a point of no return. It was time to cut the center of the bumper out. I sprayed it with some primer since I'd be driving with it on the car for a few days.

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I got it mounted up and could step back and see it really coming together for the first time. This is also the first chance I got to see the fitment up to the plastics.

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Now that it was on, I could figure out the exact placement of the bull bar. I bent this up work with our new pipe bender (another first for me).

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Took it back to work to weld on the bull bar, shackle bushings, and fix a bunch of bad welds I had to grind out. It's amazing the mistakes that a coat of paint can bring to light.

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You can see the gap between the bumper and the plastic. So I used some CAD (cardboard aided design) to fill it in.

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josx2

Bought an X
Supporting Member
Location
Mebane, NC
Awesome bumper man!

I saw the part where ya said it only mounts to the frame horns, and not the tow hook holes on the underside.

Just an FYI...other than you wanting to get a mount worked up for that.... do not run a winch until you get that taken care off. You'll rip that bad boy right off the frame rails if it's not secured to the tow hook mounts.
 

29erClan

Bought an X
Location
Meh
Awesome! I love the creativity and all the pictures. 1/2" steel!?!? :eek: Did you run any FEA on it? (Any pictures of that?) What was the total weight in the end?
 

blakens

Test Drive
Awesome! I love the creativity and all the pictures. 1/2" steel!?!? :eek: Did you run any FEA on it? (Any pictures of that?) What was the total weight in the end?
I did do an FEA with the original winch plate, but apparently I didn't save the file. I think I ran it at 20k# pulling on a shackle point and nothing broke, but it did have a some deflection. I haven't run anything with the new winch plate. Once I figure out a plan to mount to the tow hook points, I'll run it again.
The geometry from the where it mounts to the frame to the shackle point is kind of odd, so I was nervous going any thinner. I probably could thin up the winch plate itself though and lighten it up a bit.
I think the weight is just north of 80#
 

josx2

Bought an X
Supporting Member
Location
Mebane, NC
Shrockworks makes a plate for the tow hook mounts....that bolts to the bumper...to give it that access. that'd work, rather than making it thinner to make that bend. I'll take a pic of mine for ya.
 

josx2

Bought an X
Supporting Member
Location
Mebane, NC
I stole this one off of RockyMtnX's thread over on TNX about his winch bumper (I doubt he'd mind).... you can see the 'adapter' plate that bolts to the bumper...then wraps underneath the framerail.

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blakens

Test Drive
I stole this one off of RockyMtnX's thread over on TNX about his winch bumper (I doubt he'd mind).... you can see the 'adapter' plate that bolts to the bumper...then wraps underneath the framerail.

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Nice! Thanks for sharing. Just for the record, I want planning on putting a winch on till I got it bolted up underneath. I just got to a point where I was too excited to get it on the car to think about it yet.
 

29erClan

Bought an X
Location
Meh
Once I figure out a plan to mount to the tow hook points, I'll run it again.

Cool, count me in as a vote to see that colorful bendy goodness!

I don't mean to be critical about the weight. Just imagining how to get it mounted made my back hurt. ;) Running the sim @ 20k# sounds like it'll be more than safe when you finish up.
 

blakens

Test Drive
Cool, count me in as a vote to see that colorful bendy goodness!

I don't mean to be critical about the weight. Just imagining how to get it mounted made my back hurt. ;) Running the sim @ 20k# sounds like it'll be more than safe when you finish up.

Not critical at all, it's definitely heavier than I had hoped. Put it on a floor jack to install it.
 

hybrid90

Test Drive
Wow! That looks badass! Looks way better than any other bull bar out there plus it accepts a winch. Great job OP! It doesn't look to be very "approach angle" friendly huh? Nevertheless.. very nice job indeed!
 
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