Front winch bumper

[eaglefreek]

Ever since I built the rear bumper with tire carrier http://forums.amceaglesden.com/index.php?topic=35492.0, I've wanted to build a front bumper. Well, I finally made the time to do it. It took a few days but got it done. I didn't take many pics of the build like I did with the rear bumper so I can't go in as much detail.
I started with a piece of 1/4" steel that I had made for the winch. I believe it was 8"x 33 1/2" and a 4"x 33 1/2" piece
welded to make an L. I then took 2 24" pieces of 3/8x5" flat stock that I made the frame mounts out of. I removed the bumper brackets and installed the 3/8" steel to the unibody using one of the bumper bracket bolt holes, a steering box bolt on one side and  idler arm bolt on the other side. I also added 2 more 1/2" bolts that I drilled through the frame and sleeved. I bought premade recovery points that are made out of 3/4" stock. The rest is 1/8" steel. The winch is a 9,000 lb   Harbor Freight Road Shock that I got in a trade. I am going to upgrade to a Warn some day in the future.
I had to notch a little bit of the front valance for the mounts.


Here's my 79 year old uncle stick welding the 1/4" winch plate to the 3/8" mounts. All I have is a 120v welder and wanted to make sure the critical stuff was done right.











Here is the only place I ran into trouble. The steel moved during welding. I guess I got too much heat in that area. I will have to figure out how to fix it.

[MudPuppy]

That looks sharp!  Wouldn't mind either of your bumpers on my Eagles.
Here's an egg.

[Pat]

Looks good!! Like the way you cut & welded it to make end caps. EGGselent job!

[eaglefreek]

Thanks for the compliments. It was a lot of work.

  What's the angle on the underside like? (<---- read: pic? lol)

You mean like for approach angle? The new bumper sits a little lower than the old bumper. If I were to make a dedicated trail rig I wold put the winch in front of the grill and make the the bumper angle up at the sides and then cut the fenders similar to this:

[vangremlin]

Looks very nice!!!!

[WoodenBirdOfPrey]

Looks awesome.  You're giving me more motivation to learn to weld.  Somebody gave me a MIG welder a couple years ago, but I never got it set up.  Maybe it's time.  I just need to wire up the 25 amp outlet and fix the ground lug and it should be ready to go.

[mach1mustang351]

That bumper looks sweet!! Nice Job

[Eagleearl]

Great job! Looking good.

[Sunny]

Looks good! Just make sure it's attached incredibly well, or it might just pull only your bumper if you are really stuck.. haha

[txjeeptx]

Very nice, fits the lines of the car well. Bet the front suspension rides different now, probably nice n smooth. Bet there are Jeep owners out there who see you drive by and go into a jealous fit.

[rollguy]

That looks TO THE MAX!!!!   It would be cool if you made patterns and had all the dimensions available so someone else can make one.   I know you are not about to mass produce them.  Things like this are just tooo cool to be one of a kind.

[83Eagle!]

That is awesome.  Great work.  Looks like it could have been ordered as an accessory.

[iAMCheap]

I like the Emblem delete hood.
It looks smoother than normal

[HappyPappy]

  Looks almost like an "A-TEAM" car  Darn good job, next you'll be building a roll cage for the out side!!   LOL.

  Sounds like you could make a few more and retire from being a carpenter only those "red ants" are a little worse then splinters.  LOL

[GRONK]

How far off is a Cherokee bumper from the Eagle?  I like what you've done, looking to do something similar but with a whole lot less effort on my part