Custom rear bumper
 

Hey everybody,

For the past year or so I had been looking to you guys for ideas for a rear bumper. Back in December, I noticed someone was nice enough to hit my rear bumper and twist it so it stuck out from the side of my truck while it was in a parking lot. They were so humble about their deed that they just drove off. I was then stuck with a messed up bumper and no way to pay for a new replacement. Since I have a lot of scrap metal and tools around the house, I decided to build my own. At first I wanted to make an imitation Ranch Hand to match my front bumper but I decided that for the same amount of work I could make something unique.

Over the Christmas holidays, I spent 50+ hours designing and fabricating my new bumper. I started on the computer working on the outside appearance until I liked what I saw. Then I transferred all my measurements from the drawing to 1/4" diamond plate. Yes that may be a little heavy but I bet I will win next time someone wants to play bumper cars. To add to the strength, I seam welded everything inside and out (roughly 60' of welds). The mounting brackets are made of 3"x1/2" plate and the bracing is 1"x3" rectangle tubing.

When I was done I powder coated the entire bumper and added an LED license plate light from autozone. The final weight ended up being 128 pounds. I noticed that it was heavy enough to closed my tire/wheel well gap by a 1/2".

I will post pics and y'all let me know how I did.

Thanks

Looks freakin' awesome man! not to mention built like a tank! :)

Left side view

License plate area close up

Whole bumper

Sweet man! Love it. My dad got into an accident with my truck (Someone hit my hitch/tow ball but not from back to front, but rather from the drivers side towards the passenger side) and now my bumper is all crooked and crap too. The actual bumper seems alright, i think its that the hitch moved. But theres a quite noticable shift. When you compare the bumper to the tailgate you can see its like 1/2-3/4" shifted down and stuff. Freakin weird. Gotta throw it up on a lift and check it and pray that the hitch isnt bent. Wish i had one of those bumpers! LOL
If you dont mind me asking, approximately how much material did you use? (Just to guesstimate what the cost would be to buy just the raw materials)

Overview

Overall side view

From my Inventor program which is what I used to design it, the total surface area is about 12 sq ft. But I know that is a completely useless number. The top plate is roughly 75"x13". The three sides that wrap down and around are 2", 4", and 2". Across the back the two parts are about 30" and the license plate cutout area is like 15"x9". The sides that wrap around the sides of the truck are about 13".

So total rough figures:
4"x90"
2"x180"
75"x13" top plate
15"x9" License plate
12"x9" License plate diagonals
20"x4" License plate bottom
Plus maybe a few little pieces for the corners and where it angle back into the body of the truck.

Plus mounting brackets and supports for strength. I just used some of the scrap I had laying around for that though

Side close up. Yes I know I kinda scratched the tan paint a little. Fitting this thing was a huge pain. It went on and came off well over 20 times. With the movement from the welding heat, it sometimes would squeeze together and the tips would catch the paint when going on.