Modified 4xInnovations plate bumper

I have studied and studied plate bumper for my 2000. There are several that I really like. Relentless, 4xInnovations, Shrockworks, ARB, and so on. I also considered Coastal Offroad DIY and CBI DIY. Heck, I even considered building my own but I realized its was more work than I wanted to invest when I made the first piece of my cardboard template. I decided on the 4xInnovations bumper and it delivered yesterday(5-6-20). It's super nice and I have no regrets at this point. I'm not a huge fan of the hex cutouts and decided to turn them into round cutouts(think Relentless Predator). I've included a few more images of the bumper. I love the Shrockworks hoops and will be putting hoops like them on this bumper.





I went over the edges with a flap disc. It didn't really need much. The above pictures were before I did any grinding and as you can see, the weld joints are blended super nice. I went to the extreme and meticulously rounded over almost every edge(even on the backside) including the 4.25" light cutouts.

 

Here's my oldschool set up on mill to machine the hex cutouts into round.


One hole done.


Success. Loving the round holes.


I was able to purchase the hoop parts from Shrockworks. They came in today.


Here I'm laying out lines on the center hoop cut to 11.5" high. Shown here upside down on surface plate. I used a height gauge to scribe lines at 11.5" on both ends of tubing. Then to the horizontal bandsaw I go to cut it. Shrockworks tips thier center hoop back toward the hood(and I really like the looks of it) but I plan to see what the center hoop looks like perfectly vertical.


I'll mount bumper to truck next to determine final height of the hoops. Shrockworks height is 10.5-10.75" from the top of the bumper to the top of the hoops. I'm thinking I might go a little taller since the top of the 98-00 headlights are a bit high and are partially obscured by the headlight guard hoops on the Shrockworks. I'll make my final height determination once it's on the truck.

 

I'm considering adding three holes in the bottom plate something like this.

 

Shrockworks uses a 2" center hoop and 1.5" headlight hoops. Here's a pic of the center hoop cut to 11.5" sitting on the bumper.

 

Fellow machinist here... Love being able to use a Bridgeport for truck stuff, projects are just so much easier. Anywho, looks a good deal like my bumper now.

 

Agreed. Nice looking bumper you have there. Did you do any of the cutouts on your bumper? I'm thinking about adding hole on the lower front plate.

 

Nice work. I’ve been a huge fan of shrockworks when my wife had her Xterra. She hit someone at 45 mph and it put a scratch on the bumper. Horrible situation but she came out with no issues.

 

Wow, that's impressive, glad she came out ok. Btw, thanks for the compliment.

 

I was fully expecting this bumper to bolt right up. That isn't the case but I'm working through it. I also didn't get any instructions.

Looking forward, I'm going to drop the height on the center hoop down from 11-1/2" to 11". This will place the bottom of the headlight hoops flush with the top of the headlights. I used a laser level to confirm this(you can see the line in the first photo). I'm loving the size of the 2" of center hoop; it eats up some of the realestate on the top of this bumper.

 

I opened up the hole through the bottom of the frame for a bolt to go through. The bumper has a mounting hole for this but no instructions that say to do this and no bolt included. (below) You can also see that I removed the sheet metal plate in the end of the frame. I ended up making and welded in a new plate into the end of the frame. Welding the original plate to the frame would have probably been fine.


Old bumper weighs 20.5 lbs and this new bumper with hoops will weigh about 105. So I'm adding 85 lbs to front of truck. I just shifted my 5100's to the 2nd notch yesterday and the bumper lowered the front end by ~1/8". (below)

 

Here's a side pic of the final fitting of the bumper. I took care to ensure the gaps between the truck and bumper were perfect which was easy to accomplish due to the 4xinnovations bumper being so perfectly true and warp-free. I did end up slotting a few holes to make things perfect and I suspect it's due to slight differences from truck to truck.

 

Thanks! This bumper was made by a local fabricator, I need to make some small changes to it but how you see it is how it was made. It's a pretty close copy of a couple of bumpers.

 

I agree.

Frame blocks are made and welded in. I cut the center hoop height down to 11" high and like it better. I began coping the headlight hoops and that's tough. Compound angles and curves. I will likely have to weld some material back on before it's all said and done, lol. I'm now considering tipping the center hoop back toward the grill in order to keep the top pipe more symmetrical with the hood line.

 

Also made frame blocks, welded them in, buffed them down and painted.

 

Hoops finished and tacked up. Coping and fitting the first headlight tube took about 4 hours. The 2nd took about 1.5 hours. I'm pretty happy with this for my first time doing something like this. A buddy of mine is going to weld it out for me tomorrow.

 

Weld out is complete. I'm trying to decide if I should smooth out all the welds or leave some. My buddy did a pretty nice job but one thing let to another and I ended up buffing/bringing down any bumps.... which led a bit further. Lol. Its gonna get truck bed treatment, lightly sand to knock down the grit, then semi-gloss black.

 

Lookin good man!

 

Thanks Jonny. It's been a bit lonely here and nice to hear something, LOL. I'm dropping the bumper off at my buddy's to get sand blasted and primed tomorrow. He said he'd have it and my sliders done by the end of the week.

 

It’s always nice to have stuff to install on your truck!

 

Picked up from my buddy who sand blasted and primed it for me. I didnt know primer could look this good. It's a marine grade used on fire hydrants.