My flatlands bumper build

I want to say that this Flatlands build was a challenge for me as I am a very novice welder. After making this bumper, I can say I am a lot better fabricator and learned a lot along the way.

The bumper comes in plans you purchase for $30.00.
It includes a 3D version for draft cad software and a 2D version for cutting software to make all the pieces.

Having access to a vinyl plotter I found I could print the shapes out and stick them to the 3/16 steel I was using and cut it out with a heavy duty rotary saw I borrowed from a friend.

Before I did tried it on the metal, I bought some cardboard to see how all the pieces would come together. I've always been taught to measure twice, cut once.

So with a fresh case of cold ones, it was time to get cracking!


Here's the bumper mostly put together. After I put it together on cardboard, I was itching to start tacking some metal together!

This is the saw I used to cut out the shapes. Figured I'd throw some pics of this process too.




Don't mind the goofy face! It was getting very late and I was cutting metal for hours!


Me and my dad having the front part all tacked together.





The first step in mounting it was we Decided to mount the bar and side mounts first then bring the outside shell to it and level, measure and tack it to one another. Then unbolt it and drop it back down in one piece to lay down some thick welds and create it into one unit.

First hit it with about 5 coats of primer, then decided to do 4-5 coats of spray on bedliner.

The tabs we custom shaped and driled out to hold 5/8 shackles. The bar is actually ordered in from trail gear and I just welded it on while it was mounted.


The lights I ordered off Amazon. They were 3/4" led flashers. I found out I had hyperflash when I hooked them up so I decided that when I got the relay I might as well get all the other turn signals, license plate lights, and marker lights leds as well.
I purchased them off superbrightleds.com. They're a very affordable, easy to use website, I found everything I needed in about 5 minutes.

This was before I installed the lights.

This still needed a couple more coats of bedliner, this was after about the 2nd coat.



LET THERE BE LIGHT!




If you have any questions or anything I have hundreds of pictures of the install process. DM me if you need anything!

Next stop is the rear bumper!

 

Nice work

 

looks good... planning on building a plate bumper myself... but have thought of ordering these plans to make the process a lil easier

 

Right on. Awesome job. Thanks for sharing this.

 

Looks good! I'm in the process of finishing mine and I had a few questions:

1) Where the side brackets (B2) on the tube (B1) mount to the truck's side brackets, did you cut off the existing bracket and basically replace it with B2? I haven't welded the B2's to B1 because B1 becomes flush with the existing brackets and there's no instructions as to whether to cut them or not. Also in CAD it looks like B2 sort of "notches" to B1, did you do that or just weld it on the outsides of it.

2) Where did you get bar welded on the top of the bumper? I'd like to do the same on mine.

Thanks!