front ARB style bumper

[Ben]

Ive started making a new front bumper for my LJ70. It will look very similar to the ARB style bumpers, with the bull bar on top, but without the £1100 price tag!

I took a lot of measurements from the ARB on the front of my mates hi-lux, and armed with a few copies of Australian 4x4 magazines, that my girlfriend sent me i set about building the bumper!

I decided the easiest way to make the bumper would be to make it out of 1/2" ply wood, which being a carpenter wasnt too difficult, even with all the dihedral cuts. it did take a lot of working out though to get all the angles correct.

Next i cut templates for ever face of the bumper out of 3mm hardboard, and then screwed these temporarily in place on each face of the bumper.

once all the hardboard templates were cut, i gave these to my local metal fabricator who cut all the steel for me on his guillotine.

i picked the steel up tonight and then made a start clamping each piece of metal to the template bumper, and tack welding it all together.

then i will remove the metal from the ply wood bumper and fully weld it all together. then i can fabricate all the tube work, and the brackets to attach it to the chassis.

then i will get it powder coated.

once the bumper is finished, i will turn my side lights into indicators, and put the side lights in my headlights.

 

[karl webster]

Nice work mate

 

[Gav Peter]

Good work Ben - let me know if I can help with bending tube if you need some

Looking good

 

[Chas]

That's looking great Ben, er, how are you at building wardrobes?

 

[Chris]

Great stuff Ben. Just make sure that you give it some good clearance around the front valance, lights etc. Might look neat getting it really close, but I would leave an inch clear of anything. As the cabin and chassis move independently, they can hit each other when you are articulating. I had to move mine back fairly early on as it definitely hit the front panel even though it looked like there was loads of room. You can fill the gap if you like with rubber door seal / trim afterward.

Chris

 

[sae70]

Nice work Ben Looks good m8

Oh & thanks for the heads up on Snowy Very interesting

 

[Ben]

thanks lads!

should be alright on the tube bending front thanks Gav, ive got a mate in Shrewsbury whos got a decent tube bender, so i wont have to worry about getting any kinks in the tube like often happens with the cheap tube benders.

thanks Chris, i hadnt thought of that. i was going to leave about a 10mm gap, but i think i will leave an inch now. just need to find a suitable rubber trim to cover the gap.

thanks Steven. do you have a link to that site you bought that trim from that you used on your extended wheel arches?

maybe they will have something i can use to cover the gap.

im hoping to get it all welded up tomorrow, then i can smooth all the edges and welds down with a flap/linishing disc in my grinder. then i want to attach the brackets that will bolt to the chassis.

once all thats done i can start working out the 2 upright pieces and the tub work.

 

[Conrad-BJ70]

Great job!

 

[Jimbo4x4]

Intrigued, I've been thinking of doing something similar to mine so I'll be watching this with interest. Looking good so far

 

[Gav Peter]

Hey Ben, can I have the template once your done with it? It'll make a lovely mantlepiece!!!!

 

[Birder]

Hey Ben, can I have the template once your done with it? It'll make a lovely mantlepiece!!!!

No, hes going to paint it black and put it on ebay as a Limited Edition, low impact crushable bumper for a Land Rover

 

[Ben]

i was going to hang it on my workshop wall actually, might be useful if i make any more bumpers.

i havnt done much more on the bumper the last few days due to working 16 hour days!

hopefully get some more done over the next few days. im going to use scaffold tube for the tube work of the bull bar. i offered an off cut in place on top of the bumper and it looks like the perfect size.

 

[Birder]

i havnt done much more on the bumper the last few days due to working 16 hour days!

Just 16 hours, I dreamed of a 16 hour day, in my day we worked "darn pit" for 25 hours a day, 8 days a week, I had to get up 3 hours before i went to bed, and if i didnt I was thrashed to within an inch of my life and all for bed and board. Well I say bed, it was "hole int' road" and all we got to eat was a piece of coal. And I had it easy

You lads today have no idea what real work is....

 

[Ben]

i havnt done much more on the bumper the last few days due to working 16 hour days!

Just 16 hours, I dreamed of a 16 hour day, in my day we worked "darn pit" for 25 hours a day, 8 days a week, I had to get up 3 hours before i went to bed, and if i didnt I was thrashed to within an inch of my life and all for bed and board. Well I say bed, it was "hole int' road" and all we got to eat was a piece of coal. And I had it easy

You lads today have no idea what real work is....

 

[Ben]

time for an update!

i had half a day saturday and a full day today and got a bit more done.

i finished welding most of the bumper together and tried it in place to see how it fitted.

next i jacked up the truck and put axle stands under the chassis to get the truck perfectly level using a spirit level. because i needed to get the bumper fitted level.

next i made some brackets, out of more plywood. once i was happy these were correct i drew around the template and cut 2 brackets out of 6mm steel.

i then drilled holes to line up with the threaded holes in the chassis and bolted the brackets in place, with a thick washers between the bracket and the chassis. i then tack welded the brackets to the bumper.

i then removed the bumper with the brackets attached and fully welded them to the bumper.

next i used a 50mm hole saw to mark the centre for of the hole saw for my pilot hole. this is right in the corner of the bumper where the bull bar will come down through into the bumper.

once id drilled both holes out i bolted the bumper back onto the truck, and tested fitted a piece of tube to see how it would look.

once i was happy that the ends were level, i tack welded the corner pieces in place.

i then removed the bumper and fully welded the corners on before then smoothing up the edges with a flap wheel disc.

next i had a good look through my australian 4x4 magazine to give me ideas for the middle bit of the bumper that the tube will go up to.

i then made a template out of mdf (ran out of ply )

i then drew around the mdf template onto 3mm steel and cut 2 out.

i then marked what i wanted to cut out of the middle and then clamped the 2 pieces together and cut out the middles.

i then tack welded them in place, in the dark.

i then cut 2 pieces of wood as spacers both the same length and clamped them in place. i was then able to sit the piece of scaffold tube that id cut to length in place, and use a ratchet strap to clamp the tube tightly in position.

i then unbolted the bumper and brought it into the garage to fully weld all the brackets on.

next i need to bend and weld some 40mm x 3mm steel around the brackets that support the tube, and then cut and bend the tube for the ends.

so its getting there.

 

[sae70]

Blimey Ben There's some work gone on there today Looks good

 

[Ben]

thanks mate.

 

[Gav Peter]

Taking shape nicely now Ben - good work

 

[Birder]

Ben, great work but I have 2 concerns.

I was about to do something similar so ran it by my mate (The welder). He who owns a local garage and present was another mate who is a local bobby, he is into 4x4 and is always there, they brought up the following points.

If i made a new bumper.

1) If the new bumper is several inches higher than the old one it will be covering the 2 wide slots that allow air into the rad. My garage mate was worried about overheating.
2) There are legal issues as its illegal to make or sell a bumper thats not within the new bull bar rules.

http://www.frontalprotectionsystems.eu explains these rules (but dont ask me to explain them)

My bobby mate says most of the time it would never come up unless the police wanted to find a fault with your vehicle as an excuss to stop you or if there was a serious accident (damage to another person). At which point he suspects they would ask who made the bumper and take action.

The rules seem to be unclear when you have a winch fitted to the bumper but its a very grey area.

The law does not apply to those cars made before the law changed or where the bull bar was fitted before the changes to the law.
Basically an early car with one fitted before the rules changed are ok as the law is not retrospective (as far as i can tell)

It was suggested to me that as my truck was fitted with a bull bar as new (1998) its ok, and It can be modified to fit a winch, Its also ok to buy an pre-law change bumper with a bull bar and fit it to a pre-law date car. However what i cant do is make a new one with a bullbar or fit a new ARB one with a bull bar at all to any age vehicle as they are not legal.

So in you case the bumper is fine but the bull bar is not, well its questionable at least.

In my case I have found another pre-law bumper and am going to modify it.
If you have an image of your car taken before the rules changed with a bull bar you could show its just a modification, even as in your case a major modification, if you dont it a grey area. Even a photo of the bumper you modified with a bull bar fitted may suffice as long as can prove it came off a pre-law change car.

Re-using your winch may do if you get my drift (wink wink) but who knows.

In your case as long as the bumper is welded to the winch pan you could argue its the one fitted before the law changed, but modified. If they are seperate then again you are open to interpretaion problems as its not a winch bumper.

Having read all this, you like most of us consider the new law a load of EU rubbish but then EU law often is, but its still the law.

As far as i am aware there is yet to be a test case on this but you can bet your life there will be sometime partly due to the famous case local to me (5 miles away) where bad maintainance and modifying a land rover were partly blamed.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... ldren.html

The case was very disturbing but the police made it clear and the court in judgement said the Land Rover had "many 'ill-judged' modifications to improve its off-road performance."

Now i am not trying to say modifying is wrong, thats for the law to decide but its best to make sure any modification we make is within the law and not give the police and CPS a reason to start a test case.

I may have a spare 75 pre-law bull bar you can modify when i do mine.

 

[Ben]

the bumper shouldnt restrict air too much as it can still go under the bumper, as the bumper basically consists only of a top and a front, and it can of course still go through the grill.

ive got a re-cored rad, new thermostat, new water pump, and plenty of coolant in it, so it should be fine.

As for the EU law 80ll0x, its my truck and i will do with it what i want, and i want an ARB style front bumper, so i will have one!