glacierpaul's 2011 JK build

[glacierpaul]

My "build" starts with a new "custom" front bumper from John @ SKINNY FABRICATIONS. Thanks again John!! We started by removing existing stock bumper, get a look at what there is to work with, make a template, take some measurements, and make a cardboard template of the front end(grill/lights). I am very excited about John's creation for the JK, and the first "mod" to my new Jeep.

[Brody]

Nice! Looking forward to the finished product!

[Java]

Can't wait to see it!! Dude's shop looks like it get a lot of use, always a good sign.

[Heather]

It's going to be so cool to see the progress; thanks for sharing pix!

[mattzj98]

What else did you plan for your JK?

[Cr33p3r]

Once you start with one mod you never stop! Looking forward to what he comes up with for a design.

[DHYDR8D]

Lets make something out of a pile of steel. Well I guess that is not much of a pile huh? Paul thanks for giving me the chance to make something truly awesome.

[Popsgarage]

So far so good. Lookin' forward to this one since the offer came up. Can't wait to see the progress reports.:thumb:

[sunk]

Sweet. Thants pretty exciting! Cant wait to see what John has in mind...

[glacierpaul]

Here is a rendering John posted in the original thread about doing this project.
I plan on a winch next, so the bumper will be complete. But honestly, my goal is to build it up similar to Stephen's Mall Krawler, that is one sweet rig!!

[DHYDR8D]

The lightest bumper in world! The shape is coming along!

[Mporter]

That's going to make one mean paper cut!:D

Beat me to the punch...

[sunk]

I was over at the garage tonight, and John has made some great progress so far. Its fun to hang out and see the creative process. Cant wait to see it in a little stronger material.

[Popsgarage]

Cost of material on that one sure won't break the bank.:D Can't wait to see if with some more steel attached to the mounting points.:thumb:

[glacierpaul]

Shoooot, I love the cardboard, who needs steel, it weighs too much....:D
Jesse, I actually saw the guy driving the Nemisis Green Jeep (sweet btw)on my way over to Johns that Sat. I will check out their site, thanks.

[Brody]

Maybe you can just lay down a little fiberglass and matting for strength. The manufacturer's seem to think that's good enough. Oh....wait...those are plastic and foam....cardboard and fiberglass is a lot stronger..

Looking good!

[Stephen]

What kind of plans do you have for the build? The word around Johnny Park is JKs need 42s! Do it!!!

[Stephen]

Oh yeah, 42's....That would be sweet!

42s are sensible. All the cool kids are running 44s now, that's just silly. :lmao:


Be sensible Paul, go 42s. :thumb:

[Stephen]

Sensible...I like it! Maybe one day, I will grow up to be a big boy and run 42's on the CJ....AHHH...one day!:D

They might touch each other in the center! :D


Someone is gonna make that dirty!

[Popsgarage]

I likes it when we tuch in the center, uh huh. Slingblade voice.:lmao::lmao::lmao: "Somebody's going to make that dirty." Well, duh. You shouldn't a left it like that.

[glacierpaul]

42's would be killer, we will see, more than likely I will go to 35/37's. The wife says I will have to replace her Commander before I go crazy with the Rubicon, or plan on installing rv style lift stairs to get in :lmao: (laughing her ass off too). My wife also likes your JK Stephen.

[Popsgarage]

42's would be crazy

But completely do-able with minimal lift, that's the crazy part.

[Stephen]

Sorry Paul! :lmao:






37s are perfect on JK Unlimited IMO. 3.5" lift, sleeves, gussets, gears and done... for a little while! :D

[Brody]

42's would be crazy

I agree. I have been able to run anything that I have ever wanted to with tires up to 38". Besides which, have you priced a set of 42s lately? Or 40s? Not to mention all of the other beefing that would have to go into the drive train.....Biggest tires I ever ran on anything have been 44s and those were rather quickly downsized to 37s. Simply didn't need the huge tires and they caused too many other issues. Maybe on a trail rig only....maybe....and I still prefer to be able to drive to and from trails with a single rig...Huge tires are not conducive to a happy highway/street drive...

[DHYDR8D]

WOOD?

[Popsgarage]

Lookin' good, John!:thumb::thumb:

[DHYDR8D]

Super stoked man! Next comes the water jet!

Let's build something awesome.!

[Popsgarage]

You're using the wood as a base plate to hold the steel in place while fabricating or are you using it just to make the patterns of each piece.

[DHYDR8D]

1/4 inch mdf is much cheaper than steel. So being able to make each piece out of wood in full scale is priceless. Each triangle will fit perfectly together, witch means perfect welds and a perfect product.

[southpaws3]

HELL YEAH SKINNY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Popsgarage]

Gotcha. Kinda what I thought. Gonna be cool.

[glacierpaul]

Looks frickin awesome!! especially compared to my factory bumper, I think the wood would hold up better:lmao: I truly appreciate your hard work John!!

[EldoradoFJ60]

Nice angles. Looks like it should deflect well off obstacles.

[DHYDR8D]

Yeah that is the whole idea. I am tired of seeing all these "snowplow" bumpers people are building for JK's

[Cr33p3r]

John that is an awesome design! Do you have your own Water Jet? If so I have to get with you on some design stuff I have that would need cut out.

[DHYDR8D]

Sorry Sean I don't have one, but have a hook through a friend to use one.

[Popsgarage]

have a hook through a friend to use one.

Awesome. If we have something we need cut, could we maybe, um, bug you about it? As long as it isn't to often or to much?

[DHYDR8D]

This will be the first time for me using this Guy. He just got it all set up and going. I will ask about group deals but I can tell you that he charges $150 an hour so unless you have a ton of stuff cutting with a plasma would be more economical. My plasma will cut 1/4 inch at about 15" per minute. With the right set up a plasma is great for one off pieces.

[Popsgarage]

Gotcha. Looki'n forward to more progress.

[Brad]

Throw some stain on that beast and mounter her up! :thumb:

[Cr33p3r]

Thanks for the input, what I have will be multiple parts and numerous quantity of the same parts.

[Popsgarage]

what I have will be multiple parts and numerous quantity of the same parts.

I like where you're going with this one, Sean.:thumb:

[DHYDR8D]

Dropped off everything at the water jet today. The owner of the place is in California so, the manager there could not tell me if he would be open to doing other projects. The water jet is used exclusively for granite counter tops. He is letting us use because we are friends.

I don't know what I got myself into here, there is going to be close to 17 feet of weld on each bumper!!

Build pics to come in a few more days.

[glacierpaul]

SWEET!!!

[Popsgarage]

Awesome!

[DHYDR8D]

Well after two weeks of total chaos I think we got the water-jet thing figured out. The water-jet that I have access to is always used for granite counter tops and they have never cut steel with it. Well to make a long story short, every piece that I gave to them to be cut out was wrong! They digitized them and everything went to hell. It is still not clear what the problem was but, it is cleared up now and I should have the correct parts on Monday !

[Brody]

Not
All
Things
Are
Simple

Yeah...and ain't that just some fun, too...Sorry to hear that and I can certainly relate. I am on round two (my dime) on some materials for some tables I am doing for a customer...

I saw a video on you tube where they showed a water jet sailing through 3" plate steel. I think it was something for a Navy destroyer and in some shipyard. Hiked right through it like it almost wasn't there...Impressive stuff.

[EldoradoFJ60]

I highly recommend Great Lakes Waterjet. They have plenty of experience cutting steel. They cut the blade blanks for several knifemaker buddies of mine.

http://www.greatlakeswaterjetinc.com/waterjet_info.html

[glacierpaul]

Sweet John! Sorry to hear about the PITA stuff! Super anxious!!

[DHYDR8D]

About time!! Got all the CORRECT pieces now. It Only took 35 minutes to cut all this 1/4 inch plate. Plenty more to figure out, Winch mount and frame mounts, tube work and a custom hawse fairlead!. very cool stuff to come. Lets make something awesome!!

[glacierpaul]

F'ing killer John!! 35 minutes!?!?!? WOW! and perfect, clean edges to boot!

[Popsgarage]

35 minutes. Sweet, can't wait to see some more progress.:thumb:

[glacierpaul]

Just had HCP put a hold on a brand new Warn 9.5 cti-s winch for the new bumper, I had been looking at the 9.0 Rc, but only had 50ft. of syn line, the new one has 100ft. of 3/8" and more pull power. Next year is looking up already!

http://warn.com/truck/winches/95cti_winch.shtml

[Popsgarage]

Sweet winch. Gonna be a b@d@$$ bumper!:thumb::thumb:

[DHYDR8D]

WOW!!

:OMG::OMG:


Warn 9.5 cti-s winch for the new bumper

[Brody]

Great to hear!

[glacierpaul]

A bumper with no winch is naked, especially a custom built one.....:)

[Popsgarage]

Amen Paul.

[Cr33p3r]

Wow is all I can say about water jets! They are incredible! So whats the latest on the bumper build? Winch sounds great Paul.

[Brody]

Posted some videos of water jet cutting here:

http://www.frontrange4x4.com/forums/newthread.php?do=newthread&f=48

[DHYDR8D]

It's Tuesday!! Monday was terrible, I Tripped over my stinger while it was in it's holster and broke the diffuser of inside the stinger. I just started making some headway on this bad butt bumper, By the way I have named it Morla the ancient one ( look it up) Well It's Tuesday and things came together GREAT!.

[glacierpaul]

Sorry to hear you broke the stinger. John, super sweet looking work! I love the fairlead, that is trick!! Eric at HCP said the winch should be here next week! We actually just watched "The Never Ending Story", the kiddos loved it. You sure about Morla John, I was thinking Rockbiter :D after seeing it fabbed up!
Thanks again John!!

[Popsgarage]

Lookin' good, man!:thumb:

[EldoradoFJ60]

Progress??

[DHYDR8D]

Well... Paul finally got his winch this week. The bumper has been sitting on my bench patiently waiting for that winch and a test fit, to make sure there were no oversights while measurements were taken.

[Brody]

Looking nice, John! I saw the winch in the back of Paul's Jeep, so things have to be getting close!

[Popsgarage]

Badass John and Paul. Can't wait to see the rest of this one!!!:thumb:

[glacierpaul]

John and I are scheduled for sometime after the 1st of Jan. Excited to say the least!!

[Funrover]

Looking good!

[Cr33p3r]

I am really liking the angles on that thing!

[ColoJeeper]

Looks cool....how much does that thing weigh?

[SCRubicon]

That bumper is drop dead sexxxay! :thumb:

[RidgeRunner]

That is a SWEET bumper!

[glacierpaul]

Finally made it to John's for a test fit. Making a few mods for the fit, lights (new LED fog lights), bull bar bracing and winch. Then John welds all together has it sand blasted and powder coated, install winch then onto the Jeep!! Loving this bumper John!!!
BTW, Don (ColoJeeper) the bumper has to weigh around 80 pounds before winch and lights.

[Java]

wow, that's a monster!! at first glance I thought it was too low, but looking closer it seems you have the same clearance as the OEM bumper. I really like all of the angles. :thumb:

[Brody]

That sure looks like it will do the trick!

[EldoradoFJ60]

Looks good guys. That should deflect very well.

[ColoJeeper]

Looking very good....I like it.

[GaryG]

That's really cool, hefty too. How much does it weigh?

[ColoJeeper]

Is similar to the bumper on the front of mine. Weight hasn't been an issue, though I don't have the extra bars to protect the front.

http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o76/ColoJeeper/jeepjk.jpg

[Popsgarage]

Nice work, John! Good choice, Paul. Thing's going to work sweet!:thumb::thumb:

[mattzj98]

that's an awesome looking bumper!

[glacierpaul]

Thanks guy's!


That's really cool, hefty too. How much does it weigh? John and I both figure it weighs about 80 pounds w/o the winch. The winch is 89 pounds.

[Michael4rnr]

Looks really good.

[Jim]

John and I both figure it weighs about 80 pounds w/o the winch. The winch is 89 pounds.

Yes, it does look nice.

Weight numbers are interesting. I have little clue as to how much some of these bumpers weight - many "look heavy" to me so tossing in winch weight puts it into perspective.

[Beefy]

Very nice!

[Funrover]

Slick looking bumper!

[Cr33p3r]

Weight numbers are interesting. I have little clue as to how much some of these bumpers weight - many "look heavy" to me so tossing in winch weight puts it into perspective.

Jim it is amazing how fast pounds add up on some of these bumpers, my front for example came in at about 130# and the winch is another 95#s. This is one of those things people do not think about a lot of the time when thinking of building a bumper and the thickness of the plate material/ weight ratio.

Waiting to see the finished product for sure guys!

[DHYDR8D]

WOW !!! Thanks for all the compliments guys and girls. I have not weighed it on a scale but if I had to Guess I would say It is no more than 75-80 pounds as it sits right now. I am no muscle man by any means and I can lift it on and off of my table jig by myself. Since the test fit I have made all necessary changes and have more pieces being cut out of 3/16" plate this time so I can start another bumper. This thing is coming together better than I could ever have imagined. I hope to be able to put a very competitive price on this Bumper. If anyone is interested in one PM me for more information.

[glacierpaul]

THANKS JOHN!!!!!! The bumper and winch is a very sweet upgrade, I am super stoked to out and get stuck on purpose, will post pic's on that. All in all, it was a piece of cake to install(I am sure John agrees), and the winch, man is it fast! My camera crapped out on the 5th pic, add it to my digital dilema's going on at the moment:rolleyes:, here are the pic's, thanks to John's camera.

[glacierpaul]

and more....I love seeing the tires from the front now. The fender flares look super cheesy now, those will be redone soon too. Another thanks to John!!!!:thumb::thumb: I am absolutely pleased with how it turned out. The weight ended up being 219 pounds, John added some gussets and the final tubing plus the winch w/rope, came to 219 total, which I do not notice driving.

[Mporter]

That looks damn good.

[Brody]

Looks sweet, Paul and John!

[Heather]

Wow, that's super sharp! I love how compact the bumper is side-to-side, and how clean everything looks! Great work, and congrats!

[scout man]

I like that point on the front, and how you bent the fairlead to match. Nice work. Definitely one of the nicest looking jeep bumpers I have seen.

[Popsgarage]

Bumper turned out and looks awesome!!!:thumb::thumb::thumb: But the beard looks just as good Paul. Longer than mine is!!!!!

[Funrover]

Looks great man!

[Michael4rnr]

Looks really good.

[Freakage]

WOW :smokin: How much is one of those going to run?

[Cr33p3r]

Good decision Paul to let John run with the design, so much better looking than most of the bumpers out there today, Great job Guys!

[DHYDR8D]

After a ton of thought and trying to get the logistics figured out on a way to produce these bumpers. I just don't have the start-up money to be able to build ten or twenty of these things and then sit on them until they sell. It will most likely be the only one of its kind :frown: .

Thank you all for all the kind words on how this project turned out.

Of coarse I am willing to make anything a customer might want but the price of this bumper would not be competitively priced, but on the bright side I will soon have a TIG welder so I will be able to make bumpers out of aluminum!!

[Cr33p3r]

I just don't have the start-up money to be able to build ten or twenty of these things and then sit on them until they sell. It will most likely be the only one of its kind :frown: .

!

I can relate to that, that is why I was just doing each bumper as the customers came in plus gave me the opportunity to give each one a little bit of a difference in design so they would be unique to their vehicle. Seemed to only way to keep making them w/o having a bunch sitting around taking up space and $$$.

[4Runninfun]

looks good!

[glacierpaul]

Got me new Goodyear MT/R Kevlars. I stayed with the 32.4" tire size. I want the 35 or 38's but I do have to do a lift, as I have buried the 32's in the wheel well already. Cannot wait to see how these perform!

[EldoradoFJ60]

Looks great with the new rubber and bumper. 32's wll take almost anywhere. I'm still rolling on 31's.

[Java]

nice tires!! really looks good.

[Michael4rnr]

I like those tires

[xaza]

wow, I have no idea how I missed this entire thread until now...read every single page now! Very nice bumper. So what is next on the list of wants?

[glacierpaul]

wow, I have no idea how I missed this entire thread until now...read every single page now! Very nice bumper. So what is next on the list of wants?

My next item's wanted/needed, a 3"or 4" lift (like the Ranco rock crawler set up, but am open to suggestions), upgrade the factory skids, new rear tire carrier/bumper, want to go to 35-38" tires too after the previous mentioned are done. Then there are all the little items like OBA, soft top/bikini top, etc. All I really need, though, is more $$$$ :).

[Popsgarage]

Where to start with that question. There're so many to chose from, it's tough to pick one. I used to like the Rubicon Express kits, but at triple the cost of other kits it's a crap shoot. A three and a half inch from Rough Country is only $499 and has all the necessities. Lower fixed control arms, rear spring relocation/correction brackets and trac-bar brackets. A lot depends on what you want it to be able to do and how much you want to spend.

[xaza]

I don't think RE has the quality they had when they first came out. They used to be worth the high cost, not so sure anymore. I have had my RE lift for ten years and my springs are about ready to be replaced. My brother bought a set of RE coils for his truck last year and had to replace them already. Always possible he just got a bad set, only have the one experience with the new stuff.

[glacierpaul]

what is your guy's opinion about Rancho, saw I misspelled it above. I agree with the RE stuff, and on other sites folks are not as impressed with them anymore either.
I had forgot to mention a compressor, soooo I looked at and had 4 To Go, price me the Viair 450C(JK) Automatic Deployment Air system yesterday. This set up looks really slick, and I have 8 ports to utilize for air outlets, which means this plumber can pipe air all over the Jeep if wanted, I was thinking of getting crazy and having an outlet front and rear, and then one strategically located at each tire, we shall see :). What are your opinions on this Viair set up?

[Popsgarage]

Everything I've heard points to them being a good investment.

[Java]

Rancho is a good company, I don't think you can go wrong with them. I've been running a Rough Country suspension for over 2 years now and it's been great. Competition is so strong for JKs that I think you'd be hard pressed to find a bad system.

[glacierpaul]

Forgot to post up that I got the Smittybuilt step sliders, last year around the time of the flooding. These were needed for the family's ease of getting in and out. They were a little pia to get on, but viola. I have not drug them across any rocks yet, but soon. Now that we have inherited the 99 Cherokee, I can start building up the Rubicon as $$ allows.

[Java]

Looks great!! :thumb: Can't have too much armor!