Replacing front and rear bumpers...

[manvan]

Looking to replace plastic (front) and steel (rear) bumpers with chrome ones on my '05 w/o having to replace brackets, drill holes, etc. Anyone done it?

[Astrophysics]

Hi,

I have 2003 AWD Astro with 2" Overland lift.

I installed a nice aluminum front bumper. And a grille guard. I designed new brackets for bumper using steel Uni strut fittings that allowed me to use grade 8 bolts and metric 8.8 hardened metric bolts to mount bumper without welding or cutting steel.

For grille guard bracket, I made a cardboard mock up and went to a metal fabricator to have 1/4" steel brackets made.

A good source of aluminum bumpers is hard to find, but look at pic your part for high end cars like Volvo, Cadillac, BMW, many of which still have aluminum bumpers under the plastic bumper cover.
The curve of the front bumper is similar on most modern cars and SUV priced after about 1990 or so when the plain straight front bumper started to disappear.

AP.

Card board mock ups and checking for readily available Uni strut angle, and Z fittings and flat fittings.

Take a digital photo of your bumper with tape measure in the view. Measure and dimensions. Print your picture and make 3 copies. Use Bic 4 color pen and pencil the mark up the photo with your design ideas.

Good luck,

[Astrophysics]

Hello,

Front bumper saga continues…
I had installed a 2014 Jeep JK wrangler bumper which was nice. However it was difficult to make it strong enough mounting brackets to actually use the nice top of bumper OEM Jeep jk recovery hooks.

So after several design sketches and the lingering desire to install a winch on front bumper, I went back to the nice welded Manik brush guard which weighs about 80 lbs.

I am using the brush guard with no metal bumper since the Manik is securely mounted to Astro frame.

Also, it turns out that the Harbor Freight $49 winch tray 23 lbs fits inside the Manik brush guard.

Almost done. Will post photos.

AP

[Astrophysics]

Used an assortment of heavy steel Uni strut connector wing fittings and plates to make adapters to secure winch tray.

My optima red top battery weighs about 44 lbs and forward Thule cross bar about 8 pounds.

If I move battery to a box under vehicle near rear bumper, the space where OEM battery was located in engine compartment could be used for a cold air intake low restriction air filter??

AP

[Astrophysics]

Hello,

Used some foam bumper inserts from a S70 Volvo to provide cushion at outer edges of brush guard. Also, used plastic flat Home Depot rain water spreader at center to protect the fairlead of winch.

AP