They are painted....."dark machine grey". Sooner or later a winch and winch box will be covering that area. But, I will probably paint them black at some point.

What is an avitar?

Looks great!

Could you take a closeup of the frame mounting, especially where the bumper attaches to the side of the frame? Did you allow some room to move the steering box forward in case of a future SAS?

Great work!

The picture under your name .... it has a red x in it


My avatar has a picture of my son on his dirtbike

That bumper is real nice. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" />

The side mounts are the same ones the stock front bumper used.

....as shown in these pics.


I've gone back and forth on the SAS.....I don't think I'll ever do it. If I did, it would be on coil springs though...I hate leaf springs on the front end. But, I just don't do the type of 4wheeling that requires an SAS. In it's present condition, the Shag-Runner gets down all the trails I want to get down.

That is very interesting. My '86 does not have a bumper mount in that location.

Yeah....I noticed that when I was looking at pictures of other front tube bumpers. Not all the Toyota's have them. I was a little thrown when I went to pull my stock bumper off and found those mounts. I didn't hesitate to take advantage of it though.

Those frame mounts really aren't all that beefy though, They are just 1/8" steel. I considered strengthening them with 1/4" steel plate, bent to wrap around the front, side and back and then welded to the frame (as well as the mount). But, I figured that was overkill.

While I was building the thing, I got to thinking about just how strong I wanted it......Years ago a freind of mine made a front bumper for his Chevy S-10 Blazer. He used a a 1/4" box section. The thing was mean looking....He used to brag that he'd hate to be the guy who ran into his truck.....Then someone did. Nothnig serious, guy basically rolled into him in a parking lot...maybe going 15 or 20mph. Caved in the front of the guys buick...really nasty damage, you could see an imprint of the box section on the front of the buick. We all laughed and laughed...then noticed my buddy's S-10 driving slightly sideway....it bent the frame!

Because of that, I intentionally bent the tubes that hold the bumper in place. They're pretty darn stiff...a lot more so than the stock bumper. But, I'm pretty sure if I tag a tree (or another car) the bumper will fold up. I'd much rather deal with body damage than frame damage.