U-Weld-It Bumpers: Are They Worth It? by BePrepared

Courtesy of @BePrepared72

If you’ve been in the market for an aftermarket bumper for you vehicle, you’ve seen the cost of fully assembled bumpers. You’ve also seen the ads for the build your own bumpers that cost much less, you just have to weld (or bolt) it together yourself. Your labor is your savings. You’ve looked and wondered, wonder no more, I’ve built one.

The ’09 Toyota Tundra was rear-ended this summer and thankfully the only damage was the factory bumper. After having the auto insurance pay for the dealership to make sure everything was back in line and at factory spec, I ordered a rear bumper from MOVE Bumpers, (I paid for everything, I didn’t say I was going to review it, I received no discount.) made sure I had a spare spool of wire for my welder… and waited.

The package showed up in a modest sized card board box that was VERY HEAVY. (Gee really? A box of steel is heavy?) Inside were instructions, some interesting pre-bent pieces and several flat bits that I have no idea how to put together.

I looked at the instructions, looked at the parts and just couldn’t imagine a bumper. I pulled out the metal working tools and dived in.

Lesson One: Unless you have a welding table, you need a helper.

I was doing this on a concrete shop floor, so an additional set of hands (in addition to all my clamps and magnets) was VERY helpful.

Read, re-read and position the parts before you tack weld. I had to completely disassemble an end cap because I missed a step. Once you are happy with the fit of all sections you have tack welded, it’s time to burn it in.

As always, spot weld first

It starts to take shape and the urge is to just weld and weld. But if you know welding, you know you can’t do that without warping. (I got warping.)

The form of the bumper was done, I had to get the mounts done. This is done by bolting the mounts on the truck in the proper places and then maneuvering the bumper in place, this is where a second set of hands is useful. Once the mounts were tacked in I removed the bumper, did the final welding on them and prepped it for paint.

Yep… prep for paint, which was just as lengthy as welding it. I mean you CAN just bolt bare steel to your truck and go about your day… but it looks bad.

I’m an OK welder, I can’t “stack dimes” and I have to do a lot of regrinding to weld holes. This took the longest time. The welds you can’t see behind the metal are brutal yet strong, the welds outside? Well no one wants “gorilla welds” on the outside, I spent 2 days grinding, welding, grinding, welding to fill holes to make it “look good.”. I eventually went to body shop methods… yep.

Bondo and thick-ass sand able primer.

From there it went to prime-sand, repeat ad nauseam. Filler was used, smoothed and primed.

 The only pic you get of my craptastic huge welds after spraying with undercoating.

After some hours, it smooths out. And you can paint it… I chose a satin black, a flat would stand out on this truck and a gloss wouldn’t fit the look on the truck.

Turned out ok for my first bumper.

My opinion? If you have a 110v buzz box? This is not for you, this is 3/16 steel, you need a pretty good welder for this. Can it be done with a stick welder, sure; I’m just not that great at stick welding. This is a decent option for you if you want to save some cash and have a spare weekend.