I've decided to build my own bumper for my truck that will increase it's capabilities, allowing it to be more agile over rough terrain. I've looked into buying a bumper, but there aren't too many available for the 97-03 generation of F-150s, and all the one's I've found are highly expensive. The style of bumper that I've chosen is prerunner/baja. These bumpers are widely used in desert racing and offroading in areas such as Mexico and Southern California.
The main point of these bumpers is to improve the clearance of the front end. Normally, if you were trying to drive your truck from flat ground onto a steep incline, the bumper would hit, and you'd get stuck. These bumpers expose much more of the wheel, thereby allowing the truck to handle drastic changes in incline.
To build my bumper, I would first need to find a way to mount it to my frame. The old bumper was bolted onto 2 large brackets that were welded to the end of the frame. To mount my bumper, I would need to chop the ends of the frame off to allow the skid plate to have shallower angle, which will keep air resistance to a minimum.
First, I drew up some designs for the mounting brackets of my bumper. I then cut out the pieces I would need with a plasma cutter. I used 1/4 inch iron, as it would give my bumper a good strong base to sit on.
I used a mig welder to join the pieces together, and once I had both brackets built, I arc welded a piece of tube in between them to get the width right.
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