Steel Bumper

[ncphotographer]

Who makes the custom steel bumpers like I see a lot of you guys have. I need one for an 02 Trailblazer EXT LT. Thanks

[Trail X]

BartonMD used to make them, but now I believe he only sells weld-it-yourself kits. The only other known maker is tacticAL armor group.

A little searching and you would have likely found your answer pretty quickly.

[DirtyBacon04]

i super glued mine together with soda cans and tooth picks, then spraypainted black. it's wicked strong

[419TrailWisperer]

Who makes the custom steel bumpers like I see a lot of you guys have. I need one for an 02 Trailblazer EXT LT. Thanks

Take it to a local Fab Shop. Tell them what you want, Make friends with them, Work with them to get exactly what you want, Then get your hands dirty, and learn some stuff in the process. Really any route you take your going to be spending $700 - $1000. The aftermarket is so small for what we do With these trucks. You can either get what everyone else has for the lower end of the spectrum, or you can spend a bit more and get a stand out bumper your proud of

[HARDTRAILZ]

Pretty shitty to call Mikes bumpers the lower end of the spectrum. Most anyone with any of his products consider them the gold standard of this platform.

[DirtyBacon04]

I'm really hoping he's referring to the lower end of the "price spectrum" not quality...
Mike's bumpers are inexpensive for it's high quality level. A custom fab shop will be raping you with $2000 worth of parts/labor to measure and weld something like Mikes.

Oh, and Mike would never customize any of his bumpers to his customers personal preferences............... nope, never happened... not once...

[bartonmd]

To NCPhoto, I make them. Or rather, now that I've got a baby coming and can no longer get reasonably priced insurance (two separate issues), I'm just selling finished skidplates, and kits for skidplates and bumpers that you weld together.

Pictures: viewtopic.php?f=35&t=2883
Kits with instructions on pages 1 and 2: viewtopic.php?f=35&t=4117

I'm actually surprised how the kits have taken off. Many off-roaders want to build their own stuff, but they don't have much idea of where to start making something like a bumper. They seem to like that they can weld together and finish their own bumper, while at the same time knowing that it's an engineered solution (designed by a guy who is an engineer at his real job) that doesn't need nearly as much weld as is on it (i.e. if their welding isn't 1000% up to par, it's still probably not going to fall apart), and is a field tested and proven unit.

And yeah, Bacon, I don't think I've made the exact same bumper more than a couple times. Everybody wants different tube setups, 2" receiver or not, 2" frenched in lights, 5" frenched in lights, rattle can, no paint, powderdcoat, 3" body lift or non-body-lift, etc...

Mike

[Eredin]

The quality of my oil skid alone is great, I can only imagine that Mike's bumpers look even better in person.

Hopefully I can scrounge up some cash to buy a kit from you at some point for my own bumper. Keep up the great work, sir!

[ErikSS]

You can either get what everyone else has for the lower end of the spectrum, or you can spend a bit more and get a stand out bumper your proud of

I think you'll find 99%+ of MDB customers to be proud to use his products. Could you show me these stand out bumpers?

[HARDTRAILZ]

He has his super sweet stock plastic one in his pics he posted!

[419TrailWisperer]

First off My apologies Mike, didnt mean to say you make shitty or low end products. I will hopefully be buying some skid plates from you soon, but i may have just screwed myself outta that. Ive only browsed through your bumper page, so I didnt know how custom you get with them. Hope I havent burned any bridges or hurt any feelings. Didnt mean to talk down about your products. If I had researched/read more i would have been better educated.

[HARDTRAILZ]

I think there are four different ones in my build thread alone from him and I still have not gotten one of the built-in winch bumpers that came out flipping amazing. If you really look almost everyone with one of his bumpers has something different about it.

I know Mike is nice guy and I can't see him holding out on selling you skid plates for something petty as this when you owned up to it and apologized.

[DirtyBacon04]

Well, other Mike... seems like you have realized the error of your way and are apt to not repeat them.

We'll leave it up to Barton if you are forgiven...



(TOO MANY MIKES!!)

[bartonmd]

First off My apologies Mike, didnt mean to say you make shitty or low end products. I will hopefully be buying some skid plates from you soon, but i may have just screwed myself outta that. Ive only browsed through your bumper page, so I didnt know how custom you get with them. Hope I havent burned any bridges or hurt any feelings. Didnt mean to talk down about your products. If I had researched/read more i would have been better educated.

We're fine, man. I don't take myself or my work very seriously (like from the standpoint of not getting butthurt if somebody not like it, not from the standpoint of not caring about quality), and I figured you hadn't been around long enough to know.

Any more, I only do kits for standard-ish front bumpers, but I've done several full-custom front and rear bumpers.

Mike