A Baja bumper is a tubular affair that bolts to the front or rear of the Baja Bug. The tubing is heavy gauge.

Rear Baja Bumper

I have the type of rear bumper that bolts to the shock mounts, and to the rear transmission mounts. Welding was required to fit this. Sadly, I bought it at the Manassas Bug Out from Jarrett Import. Jarrett has a big trailer of parts, good prices and nice sales people. They also didn't include instructions, and failed to mention the welding thing. None of the parts I bought from them had mounting hardware. I have a skid plate and I have only a vague notion how it is suppose to mount to my bug.

The rear Baja bumper might be intended to slide over the mounting tubes (included, but no bolts included). However, if I did that, the bumper wouldn't clear the exhaust that I also bought from the same company and the same time.

Since I bought a nice Lincoln MIG welder, I decided (in a moment of inspiration) to weld flanges on the top mounts, and matching flanges on the top tubes of the bumper. This is great. The welds were easy to make, I gained at least 1 and a half inches of length, so now my bumper clears my exhaust.

The flanges are 3/32 or 1/8 thick 2 inch wide mild steel. They are butt welded to the ends of the tubes, and drilled for 8mm bolts.

The transmission mount tubes that came with the bumper are long enough to just slip inside. I drilled through the bumper and mount tubes and bolted these. The interesting part was putting a jack under one side of the engine to support the engine and tranny while I removed the 20mm bolt on the tranny mount. The transmission mount tubes that came with the bumper are long enough to just slip inside. I drilled through the bumper and mount tubes and bolted these. The interesting part was putting a jack under one side of the engine to support the engine and tranny while I removed the 20mm bolt on the tranny mount.

I welded 4 tabs to various location around the outside of the bumper to mount lights, etc. The tabs are just butt welded on both sides, and appear strong.

The Baja bumper was sold to me kind of oily. I got it home, cleaned it up carefully, wire brushed it, primed it and painted it white to protect it. Remember - primer is not water proof.