“There ain’t nothing wrong, with a little bump and grind.” - Some dude that is definitely not in prison right now (if ya know ya know; if ya don’t oh well)

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Ok SO!! If you know me that means we have an understanding. I like risk. Now, am I leaning full tilt, hold my juice box, into some half thought out idea Erik tosses out in to the ethos-sphere and guaranteed to land the both of us in to a truxican stand off with the local SWAT team? No, not these days. 20 Years ago….well that was 20 years ago. These days the risk I choose to take on is typically mechanical and comes at the expense of a few zero’s. This bumper build is one pretty standard but low dollar example. This is quick, dirty, had never been done but has since been replicated ONE DAY MOD! A classic square body Cherokee EAG bumper mildly modified to fit a 1993 Isuzu Trooper.

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How did this particular idea come about. Well, the Isuzu enthusiast community is extremely small. A small community means that there is little to no aftermarket support. Buying a ready made, bolt on 1/4” steel bumper is a no go. BUT, One thing that most 80’s and 90’s SUV’s share in common is size. The early SUV’s weren’t like the land tanks you see eclipsing the highways and byways today. The early full size 4x4’s were built either during the U.S. oil crisis or immediately after which means they were relatively fuel conscience, somewhat SWB and most importantly, NARROW. Early full size SUV’s also weren’t nearly as popular as they are today which created a very interesting situation. This meant that OEM’s who wanted to see a portion of the new automotive market share reflected in their profit margins without the overhead needed to develop a new brand unique vehicle outsourced and rebadged 4x4’s from OEM’s who had been successfully making SUV’s for years. Vehicles like the Suzuki Jimny and Geo tracker or the Isuzu Rodeo and Honda Passport. So what I do? Naturally, I google engineering diagrams of SUV frames from the 80’s and 90’s and I discover that the Jeep XJ is pretty close to the Troopers frame width rail to rail. Now that I have my thesis, it’s time to test it.

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I ended up buying an EAG Jeep XJ Bumper off of Amazon for $400 with the intent of fabricating and widening, if necessary, the mounting points so they would match up with the Isuzu front end. While I was fooling around with the Jeep brackets I flipped them horizontally. Sun-na-ma-beast, it’s the perfect width. Flipping them closes the gap needed to match the width of the trooper brackets, which is noticeable in one of the pics below. DOPE! To the hardware store!!!” I will need bolts, washers and lock washers 8 ct each in 12mmx1.25. The next order of business is to disassemble and remove the oem bumper then drill 4 holes in each of the Trooper’s bumper mount brackets. After that it was as simple as mating everything together with the help of a floor jack.

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Bolt oem brackets to Jeep brackets making sure to keep them straight/in-line with the Jeep bracket as best as possible, bolt to bumper and test fit. Adjust as necessary.
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You may need to cut the bumper down a bit in the rear where it slides under the grille and on the outer corners she is a bit long/reaches further back and bumps up against the fenders. To correct that I just loosened up the bolts and tilted it a bit. Once fitment was finished I welded everything together and left the bolts marrying the the mount brackets and the bumper in place to act as insurance against breakage.

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Over the course of a year I ended up tearing the bumper down and welding on additional support brackets that bolted to locations readily available on the frame.

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