I picked up an ARB bull bar bumper on CL late last summer, and after watching it soak up a Washington winter on my back porch I figured it was time to find a way to get it installed. I'd had a couple of places price it out but the labor rates were just too high, and I really wanted the satisfaction of doing it myself.
Fortunately John "JR" Russell said he'd be up for helping, and this weekend I loaded everything up Saturday AM and headed over to his place.
I have a 2014 Tacoma, and the ARB install requires cutting the factory bumper cover. This was my main concern, in that once cut, you don't go back. The ARB install instructions start wtih the cut, which I thought was nuts - especially in light of this being a CL find. I told JR that I wanted to ensure *everything* fit before we cut plastic. Thank goodness he agreed, and we proceeded to remove the grill and lower bumper cover, and all the parts I had worked out.
Once we had the main hanger installed, we installed the winch - which required one trip to HD for longer bolts to accomodate the Factor55 fairlead and a quick stop for lunch - and mounted everything up.
Surprisingly it was 8PM before we knew it and we had a couple of small items to finish. We buttoned up, and I headed back home to take care of some family obligations, with plans for me to head back sometime on Sunday to finish up.
Sunday started early with haircuts for my son, picking up my daughter from a charity event, and finding her a new car to drive (she just turned 16 and has her license.) Then to a soccer game (son's team whipped the opposing team), and *finally* calling JR to make sure he was still available.
On day 1 we did not install the "witness" bolts, which fix the bumper into place. However JR's hurculean strength on the primary bolts was in full display, as the bumper did not move much at all, but it did shimmy just enough that the clearance we set initially was causing some rubbing. After we made some adjustments and drilled out the witness holes, it all came together.
I have some pics of the front end torn apart, but somewhere I stopped taking pics (I'm horrible at taking pics of anything going on), but what I do have I'll post up.
Thank you JR, and thanks to Judy for letting me clog up the driveway all weekend and very likely keep JR from a list of things that were more important!
Sure is a sexy looking beast now ;-)
Sortly after this is when we took the bumper cover down and JR made the cut with the skil saw. The weather also started to go south, and the day was getting long, so it was a push to get things done and I stopped taking pictures.
I had envisioned that involving a jigsaw, and when you said Skil saw I think I was still picturing a jig saw. It wasn't until you pulled out the Skil saw that it clicked, and I got a bit more nervous.
End results speak to it working out just fine.
Yeah, you stopped taking pictures when I took the Skill saw out to cut the front valance and you had your eyes closed (neglected to tell you, so did I :-) )