Bumpers

This past weekend I installed the front bumper kit. Its a pretty straight forward "do it yourself job". I was able to do it by myself but you really need two people to handle the heavy front bumper. Since I was by myself, I sat the bumper on an adjustable shop stool and balanced it while putting the bumper back on. It took me just over 2 hrs from start to finish and the kit retracks the front bumper nicely. The only downer is now you have NO shock in there to absorb any front end "taps" (oops). THe front bumper is now solid to the frame. Next comes the rear bumper which looks pretty simple to do. The front bumper kit is not 100% euro looking but a very close second. While I had the front grill off I cleaned it real good. For some reason I tought the grill was painted but its brushed almuinum. Boy that thing would look good polished but that's a job I don't want to tackle. Here's a couple of pics. Joe
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Nice job Joe, looks great. The rear I guess you just simply remove the two block spacer between the bumper and the shock.

As for the front grill it suppose to have the natural aluminum finish stock.

 

The only thing not mentioned in the kit's instructions are some thick flat pieces of rubber that mount between the bumper and the tubes. They go between the two mounting bolts on each side and act like a buffer I guess? These were on my origional tubes so I put them on the new ones when I re-installed. I guess you could get another 1/8" or so in retraction by leaving them off but I wanted the small amount of give they provide. Yes the rear bumper looks like a simple removal of the aluminum blocks to get it to go in but you have to pull off the exhaust cover to get to it all and I'll be doing that soon to work on my Cats. So I'll hold off on the rear for now.

 

Looks great. Good job.

I did mine last week and you're right. The US bumpers are freekin heavy.
I wasn't smart enough to use something to support the bumper. I just fumbled with it cursing the whole time. I wish I would have waited for this thread.

There's a thread started by John at MacCarbon detailing the installation of the front bumper and what's needed to recess the rear bumper. It involves removing the spacers and cutting new threads in the bumper bolts to get it to sit correctly.

Will