200 Series Front Bumper From Metal-tech 4x4

[linuxgod]

Re: #2 parking sensor grommets, yes they are available. I cracked one of mine and bought a new pair. The trim rings are maybe $3-4 each... shipping for a pair cost more than the parts themselves. Toyota sells them pre-painted - the black ones are glossy so you may need to repaint to match the bumper

 

[dryrunner]

Great job.

 

[RyanR]

When cutting the bumper, had a few learnings. Please remember this applies mainly to 08-11 cruisers.

1) Flip the stock bumper over and remove all parts minus the headlight washers. Youll want to keep those attached, else there will be two gaping holes.

2) Although there are cutouts in the new bumper for the two round parking sensors, the parking sensor housing breaks easily trying to remove and are body colored. Will probably try to see if Toyota parts dept sells black ones.

3) I had to pull quite a bit of the wiring off the old bumper and will need to figure out how to mount it all with the new bumper to run the fog lights and the parking sensors again. That’s for another day, so zip tied up the wires that came with the new lights and set aside all the old fog light and sensor wiring for later.

4) The new fog lights were easy to install / intuitive. The bar light required a little more brain power and contortionist hands to tighten properly.

5) When cutting the bumper, I measured 7” down from the two corners and tried to make it as straight as possible using painters tape, a ruler and a sharpie.

6) It was still too big, so measured 3.5 inches down from corner and realized that would fit. There’s a natural crease in the top part of the front bumper. I put some painters tape down and measured 2.5 inches down from the crease, marked w a dot, then shifted right, measured 2.5 inches down from the crease, marked, repeat until the other side. Other side 3.5 inches down from the corner. Then, connected all the dots with the ruler and cut.

View attachment 2078704

I was concerned since the bumper was made for 2013-2015 front bumpers, there’d be a fit issue. However, that wasn’t an issue after all. Looking up from below helps illustrate this.

View attachment 2078707

Overall, am pleasantly surprised at how well the cut turned out. I did mean to do a test fit and then remove it to add the weather stripping before final install, but the cut is so recessed into the bumper that it is resting on the inside metal of the bumper and I fear the additional height of that weather stripping will push the bumper up too high. So, decided against the weather stripping.

Also worth mentioning is the grill slides into the bumper easily and the back of the bumper is screwed into the inside fender wall, so be sure you have retained those screws.

Awesome write up!

 

[Mineral]

FWIW, if you do go for this MT4x4 bumper and want to match your other accessories to the powder coat color used on this bumper - Type A and Cruisers tend to go together - it's Cardinal C241-BK01. Bud is painting my sliders to match, as will the local powder coat shop paint the RLC bumper when it arrives. So, they all tie together...

 

[dryrunner]

I wish Bud would hurry with my skid plates. Feeling kind of naked on the trails.

 

[Mineral]

All good things come to those who wait. Bud might not be fast, but (at least am hoping) his stuff is worth the wait.

 

[Mineral]

Heard from the production lead at MT4x4. Turns out I got a prototype bolt bag. Their more current bolt bag has bigger washers for the long bolt. And, given the write-up, they’ll now include the larger washers also for the tow hook bolts. Super nice guys at MT4x4, btw.

 

[Markuson]

I wish Bud would hurry with my skid plates. Feeling kind of naked on the trails.

Ya... Worth the wait tho...

 

[highfructose]

I’m assuming still no word on lx570 fitment?

 

[helocat]

I’m assuming still no word on lx570 fitment?

As much as we love our LX570 and believe in the truck capabilities, the sales of our LX570 sliders have been too slow to invest the $10k per end to develop front and rear bumpers at this time. We have seen a small uptick in the slider sales but until we are selling more of the slider systems we just have to step back. We do recognize they are not cheap but there is nothing on the market that compares to how strong and how we fully grab the frame resulting in very minimal deflection when used hard. We build and ship them complete with everything, rails, glob guards, nutsert install tool, drill bit to install them, everything. The good news is we did decide to keep making the LX570 sliders and are in the middle of another production run right now.

The sliders we make for the 570 are 100% no compromise. We build a front bumper for the LX570 it will be designed with the same mindset. I hope we get a chance to do it one of these days! All this from the guy whose daily driver is an LX570 on 35's and owns Metal-tech 4x4 and wants a front and rear bumper on his truck.