BIOR Rear bumper installed

[Jordan345]

I received my new BIOR rear bumper last week, picking it up in kalamazoo, michigan. Mike built this for me and shipped it to a terminal depot in raw steel; we didn't have time to powder coat it before he could ship it due to my pick up schedule.. i drove the bumper back home to canada across the border and was waived through by a really kind customs official who decided i didn't have to declare the bumper. she must have liked the cruiser.. it has a way with women..

so we are off to a good start. I dropped the bumper off at a custom powder coating place near my house - a bit high in my opinion. The guy quoted me 200 and then after he seen it he said 400.. i talked him down to 335 but honestly i just wanted the thing done and could bear to not get this installed on the cruiser longer while i look for another powder coater.
I had the bumper powder coated black to match the front bumper. it came out really great. all the guys from the powder coating shop were oogling it and commented how stout it looked. nice job mike..

 

[Jordan345]

sorry to continue on the next thread; my ipad's not letting me continue writing on that last input.. anyways.. i got the bumper home and prepped to install. after reading the install and other folks experiences, i expected a couple hours tops.. then again, every piece of work on the cruiser always takes double to triple because of the friggen rust.. we live in canada and have salted roads. i took off the old bumper and was pretty surprised to see the rust on the metal plate (not frame) under the bumper. it was almost rusted through. the rest of the plastic bumper came off no problem, although i had to take off the tow hitch.. it too had rusted and was pretty bad (especially the bolts). i have to admit i screwed up on two bolts but using a long torque wrench to break them free. i had the ratchet set to 'tighten' instead of loosen and i busted the bolt heads off.. yes i know.. flame on.. i realized this and took the rest of the bolts off the proper way, salvaging the welded nuts there were inside the frame rail. the other two, however, had to be knocked out, which knocked the nut out also. so much for securing the new bolts in..

as a solution, i was able to get the main two bolts in on one side and one on the other. the one on the other (or drivers side) i was able to get a new nut inside the frame rail through a hole with a jointed socket. i held it in the socket with duct tape while i lined it up and then got the bolt through the frame rail.. that problem was solved. as per the instructions, i also cut the appropriate size hole for the receiver hitch. so far so good. bumper lined up and bolted down. next up, wing supports.

wing supports went in okay, but the tap nuts in the frame rail also came loose while taking the original nuts out. only one stayed on place, meaning three others (1 on the psg side and 2 on the drivers side couldn't be secured. i left this as is and assembled the rest of the bumper until i could figure out a solution. tire carrier went on, swing outs, hydraulic, scepter can carrier.. all went on pretty easily.

i'm not stuck with the two support wings mounted in the wing of the bumper, but with only one secured to the frame rail at this time as there is no place to 'screw' the mounting bolts into .. i'm looking for solutions but i think the only way will be to have it permanently welding to the frame..

any other suggestions? pictures to come tonight.

 

[yeti in ga]

joy... I think these nuts seem to be an issue for a lot of folks. See my build tread on what I did.

 

[Jordan345]

Some bolts that have no receiver nuts anymore. I think welding will be the only option.






As you can see, great craftsmanship from mike

And the ones below are from wheeling a couple weeks ago

 

[Jordan345]

yeti in ga - can you send pics of how you used the u bolts to secure the wings? i didn't see them in your build thread.

 

[Mxndrnks]

When I installed mine I had similar issues. In the end, I had to drill a hole on the inside of the frame large enough to get a wrench and nut in there to hold things. I also had to use the captive nut on the outside face of the frame which required drilling a new hole in the wing. Talking back and forth with Mike he felt this approach would work and it has held up great for 1.5 yrs so far.

 

[Mxndrnks]

Couple pics for you...

 

[mechanixhorseman]

When I installed mine I had similar issues. In the end, I had to drill a hole on the inside of the frame large enough to get a wrench and nut in there to hold things. I also had to use the captive nut on the outside face of the frame which required drilling a new hole in the wing. Talking back and forth with Mike he felt this approach would work and it has held up great for 1.5 yrs so far.

I had a bent captive nut on the bottom side of the frame and I ended up going through the side as well.

OP, I'm in MO for a couple weeks but I think I've got some pictures of the hole I drilled back at the hotel room on my laptop I'll post up later. I had to find a couple other work arounds as well also but overall everything turned out solid. How did your experience go with the dust caps? I ended up sourcing some better ones from napa that had a tapered and beveled edge that went right in.

Not to threadjack, but here's some pictures from my install just a couple weeks ago. I found the reflective tape offered by HF makes a fine and needed addition to the bumper. I also replaced the crappy nylon nuts and washers for the spare with OEM lugs for a much more secure hold, which I needed with the depicted bike rack. Mike was also nice enough to cut a 1 1/8" hole to accommodate my rear view camera. Overall, very satisfied.

 

[SHAGGY101]

Why not just drill out where the captive nuts should be, slip an M14 x1.5 nut in there and weld it flush with the surface of the frame and then grind the weld flat? I did this and I am pretty sure Yeti did as well. If you do not have the ability to do this, bring it into any local welding shop and it will be about a 30min to hour long job.

 

[mechanixhorseman]

I thought I had snapped a shot of my hole I drilled in the wing but apparently not. The first picture has a picture of one of the holes on the side (in that triangular pattern) that has a captive nut inside, that is hopefully not bent on yours as well. Just drill through that. Also, for the '98 guys apparently some of our captive nuts are smaller (insert ball joke here) than the rest of the hundreds so you may need to request mike include the appropriate hardware, because it is not incredibly common.

A couple others pm'd me about the dust cap I used so I attached a picture or two of that as well. No freezing or tricks required, plus I think the rounded edge looks better anyways. You could probably seat it down there a little further if you wanted to but I wasn't very concerned with it and I wanted a little gap to remain for ease of removal with out killing the powder coat.

 

[Jordan345]

I'm thankful for all the replies and appreciate the pics/feedback.. after reading and thinking about it, i'm embarrassed it didn't occur to me earlier just to drill a hole trhough the wing bracket straight into the frame rail and out the other side. I can then place a longer thick bolt all the way through and secure on the back side with a nut and tighten the bejesus out of it. the other option is drilling a hole large enough for nut and box end wrench to fit to where the original hole is and place both over the bolt as per original design, and THEN tighten the bejesus out of it.

What is left unknown is which option would leave everything the strongest overall.. i know its overkill and i'm sure no worries on the frame integrity, but i try to keep everything as strong as possible, especially with the rust we have here.

mechanixhorseman, mxndrinks and shaggy thanks. i'll look at it tonight and report back with photos.

 

[Jordan345]

mechanixhorseman, how does that yakima bike rack hook up to the tire carrier? i have a 4 bike yakima hitch mount that i used, but i haven't tried to see if it fits on the bior bumper yet.. might interfere with the tire/fuel can carrier. i can't see the back up camera on your photo; my truck has factory nav from 2001 and am anxiously waiting the conversion kit once it gets figured out.. taking sooooo long..

i assume you installed the license plate light??where did you tap it in?

i see i also forgot to ask mike to weld me a tab for my antenna mount.. willlook for someone to weld a tab on or see if ther eis aftermarket brackets.. i think i've seen some floating around..

 

[Jordan345]

oh yes, the dust caps were fine but i had to bitch slap one of them in place and it dented a bit.. oh well, its in there now.

 

[mechanixhorseman]

mechanixhorseman, how does that yakima bike rack hook up to the tire carrier? i have a 4 bike yakima hitch mount that i used, but i haven't tried to see if it fits on the bior bumper yet.. might interfere with the tire/fuel can carrier. i can't see the back up camera on your photo; my truck has factory nav from 2001 and am anxiously waiting the conversion kit once it gets figured out.. taking sooooo long..

i assume you installed the license plate light??where did you tap it in?

i see i also forgot to ask mike to weld me a tab for my antenna mount.. willlook for someone to weld a tab on or see if ther eis aftermarket brackets.. i think i've seen some floating around..

There is a mounting plate that fits through the spare tire lug bolts. I had to modify the holes in the yakima pretty significantly to make it fit our rather large bolt pattern but it is just as sturdy, no doubt. I figured a hitch mount would interfere with the swing outs and just be a PITA to access the rear anyways. The spare mount swings out with the tire, bike and all.

You should have mikes default antenna mount on the top of your tire carrier but I requested he add the extra one because I wanted to be able to park in my garage with the antenna.

I tapped the license plate light off a wire going to the tail light underneath around where your spare used to be. No need to go through one of the rear boots to get to the interior for this.

You can see the camera in both photos on the bumper underneath the ladder carrier, flushmounted.

 

[mechanixhorseman]

Also, the only thing you should have to drill is through the wing. There is already a captive nut on the inside of the side of the frame. You can see it in one of my pictures.

 

[Jordan345]

yes, i will have to drill through wings, but i have one captive nut that no longer is in place within the frame.. busted on the bolt and was loose; i took it out.

i see your camera now; wasn't that noticeable..

 

[mechanixhorseman]

So you had a busted captive nut on the bottom AND the side of the frame? That blows. Strange that toyota wouldn't have had those welded up better. Mine on the bottom really wasn't broken but it was bent so I couldn't thread the new bolt into it.

 

[Jordan345]

Yes i busted a couple off and bent a couple captive nuts. I would venture to say most were my fault but I have a plan to get his fixed.