Coastal Offroad Front Bumper Build (1 Viewer)

[MT Economist]

I finally finished my Coastal Offroad front bumper. I thought I would put together a thread of the process and share some tips and tricks that I learned.

I liked the bumper because it:

• can hold a winch,
• provides more clearance for tires,
• good approach angle,
• doesn't require cutting of the stock bumper cover,
• doesn't stick out like some of the other front bumpers for the 2010-2013,
• compatible with the parking assist sensors,
• good price (although it is a weld together kit) and
• I was looking for a project.

With that in mind, I ordered the kit in March and me and my brother made plans to weld it together.

 

[MT Economist]

The kit came in 4 packages and I laid them all out to make sure all the parts were there.

All the parts were there but it was important to keep them straight. You weld the bumper together on the truck so I took the bumper cover, the grill, and the aluminum crash bar off and put on the first plate.

You have to bend some of the coolant lines so that it will fit but some gentle bends did the trick. The instructions say to keep a 1/2 inch gap between the bumper and the body to allow for the truck to flex and not have any interference. With this in mind I centered the bolts on this first plate. If I were to do it again I would push this plate all the way up and then build the bumper flush to the body. I think this would help to get the body lines to line up with the plates and you can lower the bumper down because there are slots in the bumper. So I would tack it up flush to the body and then slide the bumper down for its final mounting.

My brother tacked the bumper together.

It is tricky to get the plates all to line up. I think if you tacked the bumper up flush with the body and the headlights it would be easier to the them perfect. I tried to maintain the gap and we did pretty well but it isn't perfect.

 

[MT Economist]

Once it was tacked up he welded it together and we remounted it to the truck.

After the beads were run inside and out I ground them down to clean up the welds.

The hoop made it a little harder to reach some of the welds. I'm sure a professional welder or fabricator could have had nicer welds or better tools to clean them up but I was able to get it pretty good. It is not perfect but it is a bumper.

I took it off and brought it to get powder coated.

I was originally going to powder coat it flat black as a safe choice, but was worried about the level of contrast with my silver metallic GX under the headlights and by the fenders. I wanted to use powder coat because I was not sure how well a painter would be able to get paint behind the skid plate. I eventually settled on a metallic silver from Prismatic Powders named Tin Can. I had them do a zinc primer, the Tin Can, and then a high gloss clear coat. The Tin Can requires a clear coat, but the primer is optional. With a darker GX I may have gone with flat black but since I had to paint it or powder coat it I went with something different.

The three coat powder coat was $460 which is a fun detail.

 

[MT Economist]

Pulling the bumper off exposed the windshield washer tank and some of the washer lines. Southern Style Offroad makes a cover for the 5th Gen 4runner that fits perfectly.

I also found that the flat parking sensor retainer clips fit better than the other ones. Here is a picture showing the flat ones that work better with the part number. You'll need 4. I think the flat ones are for the outside rear in the online parts catalog.

I also trimmed the bumper out with some weather strip that filled in the gap between the bumper and the rest of the truck.

Overall, I think the bumper turned out pretty well. It isn't perfect but it was fun project.

• The color isn't exact but I chose to get it powder coated instead of getting it color matched with paint.
• The gaps are pretty close, but not perfect. This is why if I were to do it again I would have tacked it together as close to the body as possible and then used the slotted bolt holes to get the 1/2 inch gap. It took a lot of time to get the gaps as small as possible and they are still about 3/4 of an inch.
• The welds are strong but I ground them down. A professional or better welder would have had prettier welds that I probably would have left.

Now that I have the bumper done I will start working on the lift.

 

[r2m]

Did you consider the Aluminum version?
I looked at their site but couldn't fine any data on weight difference.
Do you know how/find out much lighter the aluminum front bumpers are?

 

[MT Economist]

No, I didn't consider the aluminum version because we were going to do the welding and I have only limited experience steel and none with aluminum. My brother has more experience with steel but only limited with aluminum. If you have worked with aluminum or are going to take it to a fabricator then it probably doesn't matter. The steel version probably weighs about 80 or 85 lbs. without a winch.

 

[Nismo275]

Thanks for the write up, I am also going this route but in aluminum. I've been trying to see what the bumper will look like with the full guard, but other then a 470 i haven't had any luck. Are the factory recovery points the only recovery options with this bumper? And according to their website the steel base bumper weight is 121 lbs, and the aluminum base bumper is 60 lbs.

Edit: Thanks for the windshield washer tank info, i've been looking for a solution to that.

 

[MT Economist]

Thanks for the write up, I am also going this route but in aluminum. I've been trying to see what the bumper will look like with the full guard, but other then a 470 i haven't had any luck. Are the factory recovery points the only recovery options with this bumper? And according to their website the steel base bumper weight is 121 lbs, and the aluminum base bumper is 60 lbs.

Edit: Thanks for the windshield washer tank info, i've been looking for a solution to that.

Wow, I was way off on my guess of the weight. I'll have to take that into account for my lift.

The factory recovery points are more accessible but coastal kit does not come with any additional ones. I suppose you could modify the kit and build some into the bumper but you would have to figure out how to do that. The bumper also uses one of the bolt holes that is used by some of the after market recovery points, so I am not sure that would be an option.

 

[r2m]

Surprised there aren't any shackle mounts on front. Most bumpers have them.
But as long as you have the factory recovery points, I'd call that "good" and move onto the next project!

 

[Mena661]

So the factory recovery points are good?

 

[r2m]

My guess is why call them "recovery points" if you can't yank your rig with them?
As long as they're mounted to the frame, the only thing that could go wrong would be bending the actual recovery hoop, or breaking the weld, not likely in either case unless one is doing something VERY stupid.
But stupid does come in a very large array of shapes and sizes...

 

[Mena661]

You just saved me some money. Thank you.

 

[BPGX460]

You just saved me some money. Thank you.

I always thought these were tie down points for when shipping the car overseas or something, and not meant for recovery?

 

[r2m]

I always thought these were tie down points for when shipping the car overseas or something, and not meant for recovery?

If they're welded to the frame, and given the diameter of the material used, there's no reason you couldn't use it for recovery.
Again, don't attach a jerk strap, leave it slack and have your recovery vehicle/driver stomp on the gas and try and jerk your rig out at 30mph!! That may not be the only thing that breaks...

 

[MT Economist]

Thanks for the write up, I am also going this route but in aluminum. I've been trying to see what the bumper will look like with the full guard, but other then a 470 i haven't had any luck. Are the factory recovery points the only recovery options with this bumper? And according to their website the steel base bumper weight is 121 lbs, and the aluminum base bumper is 60 lbs.

Edit: Thanks for the windshield washer tank info, i've been looking for a solution to that.

I learned about recovery points on the coastal bumper this weekend! They were hiding in plain sight:

There is one on each side and these holes go through 2 plates so they should be plenty strong.

 

[offroad47]

Thanks for this write up . How much time did you spend in weld clean up ?

 

[Zjohnsonua]

The bent hooks are for tying the truck down. Lots of stuff works to pull on when you go slow...but none of them are intended as recovery points.

Use the holes provided in the bumper plate for recovery.

 

[MT Economist]

Thanks for this write up . How much time did you spend in weld clean up ?

I worked on it after work for several days. It was probably 6-8 hours of work but I took my time. A more skilled welder would have taken less work to clean up after. Also, you can see in some of the pictures I didn’t grind the welds by the skid plate.

 

[Lenny33]

You didn’t all get a receiver mounted up front??!

 

[MT Economist]

View attachment 2631963You didn’t all get a receiver mounted up front??!

I think your front receiver is a great idea! It was above our abilities + where do you put your front license plate?