yota dawg's 2009 GX470 Build Thread - "West To Moab"

[yota dawg]

Once the bumper cover is cut, both the bumper cover and the bumper go back on the rig to line up the position of the bumper:

Once the position of the bumper relative to the cover is determined, the bumper cover is removed and additional holes are drilled through the frame to secure the bumper:

Once the holes are drilled, the frame ends are painted:

Once the frame is painted, the bumper and bumper cover are re-installed and any additional trimming of the bumper cover takes place. As I indicated above, I ended up having to do quite a bit of additional trial-and-error trimming of the plastic in order to get the bumper cover to fit properly. It got really old:

 

[yota dawg]

Once the bumper is finally installed, things really speed up rom there.

Assemble the latch and install it on the latch end of the swingout:

 

[yota dawg]

Then the spring plunger went onto the pivot end of the swingout. As you can see in the second picture, I ran into an issue here as the thickness of the powder coat was interfering with the nut on the spring plunger. I really didn't have much of an option but to push through and let the nut clearance the powder coat as it went:

 

[yota dawg]

Next, you install the plunger strike pad on the bumper:

And then the swing out strike pad:

And then the bottom bearing and seal on the swingout:

Then the swingout gets installed on the bumper with the top bearing, castle nut, cotter pin and top cap (not pictured here):

 

[yota dawg]

Behold! The final result:

Thoughts on the Ascend Fabrication high clearance bumper with swingout:

Overall this bumper exceeded my expectations. The workmanship was excellent, all the dimensions were exact and the instructions were very good. A lot of the work involved in installing this bumper really has to to with how exact you choose to be with the finer fitment details such as getting an accurate/straight cut on the plastic and how exact you want the bumper to line up with the fender wells. I spent a lot of time getting those things very exact, but you could probably install this bumper in half the time if you didn't care quite as much about those things. After the powder coating, I'm not sure how much money I saved by getting this unit; but having installed it and knowing how well it is built, I can say that I would probably have chosen this bumper over all the other options regardless of any savings.

Now...on to other stuff!

 

[yota dawg]

Wheels and Tires

I have to admit that I put more thought into wheels than any other aspect of this build. From design to color to width to offset, there are so many dang factors to consider when it comes to wheels. The two main factors I got hung up on were style (TRD OEM look vs JDM tuner look) and backspacing (0 offset like basically every Method wheel vs more aggressive offset [ie. anywhere from -6 to -12]). In order to figure out the correct offset, I think I looked at about a thousand different rigs online. Anything that listed the wheels specs with a picture was instructive. Another huge consideration was cost. I really didn't want to break the bank on the wheel choice.

After MUCH thought and contemplation, I finally decided to go pure JDM and got the Circuit Offroad Stellar 17x8.5 with -10 offset in matte Gun Metal:

I got them on Amazon for $200 per shipped, which is a pretty good value relative to all the choices out there.

To run these JDM wheels, you also have to get the skinny "tuner" lug nuts to go with them. I got the Circuit brand lug nuts that they recommend in the listing for the wheels:

 

[DRANGED]

The base of the bumper basically consists of the winch tray. You just start putting the pieces together and going from there. It became fairly obvious early on that my booger weldz weren't going to cut it and that I would need a better welder to come in behind me and hit the critical stuff once I had things tacked together, which is what I did.

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One of the more perplexing issues that came up during assembly were the hoses/pipes that were DIRECTLY in the way of where the winch would go on the winch tray. When you initially see the situation you wonder if a mistake has been made or something. It really is stark. I think the "base" of this bumper is based on the 4th gen 4Runner bumper and the 4th Gen doesn't have at least one of the hoses that has to be moved. The Coastal instructions regarding moving these hoses for the GX were basically non-existent and an email inquiry to them about the issue wasn't helpful at all.

I knew other people MUST have run in to this issue and discussed it on teh interwebs. As I attempted to find other people's experience with this issue, I realized that only about 1/5 of the GX470 Coastal Off Road bumpers I saw out there even had winches. That explained the lack of folks addressing the issue on the internet. If you never put a winch in it, the hoses don't have to be moved at all.

Eventually you just realize that you are going to have to do some really creative relocation/bending of the hoses and hard lines to get them out of the way. I moved them as far as they could be moved back toward the radiator and the winch still barely fit into the very tight space. I was glad I bothered to address it during the build, because if you left this issue to be addressed after the bumper was done I think it would be a lot more complicated as you would not be able to see the winch on the tray without the front piece being on the bumper. Being able to see what's happening all the way around the winch while you move the hoses is extremely helpful.

View attachment 3699136

Once I got over the puzzlement of where those dang hoses were going to go, I got to booger-spot-welding the pieces of the bumper together.

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One complaint I read about on the Coastal GX470 front bumper is the fitment of the side wings relative to the bottom of the fender flares. A lot of people end up with huge gaps between the bottom of the flare and top of the bumper. I think this is because they (1) don't build the bumper on the truck as specified and (2) position the top wing piece directly in-line with the top of the center piece of the bumper (which would be the easier way to do it and, I think, is the way its done when installing this bumper on the 4th Gen 4Runner). However, the instructions specifically say that the wings of the bumper have to be angled up to create the clearance you want relative to the bottom of the fender flares. As you can see here, I decided to go very tight on the clearance for aesthetic purposes, but I realize that the frame/body flex may prove that I positioned it too close. I guess we'll find out.

View attachment 3699161

After the wings are done, you can assemble the little filler pieces that go below the headlights. Since these were not structural pieces, I decided to go ahead and do the full welds on them myself. This picture demonstrates what an absolute champion an angle grinder can make out of even the worst booger welder. If I ever start an R&B group, I definitely going to name it "Boogerweldz and Grind":

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I just found this thread! NICE!
As I live in destination land AND you're doing all the things the right way, I'm bookmarking to read this through and through and , and I need to do many of them things on my rig (firstly, front end maintenance stuffs) anyway.

 

[yota dawg]

Tires are always a tough one. The problem with selecting tires is that all you really have to go on is your own experience and the (probably biased) opinions of others. Another problem is that once you decide on a set of tires, you're stuck with 'em for a long time.

I knew that I wanted to go with an all terrain and, after some thought, decided that a 285/70r17 was just about the perfect size for this application.

I have had good success in the past with both the all terrain and mud varieties of BFG tires, but I did do quite a bit of reading about other brands as well. Since the opinions were all over the place on basically every tire, I decided to just go with the BFG KO3. The 285/70r17 BFG KO3 comes in at least three different varieties: 1) an E load rated with raised white lettering (white lettering on one side and black on the other side), 2) a C load rated with raised white lettering (same thing: white letters one side, black on the other) and 3) a C load rated "Ford spec" version that has black lettering on both sides. I thought the Ford spec version of the tires sounded cool, so that's what I got. Discount Tire was the cheapest. I was a little concerned that they would scratch my new, pretty rims, but they did a good job mounting them:

Impression of the tires: I've only driven on the tires for a few says now and they ride pretty well. I have to say, however, that they are a bit louder than I was expecting. I think the fact that I am going from basically car tires to a relatively aggressive 33in all terrain on a high negative offset rim has a lot to do with it. I have a Jeep JK on 37 inch BFG KM3s and these fall somewhere in the middle between the stock size tires the KM3s as far as noise goes. We'll see how they do over time. I'll certainly grow accustomed to them.