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.
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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.
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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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