I started to do this but had trouble getting the plastic bumper skin off. One of the inserts spun so the bolt wont back out. I assume that once I deal with the insert it will flip over the tow hooks and come right off. Is this correct ? Do the fogs need to be removed or will they come out with the plastic?

With all of the great write-ups already on the forum no one has covered the plastic skin removal process, unless I missed it.

Any ideas for the spun insert? All help appreciated.

Thanks-
TW

 

If you are going to shorten your plastic cover, there is no reason to remove it.
Anyway, try using an impact gun on the bolts with loose inserts. When you get it broke loose, put a flathead screwdriver as a wedge on the nut. I had some trouble removing mine because of the damage to the plastic skin.

 

I see most people are removing the skin and I wanted to because I thought it would be easier to cut, trim and reinstall the end caps. Thanks for tip on the insert. Does the skin peel right off after the four bolts are removed?

Thanks-
TW

 

I took off the nuts that hold the tow hooks on. That gives a little more wiggle room to slide the plastic cover off.

 

if you pull the 8 nuts holding the tow hooks on, the whole bumper will come off making it easier to deal with the spun insert problem. even if you get all four of the outer bolts off it'll be next to impossible to remove the skin without at least loosening the tow hooks, so might as well pull the hooks anyway. the big problem you face is the skin getting caught on the crush cans which are tack welded to the steel portion of the bumper right inside of the tow hooks. as for the fogs, just unplug the wiring from the lights and they will come right off with the plastic. good luck and keep us posted on how it goes

 

Thanks everyone for the help!

I guess I'll be yanking the whole thing off. My fear is that when it's off I'll be tempted to go bumper $hopping instead of doing the chop.

Thanks again!
TW

 

It's been done for a while but just got around to finding the camera, Looks pretty much like everyone else's i guess. I used loctite to "glue" the brass insert back in, which worked well. Went with Black #8 sheet metal screws from the local hardware store. Cheap, easy and plentiful. Thanks to everyone for the ideas and great wrie-ups. This board is awesome.



TW

 

Looks good what did you use to re-attach the end caps.... rivets?

 

Black, #8 phillips head sheet metal screws from True Value hardware. Mainly because it was easy and I don't have a rivit gun.

 

Looks great!

I used sheetmetal screws, too, but temporarily, until I got some exploding rivets. I was tempted to just keep using the screws but in the end being afraid of screws backing out and causing a flat made me go w/ rivets. Something to think about.