Re: Re-building/Repairing a TJM Bumper
843Tacoma,
Seriously, if you have the main piece, you can mock up the wings out of cardboard. There are really no funky angles on those wings. Before I gave the bumper to Mike, I had thoughts of measuring the dimensions of the T17. Yes, its that linear w/ exception of the bottom part of the center section. So raid the local Fedex or UPS of large boxes, blade, ruler, and scissors and make a cardboard mockup template.
Re: Re-building/Repairing a TJM Bumper
Great job on the bumper! How are the LEDs working out on the front bumper?
Re: Re-building/Repairing a TJM Bumper
They work really well. I have them as running lights and turn signals. Nice and sealed and just the right brightness.
Re: Re-building/Repairing a TJM Bumper
With winter here I've been doing a lot of driving in the dark. The factory headlights are only ok so I decided to get the Hella Micro DE's back on the 4Runner some how. The factory bumper had cutouts so the lights lived on the inside of the bumper. I had thought about integrating them into the TJM but there wasn't as much space in the locations I wanted them. Plus the lights would have had to be aimed pretty downward to do the job correctly.
Lights. These have a 3000K HID DDM kit in them.
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-i...0/IMAG2329.jpg
I found a nice little spot on the side of the frame rails where the TJM bumper mount bolts to. I used 2 factory bolts to hold a little mounting perch that I made out of some scrap.
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-z...0/IMAG2330.jpg
They are just slapped together but hold the light much better than the old set up. I capped the end of the square tube to keep water out but I may also drill and tap the cap to mount my rocklights as they lived where the Hellas do now.
Here you can see a partial install. My 4Runner came with the Micro DE's stock with a switch as part of the turn signal stalk. When I removed the stock bumper I wired the turn signals into the stalk switch and used them as running lights. Here one DE is wired and one turn signal wired. You can see the driver side DE tucked under near the frame.
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-g...0/IMAG2332.jpg
Here they both are.
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-X...0/IMAG2335.jpg
I no longer have my turn signals as running lights but I may pull a wire from the side marker light if I feel the need. The DE's are about a foot inward from where the used to be but you can't tell when driving. These lights, especially with the HID, have a lot of side spill and are much brighter than the stock H3 bulb. I still have some aiming to do but I'm very happy with them and glad I finally found some time to get them back on.
Re: Re-building/Repairing a TJM Bumper
mike, looks really goood! merry christmas . im up in walnut creek since yesterday fyi
Re: Re-building/Repairing a TJM Bumper
Merry Christmas Bob. I see you came to join us for our wet weather. We've been hosting family for the past 4 days so now we're going to try to hit the road and spend some time in the snow.
Thank you and Merry Christmas to you and your family as well.
Re: Re-building/Repairing a TJM Bumper
Looks good! I used the heck out of my HID micro DE's in all of this rainy/foggy mountain driving I did over the holidays.