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Expedition One Rear Bumper

26K views 1 reply 1 participant last post by  ohiobenz 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
To read the original full thread and post questions/comments on this topic, please go to http://www.fjcruiserforums.com/foru...omplete-install-expedition-1-rear-bumper.html



Received my new Exp-1 rear bumper and light kit just before the holidays and am in the process of the install.

First off - the bumper is well designed and should serve my needs. I received it bare and had it powder-coated satin black to match my custom rear ladder.

I encountered some issues in the install that I want to bring out - and would like to recommend a couple of minor redesign areas.

While I couldn't find the official Toyota PDF file I used for the hitch installation, there are several posts here that cover that phase...

The Exp-1 uses your old rear bumper corners, but not the center section. So remove with care...



Your FJ should now look somewhat like this (color may vary)
I would strongly recommend removal of the spare tire.... I had to remove the ladder.



Remove the tow hook on the drivers side. Notice the rust after only 39K... I would suggest spreading some POR-15 on the areas the new bumper mounts..



I have the towing kit with a brake controller - and the wiring all needed disconnected from the frame in order to mount the bumper. All the little "flaps" held onto the body with plastic clips need removed as well.



This is the rear bumper slid in place over the frame - do this with your rear door open!! You can now see the mounting tabs on the passenger side that attach under the frame and behind the frame...



Here you can see why the trailer/towing wiring needs to be detached from the frame - driver's side.



Here's where I feel there is a design flaw/problem... The square bracket has no provision to attach to the frame!!! So any rear impact strictly relies on the 2 bottom bolts on each side to take the hit... unless you drill holes in the frame to attach the square mount. Since I would rather not drill more holes.... I made some changes (temporary) and some recommendations to Expedition 1.



In the meanwhile, this is where the two spacers provided are supposed to go.



I went out and bought 2 Grade 5 5/8-11 bolts, 4 flat washers, 2 lock-washers and mounted the square Expedition 1 mount using this hole & access hole in the frame. Tighten them snugly so they can be tapped into position.



The bracket in place seen from inside the frame... Flat washers both sides.





Make both brackets flush with the top of the frame as shown here. Note the loose trailer/tow wiring on the driver's side - keep it tucked away as you slide the bumper on & off.



For reference - the large holes are the access holes to the 5/8" bolts holding the brackets to the bumper... If EXP-1 would relocate the back-up sensor holes to match these (29" center to center) - it could help with assembly?



Slide the bumper into place, put the spacers shown earlier between the tabs and the frame, snug them down. My recommendation is to pull the bumper all the way back, away from the body as far as possible... just in case something flexes it won't hit the body!! Also in case of impact... more room is better.





Adjust the bumper side to side aligning these edges with the body corners.



Close the rear door and check the bumper for being level with the body.



Check the "wings" for being level with the body line above.
Adjustments can be made by moving the square mounts up to level things out, or by bending the long tabs to change the angle of the wings.
I made no adjustments - this is a straight bolt-on, out of the box....



Since I moved the square brackets to line up with the holes in the frame, this is now how it lines up with the bumper itself. The bumper bracket still lines up with the inner holes so I chose to tighten the top bolt and pull the square bracket up against the bumper, then snug the lower bolt to determine the gap I will need a spacer for (not provided by Exp-1).

Even though I am only using 2 bolts to attach each side, feel that it is stronger because now it's bolted to the frame.

Note my recommended bumper changes.... Then it would use all 4 bolts, plus be attached to the frame. With the current design, the square bracket serves very little structural purpose...unless someone is pulling directly on the bumper with a clevis...

Once everything is aligned, tighten up the center bolts in the square bracket. I had to grip the end of the threads with some needle nose vise grips while turning with a wrench till I felt it was snug enough to stay in place while I removed the bumper.



Up to this point I had not installed the back-up sensors or the fog light kit - partly because the kit did not include mounting bolts :( and partly because I wanted everything fitted first. The Pilot fog light brackets were pretty flimsy :( Make sure that you install with enough clearance that any vibration wont cause the lenses to hit the bumper surround and crack them!!!

Next is trimming the OEM bumper skin - the installation instruction pix were horrible at best so I will provide some dimensions and multiple views of the places to cut...



As it sits now....
 
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#2 ·
Re: Complete install of Expedition -1 rear bumper

01/17/10

Trimming of the OEM bumper.

Following are the pix detailing the cutting of the OEM bumper skin.

All pix are of the drivers side corner - lines are identical on both sides. Since each picture has all the info needed on it, I won't add many comments here, just the pix...















After cutting the ends of the center section, there is a corner that needs removed for clearance inside the Expedition One steel bumper.

I followed the lines on their install pix as best as I could - and added some dimensions to help everybody figure it out. Some additional trimming with a utility knife may be needed on install... Which I hope to do as soon as the rain stops...









Install of these corners, wiring the rear fogs & back-up sensors is all thats left at this point.

Here are the corners snapped back on. Some close-ups that show why the crazy cutting - so you have mounting points to hold them in place...

Wires for the back-up sensors have to come out the bottom of the bumper otherwise you can't reach the connector plug.

I backed my bumper away from the body as much as I could - just in case. As a result I probably could have cut less off the corners - but it doesn't matter.



right corner snapped on



mounting tab by tailgate



mounting tab underneath



snap at tailgate door (its somewhere...just not where i thought i left it)



This is how I ran the back-up sensor wiring under/through that brace...
 
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