Joined
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2,274 Posts
TL;DR: build quality is pretty good, fitment is bad, no hitch option, license plate is covered, expect to trim/notch/etc.
Hey everyone... long time no see.
My rear bumper (old school 1 piece All-Pro) has been in pretty poor shape for a while so I shopped around for a replacements. I saw the Vijay bumpers on eBay and after thinking about it for a while, decided I'd take the gamble. I searched here and didn't see any info so I figured I'd throw my 2 cents in the ring in case anyone else was looking at it. I've been tinkering with it the past few weeks and think I have it pretty well dialed in at this point.
If you want more details, here are some pictures...
My old bumper was long overdue for replacement. It has served me well and really taken a beating since being purchased in ~2009. Once removed I cleaned everything up underneath and she's looking good again.
I didn't take a lot of in progress pictures or anything, but here it sits mostly done. Putting it together was pretty easy. I did have to run to the hardware store to get a few nuts/bolts/washers. The hardware pack that comes with the bumper makes no sense at all. You get most of what you need but not all.
The big challenges for this bumper are getting it to sit right with the body, the license plate being completely obscured by the spare tire, and there isn't a hitch option so you're kinda on your own there.
The hitch bolts take care of most of the work mounting it, but there are a couple of rivnuts that get installed into factory holes in the frame on each side. Left to right is pretty easy to orient, but front to back tilt is a little wonky and requires walking back and forth a lot before torqueing the bolts down. Getting everything loosely installed then tweaking with body weight seemed to work pretty well for me.
I ordered a replacement hitch for a 4runner since they're way cheaper than FJ ones for some reason and they have the same bolt pattern. My previous hitch was the All-Pro one and it was also way past point of no return. Notching the bumper underneath the hitch is required as the bumper sits an inch or so below the frame crossmember. The bolts that mount the hitch from the underside won't work unless you do something there. Pretty straight forward. I just used an couple cut off wheels in my angle grinder.
In this last picture you can also see the support for the spare tire on the swingout has been relocated. As designed it'll hit the rear door handle and make your front/back tilt get all screwed up. The vertical support slips into the swingout, so moving the entire thing over the ~2 inches it would need to clear would be much more involved than this. I'm sure it's not as structural as it could be, but it's quick and easy. Just a couple new holes to drill and it looks like it'll do the job without hitting the handle anymore.
As for the license plate, you can see it would be 100% covered if you left it in the factory place. There are holes to mount it on the fuel carrier, but there's no lights. So I guess I take my chances driving at night... but I really don't drive much so I'll probably just leave it like this. Putting the license plate here also covers the strap mount for a fuel can so if you carry extra fuel you'll probably need to drill a couple new holes for the plate anyway.
So yeah, not a bad option, but requires some basic metal work or it simply doesn't work right.
Have a good one.
Hey everyone... long time no see.
My rear bumper (old school 1 piece All-Pro) has been in pretty poor shape for a while so I shopped around for a replacements. I saw the Vijay bumpers on eBay and after thinking about it for a while, decided I'd take the gamble. I searched here and didn't see any info so I figured I'd throw my 2 cents in the ring in case anyone else was looking at it. I've been tinkering with it the past few weeks and think I have it pretty well dialed in at this point.
If you want more details, here are some pictures...
My old bumper was long overdue for replacement. It has served me well and really taken a beating since being purchased in ~2009. Once removed I cleaned everything up underneath and she's looking good again.

I didn't take a lot of in progress pictures or anything, but here it sits mostly done. Putting it together was pretty easy. I did have to run to the hardware store to get a few nuts/bolts/washers. The hardware pack that comes with the bumper makes no sense at all. You get most of what you need but not all.

The big challenges for this bumper are getting it to sit right with the body, the license plate being completely obscured by the spare tire, and there isn't a hitch option so you're kinda on your own there.
The hitch bolts take care of most of the work mounting it, but there are a couple of rivnuts that get installed into factory holes in the frame on each side. Left to right is pretty easy to orient, but front to back tilt is a little wonky and requires walking back and forth a lot before torqueing the bolts down. Getting everything loosely installed then tweaking with body weight seemed to work pretty well for me.

I ordered a replacement hitch for a 4runner since they're way cheaper than FJ ones for some reason and they have the same bolt pattern. My previous hitch was the All-Pro one and it was also way past point of no return. Notching the bumper underneath the hitch is required as the bumper sits an inch or so below the frame crossmember. The bolts that mount the hitch from the underside won't work unless you do something there. Pretty straight forward. I just used an couple cut off wheels in my angle grinder.
In this last picture you can also see the support for the spare tire on the swingout has been relocated. As designed it'll hit the rear door handle and make your front/back tilt get all screwed up. The vertical support slips into the swingout, so moving the entire thing over the ~2 inches it would need to clear would be much more involved than this. I'm sure it's not as structural as it could be, but it's quick and easy. Just a couple new holes to drill and it looks like it'll do the job without hitting the handle anymore.
As for the license plate, you can see it would be 100% covered if you left it in the factory place. There are holes to mount it on the fuel carrier, but there's no lights. So I guess I take my chances driving at night... but I really don't drive much so I'll probably just leave it like this. Putting the license plate here also covers the strap mount for a fuel can so if you carry extra fuel you'll probably need to drill a couple new holes for the plate anyway.
So yeah, not a bad option, but requires some basic metal work or it simply doesn't work right.
Have a good one.