AlexJet

Does anyone have Repair Manual for 4th Gen.?
I want to find out how to remove the central piece in rear bumper.
I remember reading some post a while ago on t4r.org that you can remove the central piece on one bumper and cannot on another. I just don't remember which one has removable central piece, front or rear. I looked under my front bumper and it looks like it is solid, so it might be the rear bumper which is partial.

Good Times

The front bumper is a single solid piece. The rear is a three piece design which is broken down by the left and right wing and the center piece. To successfully disassemble the rear bumper, you need to first remove the entire bumper as a whole. Once removed, you will notice that the inside of the rear bumper will have several 10mm bolts holding down the ends along with a few clips. Be careful when removing the clips so that you can reuse them.

It's relatively easy since the rear bumper only weighs in around 5#.

Good luck

AlexJet

Thank you Lance,
By the way, how difficult was to build your steel bumper replacement? How long did it take for you to do it?

Good Times

alex,

the rear took be almost 9 months of just weekends (mostly saturday but some sat/sun). You have to keep in mind that Bruce did all of the welding of the actual bumper while I did all of the cutting / prepping / grinding / smoothening etc. The actually assembly of the bumper didn't take that long once all of the pieces were made. That was the beauty of the project as I was able to continually work on getting all of the pieces together while Bruce worked on the welding of the bumper.

The big difference with the bumper I currently have and the bumpers that others would want would be making it a bolt on assembly. Based on the first bumper that I had (Demello Offroad design), it is possible to build a bumper to make it completely bolt on but will take some creativity. Even if I wanted to tackle this job, it'll be me some time. It's not the welding that'll take time rather piecing the parts together in a seamless manner where everything fits in proportion to the stock lines of the 4runner. I have discussed this briefly with Expat (Mark) regarding the high possibility in making a bolt on rear bumper but have not gone into details on the project.

My only concern on the rear bumper would be weight. The Demello bumper was heavy and if I were to rebuild that bumper, there are a lot of areas I would cut to shave down the weight. Unfortunately weight is your enemy on the rear as too much weight can take a toll on your rear frame causing it to collapse. The frame is rigid but it does have its breaking points built in so building a solid bumper where the frame can hold up to the weight is key. Not only this, most will be adding significant amount of weight in the rear so factoring those into the pictures will be valuable in the design process.

I would like to see a vendor make a rear bumper but I would suspect that there would be a need for some fiberglass / plastic work done to fill in some of the void of the stock bumper so you can avoid any of the additional weight of steel covering your body panel.

Good luck

AlexJet

I talked to Mark too about rear bumper. I think the demand is high for it.
I, personally, have an idea of how build it pretty light and very close to stock shape by reusing some parts of the stock bumper.
The only problem is that we have to find some fabricator or shop that will be willing to build them.

Good Times

reusing the stock bumper is a good idea as I considered that at one point. But the only problem I see with that is what the whole point in getting a custom rear bumper. I mean for me I wanted to decrease the damage sustained in the stock bumper. This meant that the new bumper would have to be significantly smaller. Lighter would be nice but of course you can't get any lighter than what the stock plastic provides.

With this is mind, you need to decide what your goal in the rear bumper will be:
1. Will it be to sustain additional loads by adding a tire carrier in the back?
2. Increase departure angle/side angle(s)?
3. Minimize body damage area?
4. Weight
5. Strength and integrity (namely for hitch and recovery attachment points)
6. Strength and rigidity on frame

Some things to consider. Like I said, it's possible and doable for a bolt on application. I thought about using the top half of the bumper panels on the side but couldn't figure out a way to utilize it cuz. I couldn't make it look nice with the flow of the lines I had in mind. Pretty much comes down to creativity on making your existing pieces work.

I would consider building one but it won't be anytime soon as I'm in the midst of building my new home