So on my 1st gen 4Runner my front bumper and valance are all bent up and starting to get rusty. While looking for an OEM replacement I found this one on eBay. It says it's a plastic OEM replacement, but if I'm not mistaken the original was metal.. Would it be bad to have a plastic valance or no? I'm nowhere near a hardcore wheeler so damage wouldn't be too much of a concern. Any knowledge is a appreciated!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Valance-...ht_2147wt_1397

 

If you just drive around town then I think the plastic one would be okay. I'm cheap so I went to a junkyard and grabbed one. Costed less than $15 if I recall correctly. It was blue so I had to paint in to match my gray, but you'd have to paint the black one too so it's not really a big deal.

 

Heck, if I could find an original mint one for even $30 I'd be happy. I've checked multiple junkyards for one and they're all bent or missing... Even went to the next county over and couldn't find one

 

There's a "real" one in classifieds for $83: https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f109...bumper-258123/

 

I'm a "stock" kinda person, so I swapped over the dent-free front bumper and valance form the parts-Pickup. Yet I can say that the metal bumper and valance on my '92 is amazingly "fragile". At least on the front, sheet metal not much more thick then the door skins are the bumper, and hafl that thickness on the valance. Just about any impact (even such as a parking pole on pull-in parking, etc) will render them in need of repalcement. So if someone is selling a plastic valance, it would probably last longer then a metal one. That would be the one nice thing about a plastic valance.