I bought a bumper from Alan over on ttora here in Atlanta that was custom made by PORC in Kennesaw for his '99 taco with a 3" BL. He was removing his BL and selling his bumper so I took it, thinking it would be more or less a bolt on thing (with some minor welding for mounting plates. Well, apparently my '00 frame is about 2-3" longer up front than his frame so it was sticking out way too far and the side mounts didn't even reach any metal. So after much cutting on the frame and grinding and WATRD's end-cap mod, I ended up with a very beefy frame-end to mount to with lots of welding. This sucker isn't going anywhere. It wasn't built for a winch but once I install one, this bumper can handle it. Here are some pics! (my Hella black magics will go on...actually they were on but one had an accident and broke pretty badly, i'm working on fixing it or replacing it.

Stock bumper off:


The new bumper:


The bumper sticking out too far:


The side mounts not even reaching far enough:


The stock frame-end that was weak to begin with:


Cut off the frame:


The end result:



I didn't manage to get pics during the welding and of the plates I welded inside the frame, but it's a very beefy setup.

I also whipped up a spare tire mount for my bed...it's real simple. I don't have pics of it tonight, I'll post those tomorrow.

 

that thing looks SWEEET!!!

 

That looks nice!

 

Looks good. Now all you gotta do is cut that suspension out from the front and put an axle under.

 

Looks good David! Really like how you didn't give up, but made it work with what you had. Nice work man.

 

thanks guys! im pretty satisfied with it...it turned out nicely after all that work. the only thing im mad about is the hellas. It had 2 sets of holes drilled for aux. lights, but my hellas, being as big as they are, we're halfway hidden behind one of the vertical bars, so i drilled new ones, measured exactly from the previous holes and when i finally got them on, i noticed that the toyota emblem was not centered between then. me being mr perfectionist, i couldnt allow that. i know my lights have semi-bent mounts so i tried bending them to make them centered...which is how i managed to break the plastic housing of one of them. stupid me

 

I'd bet you could get a new housing for the hella at http://www.rallylights.com/hella/Black_Magic.asp

 

wow thanks. im letting the epoxy set right now and if i feel itll hold up, ill use the broken housing, but if not, thats a good find. thanks!

 

Swweeet looking. Congrats.

Do you think it would look cool if you were to line-x or paint the white metal areas underneith your headlights to blend in. (Black color) ??? I think it would look cool...

Just a thought.

 

I was looking at that. I'm going to look at what exactly that metal does and see if I can't cut any off or at least paint it. I think it might look better black, at least the part between the tubes on the sides.

 

Yeah, no doubt would it look better black... worse case scenerio...paint it black, if you dont like it , break out the saw Looks good !

 

Savage. Looks Great!

 

Got some daylight-ish pics with my Hellas (with one epoxied/fixed) and some of my spare tire thing I rigged up:

Daylight shot with the Hellas mounted (and slightly off-center, that bugs the CRAP out of me)


Had to get holes drilled for my front license plate for those Texas laws


Spare tire holder from over the bed


And with the tailgate down


And a view from the top of the spare (which is one of my usual mud terrains on black steelies)

 

I'm gonna have to paint it, I checked the metal out and its actually functional and has things mounted to it on the back side, so out comes the paint when I get a chance...

 

I REALLY like that bumper - looks pretty light in comparison to the bigger ARB's and TJM's