Ok... so for a while I've been planning on flipping my hitch cause it seems like such a good idea. Never really wanted to though in case I got an aftermarket bumper I could sell this one... well backed into a rock the other day offroading so that slolved my problems I spent an hour or so taking the corner piece off trying to bang the dent out and get it straightened up a tad and didnt turn out too terribly. Borrowed an angle grinder and went to work

Before:


After:



I took the grinder to my hitch also to knock off some of the rust that was building up and while I was at it, I kissed my chrome goodbye!

After + makeup:

In this picture you can see the black rubber auto trim I got at advance auto for about $2 and some change. Looks great I think!

Banishing the chrome didn't stop there:






My rear looks a bit saggy in this one, and I always feel like I have so much more stuff hanging out from under mine compared to other people. Sometimes I see 4runners that aren't lifted that are almost as big as mine too... kinda disappointing. Guess its the difference in years... I dont know... maybe I'm just self-conscious


This summer I also wanted to spend a little time practicing my fab skills so I decided I wanted a small roof basket. Something that I could fit on the yak rack with a couple bikes for throwing gas, charcoal, muddy clothes, cats... you know the stuff you don't want inside... Well I bought some square tubing for really cheap and was going to build it from the ground up... but it ended up being 3/4 x 3/4 x 1/8 which is obviously WAY more than I need and way too heavy for my roof, so I'm going to give that to some people that have helped me out in the past (and hopefully some more in the future). I showed up to a party the other night and saw something that might just work... apparently it was an old glass table that some drunk guy fell on and broke. It was a metal frame hanging on their coat rack so I asked if they needed it and this is how it went:

Table frame:


5" tall roof basket:


The 5" looked a little big for me, so I knocked it down to 4":


All the little spacers added in there are from the pieces I cut out initially. Its still a bit bent and I think I'm going to need a torch and vice to get it straight. Hopefully that wont be too much work though. I need to grind off all the nickel-cad coating so I can have my buddy weld it (since I'm not confident enough to do it myself, I'd rather it look good) I'm going to run about 3 strips of flat stock across the bottom and drop in a metal mesh piece inside, paint the whole thing black, and good to go... I'll probably keep updating this as the project goes on.

I have some LC rims in the mail, and working on a deal that might get me an E-locker for about $150 but I'll have to put some work into it... I'm sure my mods will come to an end as soon as school starts back up and my money goes away... but for now, the fun goes on!

 

Nice, man way to be creative and use what you have readily available to you. The hitch and blacked out bumpers look great. Good job.

 

wow... not quite the response I expected, but I guess no one else found it quite as interesting. Oh well, to each his own I guess

 

looks good. what did you use to paint the hitch/bumper?

 

Its a Krylon Rust Tough spray paint. I sanded the bumpers first by hand, but dont think I got it scuffed up enough. It looks good for now, but there are already places on the rear bumper where the plastic bumper cover is scraping some of the paint off. Not sure if a primer would have done better or what I should do differently if I redo it. But it looks good for the time being and would only cost about $5 to repaint so I'm not too worried about it.

 

lol "cats"

Bumpers look nice. I'm also diggin' the coffee table basket.
Way to be creative.

 

 

Usually most posts with pictures get comments right away and some 'oohs' and 'aaahs' I was pretty excited to see what people had to say maybe give me some pointers on better paint, hints for straightening metal, or even just a pat on the back... but it sat for 2-3 days with only 1 response and saw all kinds of other topics around it that had 6 responses within the first few days and hence it wasnt the response I expected. I just assumed no one else was as interested in the paint, hitch flip, and roof rack so 'to each his own'

seems to be getting quite a few more responses now though, so must have just been bad timing.

 

I think it looks great! Nice work on the hitch flip, I've been thinking about flipping mine also, but am unsure about cutting into the bumper, not sure I would do as good of a job as you did either. lol.

 

you shouldn't really expect anything on here, you put forward your work with some pictures and that's great, but every thread is different. it's just not something you talk about

but anyways, i took my trailer hitch off yesterday and tried to flip it. the design of my reese was almost perfect for closing the 2" gap from the body but the flanges were too wide. now i'm just going to grind off the bottom flange, move it up till it's flush again, and mount via inside of the frame

 

Hey Rocko, dont be scared of cutting the bumper, its really easy if you have a grinder you can borrow. It was only the second time I've ever used one and it didnt come out bad at all, so it really doesnt take much skill. My biggest worry was if I wanted to sell the bumper if I got an aftermarket one, but my was getting banged up anyway and I wont be able to afford aftermarket bumpers for a long while.

Roo, I understand that this is a forum, and people write what they want, when they want assuming they write anything at all. So no, I shouldnt 'expect' anything from people. Tell me though, have you ever created thread for no reason? Do you think 'hey, I want to write something on a forum full of knowledgable people just because I can. I dont really want anything out of it, just want to waste a little bit of time making a thread.' I usually see this forum as a place of discussion. Questions can be answered, ideas shared, and constructive criticism offered. If I am way out of line let me know, but from my time spent here, I have come to 'expect' things from people even though I probably shouldnt. I guess its just conditioning. People have been very responsive and helpful in the past with many other threads, so I just expected the same result since its the same forum with the same people. Sorry

 

errr

i don't know, i try not to bring emotions into this board...i just figure whatever happens happens. if you get a response its because someone wanted to take the time to tell you about it, and i don't mean this in a condascending way, but if they don't, they won't. it just defeats the purpose in my opinion when you bring the fact to the table.

sorry, didn't mean to turn your thread into this but that's my .02

EDIT: and by the way, the reason that paint isn't adhering as well as you would like is because the fact that it is chrome. normal sandpaper, no matter how rough the grit, will not properly prep the chrome. i used herculiner on mine, which will stick to everything and i had a hard time getting a good coat on. the only surefire way of getting it bare is probably sandblasting

 

Thanks Roo, I thought about herculiner, but decided against it because I liked the flat black look rather than the textured look. I dont have access to a sand blaster, and I've heard rumor of some chrome etching solvants, but that sounds kinda hazardous, so I just went with what worked. Any idea if you can powdercoat over chrome? Not sure how much it costs, but probably wouldnt be worth powdercoating a stock bumper.

 

Bumpers look good. The idea of using the black trim around where the hitch is was pretty creative.

 

Nice runner man!

 

Thanks guys. Tacoclimber, I cant claim that for my own. I dont remember the exact reference of who I got it from, but I did a lot of reading before chopping my bumper up to see how people had done it before and someone's writeup included rubber trim around it. I dont think it was the same stuff, but I found some for pretty cheap so I went with it.

 

Looks good. Like the factory 96/97 grey bumpers.

I just hope that rattle can trim paint doesn't peel off.

 

Looks good to me! I thought about painting my bumpers too but wasn't sure about painting the chrome. The spray bomb makes it easy to touch up though. Could also look for some factory bumpers in grey at the yard. Leave as is or paint them. I assume the paint would adhere to them better.

 

Got my LC rims in a couple days ago, sprayed them off and got em mounted. Solved the problem of the tires rubbing on the frame at full lock, but made the rubbing on pinch weld and bumper faring worse. I'll have to do some chopping and pounding... hopefully not too much though, I'm scared of rust.

I got the roof basket welded up yesterday as well just need to spend some time with it tonight and get the welds ground down and a little prettier looking, throw some paint on it, and it should be good to go.

I know this update is pretty worthless without pics, so I'll try and get some up either tonight or tomorrow.

 

Here's a post a few years late. I took a picture of the finished roof rack hanging in the garage. I swear I had pictures of it on the vehicle somewhere, but can't find them. Hard to believe I forgot to post the end product.