16 Tacoma bumper cap removal

I too want to order color matched bumper caps, I have just blacked out my bumper for the time being till I can buy a color matched. I am not a fan of the debadged look, thought about blacking out emblems but I think I am going to keep as is to help break up some of the color. I have always hated pin striping and hated that my truck had it when I bought it but it has grown on me and helps break up the color. BUTTTT if you can buy color matched caps I don't know about it, I frequently search trd sparks and ebay and cannot find anything.

 

I have the SR5 with the chrome (plastic) bumper caps. I actually bought the SR5 because I thought it had a real chrome bumper like my '12 TRD Tundra. Unlike another forum member who thought chrome was cheesy, I was never much of a fan of color keyed bumpers. I have a Harley with its share of chrome but now the "in thing" is to have a blacked-out bike (and to each his own). But, finding out the chrome was only plastic I am going to try to get some color-keyed bumper caps (white). I'm from a small town and I can get a body shop to order them for me from Toyota and save a little. About debadging: Again, to each his own but I have debadged every Tundra and now Tacoma I have owned. First, I like the clean look and now that Tacoma is indented across the tail gate, Toyota gets plenty of identification. Second, the badges are affixed using a two-sided sticky tape. When you wash your truck or it gets rained on that tape stays wet for a long time. I use a Metro Air Force Blaster dryer to blow the water off my bike when it is washed. I also use it on the truck and you can see the water stream out of the badges after it was washed before they were removed.

 

Does the tow hitch need to be dropped to remove these? Thanks

 

subd

 

No but would make it easier.

 

You absolutely nailed it!!! I never could figure out the chrome bumper in the first place. They don't put a chrome bumper on the Avalon or the Venza! Your truck looks great!

 

In response to #22's post, I just removed my bumper assembly today to tend to my left bumper pods with the sonar sensor. I was not that hard, however took some time to dismantle at first due to myself not wanting to destroy and plastics or anything. Everything came off pretty easily, just be super careful. There were a few instances where I almost got ahead of myself but I slowed down. Disassembly took 45 minutes. Reassembly took literally 5 minutes. It was a joke. The longest part was putting back all of the push tabs. Otherwise cake. If you have any questions as to how I did this, send me a PM or something along tho

 

Black is better! I wish I could find some painted white ones

 

Did you paint the end pieces on the truck or off..?? Looks great by the way..

 

Thank you! mine are chrome and still on the truck

 

OOPs... sorry

 

I saw the excellent writeup in post #22, but I was wondering if somebody could post the appropriate section from the service manual? I've run into them on a lot of other posts and given the number of parts, clips, and stuff involved on our rear bumpers I think it would be real educational. Thanks!

 

I don't like chrome...I know, I'm and odd ball apparently.

 

To me, black trim screams base model

 

You're not an odd ball, i didn't like the chrome on my bumper end caps ( not to mention they're plastic ) so the other day i decided to plasti dip them

 

I also do not like the chrome bumper caps on my 2017 super white Tacoma, as there's no chrome anywhere else on the truck and they really stick out and make the truck look cheap IMHO.

So I'm going to order up a set of the black factory caps as opposed to painting them as I they will match the color and texture of the center bumper cap, and I won't have to worry about getting them scratched and having the chrome showing, and I only want to have to take the bumper apart once.

 

How much was he shipping, as two Toyota dealers I found online both want $125 to ship these very light weight pieces of plastic, and which aren't that big.

 

I opted to plastidip mine .. 1 can of plastidip was $5.99 at Walmart compared to spending $180 on 2 black bumper end caps. I am happy with the way it turned out, did 6 coats total

 

I've never used Plastidip on anything, so how durable is it and did you do any kind of surface prep to the chrome finish before applying it.

 

I had never used it before either. The only thing i did was clean the end caps real good with isopropyl alcohol then taped everything off and covered tailgate/rear fenders to protect from overspray. First couple coats i did real light then 4 good coats with about 20-minutes in between coats