ARB Bumper Install

I recently had an ARB bumper installed on my 2013 and the instructions included clipping the plastic bumper so that it acts as a cover between the grille and the new bumper. Has anyone ever installed it without the plastic cover and, if so, what does it look like? I am wondering if I want to remove the plastic or not.

 

looks like poop lol
heres mine as i havent cut it yet, trying to get it setup more correctly for my 1" body lift before i go cutting my bumper.

 

So far it's a toss-up. I could go either way right now. Leaning towards dumping the plastic.

 

I've seen the 05-11 ARB fit on a 12-15 front end more snug without cutting the bumper.


Bad pic but here's a 05 on a 12. You can see the gap is a lot smaller.

 

@sr5vic OK, that looks really nice. That's the way they should all look. I'm not sure that I can make mine look the same, but I'm willing to give it a shot. I bought the 12 - 15 model not the 05 - 11. So now I need to figure out how to make it more snug.

 

Purchase a cheap (sub-$100) plastic bumper and hack that up.



Unfortunately, I don't have too many good closeups, but I used Duplicolor bumper coating paint which gave it a matte / satin black look and it blended in quite well. You should have the same luck with a dark green truck.

 

^ that's the way to do it.

 

It also kept my OEM bumper intact so after the accident I was able to resell it for a good price. Had I hacked up the OEM piece, I'd be out the cash.

 

well, really you are out of the cash now, and maybe not later lol. where as if you just cut up yours you wouldn't be out of any cash now. Mine is getting hacked up, then the rest will get hacked up and put in the recycle bin lol.

 

What I sold the OEM bumper for was $110 more than I paid for the aftermarket bumper.

Even if I had my truck still, net profit $110. I'm not a big fan of cutting up factory painted pieces on cars.

 

Do you have the ARB brand foglights for that bumper, or an aftermarket set? The ARB lights have some awful reviews on Amazon, because apparently you have to disassemble them to replace the damn bulbs... so I'm trying to figure out what might work best.

 

yea, you could play the what if game lol. what if you garage burned down taking out the bumper, what if the bumper fell over, turning on your extra stove, causing the fire. then your bumper just costed you thousands of dollars in damage lol

 

I had the ARB branded ones. They are pretty bad in that regard as the the bulbs they ship with have the H3 wiring running through the boots that seal the housings. I tried to build
A harness that would allow me to replace the bulbs without having to resolder them as you need to cut the pigtails to replace bulbs but had issues with the wiring grounding out on the housings.

Ultimate instead of yellow bulbs which burned out easily, I went with your basic long life H3 and Lamin-X.

 

@MikeyMcFly I zoomed in on your truck picture. Did you tuck the plastic under the steel bumper? Here is the closeup view.

BTW, it looks really good.

 

It fit inside the opening. All I did was take ARB's measurements and simply added about an inch of extra length allowing it to tuck a bit more inside the gap. I figured you can remove material if it doesn't fit but not add more if there is a gap.

The aftermarket bumper cost me approximately $95 and was well worth it imho.

EDIT : The lead pic you used has the bumper set WAY low. You can adjust the bumper to flare gap a bit but that one looks huge. I set mine enough that it can flex but not enough it looks ill-fitting.

 

Yeah, I'm old and not mechanically inclined so I had it done at 4 Wheel Parts here in Indy. It got cold here the other morning and the plastic started to rub on the metal and squeaked, which is why I started this thread. After it warmed up the squeaking went away. But the point remains, should I get it reinstalled with the plastic tucked under, or remove the plastic altogether. 4WP has installed it to ARB requirements, so I'm torn on this. I really appreciate the thoughtful responses.

 

They installed it wrong. Per ARB the piece goes inside the metal of the bumper like in my photo. Look on ARB's site of their truck.

I'd go back and have them reinstall it correctly.

 

That's a real gut punch. So let me confirm. I had them install the ARB 12-15 bumper on a '13. @MikeyMcFly, what is your installation? Just want to make sure I don't make an ass of myself when I go back to 4WP. I will also dig up the installation instructions for added ammo. Thanks a bunch, all great info.

 

ARB has a PDF of the installation instructions for the '12-'15 trucks. According to those instructions, the ARB bumper goes over the cut portion of the factory bumper so the the cut edge is under the ARB bumper.

 

That's exactly how I did mine. Cut edge was hidden by the bumper.

EDIT : To answer your question, I had a 12-15 bumper on my '13.

There is a height adjustment in the bumper so I suspect they sat it lower to allow for the plastic to be up above.