Aftermarket hybrid bumper, Baja fenders...

I just received my truck back from the body shop. They did a fantastic job restoring the damage previously done and the truck looks great. They did point out one small issue which is somewhat a red flag for me.

I have a Bruteforce Hybrid bumper, and the wrap around portion of the tube at the end on the drivers side is merely millimeters away from touching the fender. The manager advised me not to wheel until I can correct the gap issue on the bumper because if the frame flexes too much, It can stress the fiberglass fender (glassworks) and it can crack it!

Options, options... Ideas? Advice? i was thinking putting a 1/4 plate spacer between the mounting point in between the bumper and frame. Short of that I can always get the tube re shaped but I don't know how much more work that would involve or cost.

 

Grind the 6 holes that bolt on the bumper into long ovals so the bumper can slide down a bit.

 

Also add some washers in between the frame and the bottom of the bumper for the bottom two bolts.

And what fenders did you go with and who painted them and did the install?

 

You would still need the steel spacers in between the frame and the bumper though huh?

 

I went with Glassworks fenders, AW Collision out here in Concord did the body work on the door, and the replacing and painting of the fenders.

 

Dont know what spacer your talking about...

 

Washers, spacers, same idea. Lol.

Where would I find washers that thick though? Fastenal? Ace? (Kinda doubtful about Ace right now.)

 

These are the only drawbacks of wheeling. You wheel too damn hard and you jack up your radiator support to the point where you need to space things out, and down. Lmao.

 

I have about 10 washers on each side under my bumper because I need all the flex room I can get. I still touch my fenders on the bumper

 

Ill take a picture of my washers later... I still cant decide if I should cut my fenders and snorkle or do fiberglass and replace my air filter montly...

 

Double check your front cab mount bushings, I had what appeared to be a fit issue with my bumper but discovered that the drivers side front / core support body mount bushing was worn out and had crushed by about 1/4" which let the whole body fall 1/4" lower on the drivers side.

 

The truck only has 40K on it though. I know the actual mounting between the body and the radiator support is all shifted. You can definitely see it.

 

That is probably your problem, measure the height of the pass side bushing then measure the height of the drivers side. If the drivers side bushing is " squished " that explains your issue. It doesn't matter how many miles the truck has on it, they are just cheap rubber bushings and the drivers side one is notorious for failing. I have always assumed it is due to the weight of the battery right next to it. Energy suspension has a urethane replacement body mount kit for $140, it is not in their catalog but it is already in production I just got it myself.

 

I went ahead and checked it out again. Decided to loosen them up and they definitely flexed a lot! I readjusted it and now it sits fine. The reason the drivers tube sits higher is due to defect in the manufacturer of the bumper. Now that I look at it long and hard the drivers side tube was just welded slightly higher then the passenger side. That's all. I'm going to need to pull the tube using some kind of puller. Maybe the body shop could do it for me. Just enough to bring it down a bit. The washers helped lower the tube so it's not resting on the fender so that helped too.