Coastal Offroad Talky Time

a 1 inch body lift measurement works as well

thanks

 

I cut about an inch and a half to two inches out of mine. It's all behind the scenes so I just did it with an angle grinder real quick.

 

Hey All,
Long time reader, first time poster. Thanks for all the killer content here.
Currently I am working on welding up a Coastal Offroad bumper for my brothers truck (2002 Tacoma - 1st Gen), but I quickly ran into an issue.

This is the bumper I ordered: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/coastal-offroad-talky-time.634415/

The first two plates that mount onto the frame - more specifically the top plate seems totally different compared to what I have seen on many other build thread on YouTube and here. The top plate that mounts to the frame (#2 plate) stick out way past the end of the frame. Here are some pictures:







Now even with my suspicions of the top frame plate (plate #2) being possible wrong for my truck I pressed on to the next step. The next step wants me to add vertical supports between plate #1 and and plate #2 with smaller plates labeled plate #3’s. To my surprise these plate didn’t fit between the #1 and #2 frame plates. See below picture:



Here is the picture of the instructions showing the description of doing these steps:



At this point I put down my tools and wrote Coastal Offroad to ask for help and explanation on the above issues. I also wanted to post here since there seems to be some great folks who can possibly tell me I have the wrong plates from Coastal Offroad or tell me how I am messing this up

NOW if you compare what you see in the above pictures to this YouTube tutorial you will see a massive difference in the way it comes together. Also keep in mind the instructions say its the same assembly for 1996-2002 4Runners and 1995.5-2004 Tacomas, so the below videos should show how my bumper comes together - but as you will see mine looks rather different starting with the top frame plate #2. Video:

https://youtu.be/6oN5wczcAi4

Thanks for any help and feedback.

 

I am curious about your crossmember. Did you cut it? Is it part of coastal's instructions to cut it?
at first glance it's almost like you are using 2 bolt holes too far towards the rear and the bolt holes you need were in the crossmember that got cut out.

I don't own a first gen so it's probably best to wait for someone who has done one with their first gen to chime in or for coastal to get back to you. best of luck!

 

Yeah thats a fair point. Although I only took off (unbolted) the crush can and grinned off the flanges as the ends of the frame rails - the instructions DO say you have to make these modifications. Also as per the YouTube video link I posted, that guys had to do the same thing. Here is a picture of what I removed and where I removed it relative to the frame rails.

If you don’t removed the crush can on the front and grind off the metal flanges on the frame rails the bump won’t mount flush.

 

Clean winch

 

Anybody got the dimensions on the tire gate and has any experience towing with it on a second gen? I’m about to pull the trigger on a rear and some skids but I want to make sure clearance is there. Hopefully it works out and if anybody wired their trailer lights differently or just drilled a hole in the bumper for it, did it work out?

thanks
Alden

 

HELP I’m trying to get the heat exchanger lines relocated with the bracket coastal offers, so I can fit a winch in the bumper… but I can’t for the life of me get it to work what am I doing wrong

 

I was able to get one in mine without any bracket. but I'm also a 2nd gen. Where's the bracket?

 

It was a small rectangle with two hole I got it to work but I had to force it pretty good. I’ll send a picture soon

 

Has anyone installed one of the closed top front bumpers on a 95-97 before? Tried to find some pics but no luck. The front end and frames on this era are a little short. About ready to order otherwise.

 

Anyone running an extreme clearance front? Looking for some real world images outside of the ones they offer.

 

Warfab has an extreme clearance kit too there's photos over in the Warfab Armor Dorks thread. Also JD Fab has been modifying customer's bumpers and frames for Extreme Clearance on a case by case basis.
Or did I misunderstand your wording and you want customer photos of the Coastal one?

 

Now that you mention it, both. Was looking for more images of the coastal but I'm open to others. My biggest gripe with all the aftermarket bumpers out there are the giant plate front covering that crossmember. Besides the practicality, I think the extreme clearance just look better in the end.

Thanks for the leads though, I'll look into those others.

 

I'll say, the Coastal version puts a really high angle on the front, which means a hard hit if you ever did.

 

Got my bumper yesterday... Rear low profile (I mistakenly called it the high clearance in a post yesterday,,,, oops!) Welding time in my future.

 

post pics! have fun!

 

Okay... got some time to look at the boxes this morning. I used the instruction diagram and numbered all the parts. You can lay them all out as they suggest, but they are pretty obvious (or were to me.)



The factory bumper was a PIA to get off... because, I did not know about the pin. Those of you who know, understand why I might have struggled not knowing. For those who don't know, Toyota kindly put a pin on both sides of the bumper hanger in a slotted curlyque thing that prevents it from landing on your head when you take out the bolts. Nice... as long as you know how to do the curlyque to get the bumper off the truck. I strongly urge those who don't know to watch a how to do video on this step... it will save a lot of hair pulling.

I mocked up the first set of parts as directed in the instructions. I even used a trio of washers on one side to allow space for the bumper to be easy to remove. Then I deviated and went ahead several steps as I was unsure about what the author meant about checking true on the parts and really wanted a good look at how the bumper was going to line up before I got to rambunctious welding. Glad I did.





When I set the top plate and front (back?) plates that slot off the D ring we had some significant alignment issues. I spent most of an hour on my back taking these apart, re-assembling, taking them apart and adding washers and then climbing up to check alignment for center. The instructions said to align the top plate with the edge of the front plates but this alignment is predicated on things working further back with the first plates being mounted ( and welded) correctly to the frame. Oh my. What I ended up doing was finding center in the top plate and the tail gate, making some marks and setting up alignment from there. I did have to use one washer in the front set of holes on one side to properly orient the hangers so the top plate centered on the truck. This was a lot of fussing to get the bumper correctly centered and aligned to the truck and frame rails-I used to be a bodyman and frame alignment person, so I had an inkling of potential problems. I am also fussy and want the thing to look nice.
From here I commenced with tacking the shell of the bumper together, I did NOT tack to the D ring extensions binding the thig together just yet as I want to weld it up first. I am planning to use 6010 rod on the back side and wire stitch the front so it can be ground and prepped for powder coating.





More tomorrow!

 

Anyone ever pay a shop/welder to build theirs? Is it worth it?

 

There used to be a really cool member on here by the name of BigDaddy who welded them up and sold them in TX. I did it myself to save money, I feel like that's the whole point of buying a DIY kit, to save money on labor.