Removing Rigid Fog Lights - Bumper Removal?

Hi All,

New to the forums here and a new Tacoma owner (but longtime Toyota enthusiast), and recently purchased a lightly-used 2017 DC TRD Offroad long bed with a couple of offroad upgrades already installed.

Anyway, it's got an awesome 30' Rigid Bar in the front and the Rigid fog light kit, which I'm trying to remove and replace with my Baja Squadron XL wide cornering amber lights that were taken off my previous Subaru Outback overland build.

While the Rigid fog light kit is a drop-in kit, there's an issue removing the front face plate. There are 4 small screws holding the plate on, but there are nylock nuts on the backside of the face plate that hold the face place in. They appear next to impossible to remove without taking off the entire lower bumper assembly or front grille and headlights to properly reach with a torque wrench. Seems odd considering it was billed as a drop in kit and theoretically should be just as easy to remove.

I've searched the forum for the install guides, but there wasn't enough detail to indicate the process for installing the screws. I also reached out to Rigid directly and not only did they not have an install manual, they had no suggestions other than removing the bumper to access the nylock nuts. They are asking one of their product designers and getting back to me.

Attached are two photos showing the front plate, and one of the nylock nuts holding them in. In order to take the photo I had to stick my iPhone down into the cavity behind the fog light assembly and randomly shoot photos until one came out. You can barely even get a 1/4 torque wrench down in there, let alone make contact with the nut.

Honestly I can just take the bumper off, but before I go through that time and effort, wanted to see if any of you had a suggestion for a simpler solution.

This forum has been a great resource and I look forward to contributing.

First photo is face plate, second photo shows one of the nylock nuts in the upper left corner.

Third photo is my truck .

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/rigid-fog-light-kits.474750/ Post #20 there could help you.

 

Thanks for sharing that link, since the guy I bought the truck from put nylock nuts on the other end of the face plate screws, I can't just unscrew them as the standard install you linked me to would indicate. Or am I missing something?

 

On page 2 they say that Rigid will email you pdf instructions as well. It looks like you could remove the LED light first to free up some room or access when the grille is removed. Post #52 in there shows the back of someone else's who used nylocks and earlier on page 3, someone posted a picture of the included hardware (with nylocks). I'd say slowly remove the grille and access it from above

 

I put the Rigid fogs on my truck, from my recollection you should be able to just undo the bottom of the white plastic below each fog, to get to the back of those screws. I recall swearing some putting those things on. If your mitts are too big you might have to either take the whole thing off or get a smaller person to help.

 

So I just pulled the grille off during lunch and those nylock nuts aren't coming off without either a second person with tiny hands and a wrench to hold them in place while I unscrew the face plate screws from the front, or without pulling off the headlights OR the bottom portion of the bumper/plastic wheel well guards. Just no way for one person to do it with the tight space, even with the grille and bezel taken off. SMH!