SOS Concepts Gen 2B Bumpers: Review, help with the lightbar, & chopping the tow hook

I finally got my SOS Concepts bumpers in. They look great, but I'm having a few issues. Being a one man shop, he's not too responsive, so I thought I'd ask here for insight/advice.

I had them powder coated silver.

It's not nearly as close as I'd hoped, but I suppose that's powder coat vs paint match for ya. Oh well. I still prefer powder coat over paint and prefer the silver-metal look over the flat black that is on every other off-road bumper out there.


So, obviously the rear is on.
It was a PITA to get in place. I definitely needed 2 people and then it had to be whacked back into place. I definitely shaved off a good amount of the powder coat in doing so.
The rear license plate holder is also a bit of a mess. It's welded on. It's a spring loaded pivot one to get to the hidden hitch behind it. Well, it scrapes when it goes back past 90° and there's no bumpers to keep it from wanting to do so. It's also mounted so far forward in comparison to where he placed the light cutouts, my license plate lights now provide a lovely backlighting for my plate. So I could see a cop around here pulling me over for that one if they were looking for a reason.
I might get some license plate bolt LED lights, wire them into the same circuit, and put some red LED bulbs in these.

I would have the rear pod lights in, but someone decided to steal those from my doorstep a couple hours after they were delivered, way before I got home. A second set will be be here soon.
Overall I still like it, but it's not quite what I hoped.

One of the real issues is that the welded on mounting brackets for the light bar aren't wide enough for the very light bar SOS recommends (Rough Country 20" single row light bar).

The brackets are spaced 21-1/16" apart. The light bar needs 22-3/8" to mount. I'd do some bending, but that's not happening that much with thick steel that close to the weld.


I don't have the ability or equipment to cut & weld this to move them and I'm not sure you'd want to do that with the powder coat done anyway. So, unless someone has a better idea, I have to find a lightbar that conforms to this width, 21-1/16".
I'm going to go digging unless someone happens to know of one offhand. It would save me a lot of work. It seems a lot of manufactures don't always like to post something like dimensions.


The other issue is that the front bumper requires me to chop off the driver's side tow/recovery/tie-down loop/hook.

OK. That sounds easy enough. But then I realize I don't have the right tools for the job. I was going to go at it with a 20V reciprocating saw, but noticed it's welded on the inner sides too. So, now that sounds like a bad idea, if it was ever a good one, or just won't really work.
I thought of picking up the Harbor-Freight-special angle grinder(?), oscillating tool(?), but would those really fit in there? I know there will be more room once the stock bumper is off, but it still seems tight from videos I've watched.
What is the right tool for the job? Reciprocating saw? ? ? Something else?

 

Finally got the front on a couple weekends ago.

I picked up an angle grinder. Getting that hook off was still not what I expected. I was hoping to cut the welds and take the whole thing off, but it's too tight in there I just chopped off the offending end and grinded it down so the flat surface of the bumper had no chance of contacting it.

I was happy I didn't have to cut any support brackets like the C4 requires, but I didn't realize the winch control module can't be center mounted, even off to the side in the center, until it was already on. I couldn't figure out why the bumper wasn't quite sitting how I wanted. Finally after my friend that helped me stab it left, I noticed. So, since the help to get it up and down left, I had to perform control mount surgery through the access holes in the bumper. Wow. that was a giant pain. And I think side mounting the Smittybilt X2O would have been trying if it was off the bumper entirely. But finally got that corrected and the bumper leveled. Slapped on the reinforcement brackets.

Now I just need to get a light bar that actually fits. I think the Diode Dynamics 18" bar should do the trick and figure out which driving lights to go with. Perhaps the Diode Dynamics as well, SS3 perhaps. Unless there is another much better.
I do like the new shape cutouts for the driving lights. It looks much better than the simple circles or squares on previous iterations.

I just went with

$24 Nilight LED Flush Mount Light Pods Upgraded Spot Flood Combo Beam Driving LED Work Backup Reverse Grill Mount Light for Offroad 4x4 Truck SUV Jeep, 2 Years Warranty (Upgrade 42W Combo Beam)

some cheap Nilight flush mount pods for the rear lights.

$28 Flush Mount LED Pods, Nirider 2PCS 84W Bumper Lights 5" Spot Beam Driving Lights LED Light Bar Flush LED Work Light Off Road Lights for Truck SUV ATV UTV Boat

The "Nirider" pods SOS recommended seemed too cheap. Plus they came in from Amazon banged up, so they were getting returned no matter what.

All in all I'm glad I got the bumpers, I just wish the powder coat silver was a bit closer to paint and that the light bar had fit as advertised and recommended.
For the license plate, I think I'll chop off the bottom of the holder and I found some 1.5" tall rubber bumpers I can mount behind it to keep it straight. Then I'll get some bolt license plate lights for the actual white light and put red LED bulbs in the factory license plate lights to back light it in red.
The other thing I was expecting was to be able to at least see the top edge of the center hook. I don't know if it's the bug guard or the angle was made for a 6' person in mind, but I don't see it at all. Oh well.
Fuel economy seems to have taken a ~5% hit. But maybe that's my driving, maybe heading into winter, I don't know.