SSO Slimline Hybrid Stage 2 High Clearance kit

Any recommendations for tools for doing the bumper cut? Per @SouthernStyleOffRoad 's website, they recommend a rotary tool with a ripsaw blade or high speed cutting disk. Has this been successful for everyone?

 

I used an air powered auto body saw.

 

Dremel tool with cutting disk made easy work of it. Easy to control as well. Threw on the sanding adapter to clean my cut up afterwards.

 

That’s my plan too. Glad to hear it worked out well.

 

I started my install yesterday. I’m finishing cutting today and dry fitting bumper tomorrow. I’ll be welding stage 2 kit to bumper, painting and installing next week.

Here’s what I’m using to cut plastic, working great.

 

Got some more work done this evening. Finished cutting plastic.
I switched to cutting with a makita cordless grinder with a metal cutting wheel, it worked better than the Roto zip. I used a belt sander to finish sand and a block with sand paper to fine tune.
A utility knife to cut inner fenders.

I'll post a few more photos tomorrow
God Bless to all

 

Great pics and post so far can’t wait for tomorrow thanks so much for this !

 

Lookin' good so far!

 

Those are some clean cut lines! I like the idea of belt sanding and then blocking them back to final positions. I'm defiantly stealing that idea.

 

You've got to be gentle with belt sander, but it worked great because it's got 6"-8" flat surface to keep thing level and square. I cut everything +1/4" and will sand to fit tight today. I'm planning on welding everything up so I won't have much adjustment with the stage 2. Measure twice cut once.

 

Is it just me or am I the only one who's OCD gets tweaked when they see the powder coating on some of these parts? I haven't seen any stage 2s that match the Slimline (including mine straight from SSO) unless they had them powder coated after delivery. I got both the Slimline and my stage 2 delivered about a month ago and the powder coating looked like a bunch of tweakers got a hold of them. They were two totally different textures and it just looked bad. I took them straight to my local powder coating shop and got them back earlier this week. My stage 2 looked worse than the Slimline in @bodean's piture above but at least they all match now.

 

We did just recently switch to a Sherwin Williams powder after too many quality issues with the previous vendor. We do try to send matching powder for older orders, but it's possible you may have received two slightly different brands of powder across multiple parts.

 

My slimline was done locally almost 3 years ago.

 

They weren't slightly different, they were way different. The Slimline itself looked ok but the wings were terrible. I just decided to have everything powder coated to match all of the other powder coat on my truck. I can't wait to get it installed because it really is a good looking bumper. It just needs to NOT be 120 degrees out. I, unlike others, did not mock it up before I took it in so I'm hoping that fitment doesn't become an issue. Had I known that beforehand, I definitely would have.

 

That would explain why the powder coat on my stage 2 looked worse than your Slimline.

 

Just thought I'd share my experience with ordering a Slimline bumper from these guys. In a couple days it will be 4 months since I have placed my order and it still has not shipped. I ordered a bumper without the bull bar or a light cut out also. Was told about a month ago it was getting powder coated and would be shipping out soon. Decided to contact them again a couple days ago after I noticed my status said the order had been completed but I still hadn't seen it or gotten a shipping notice. They got back to me and said it got mixed up with someone who ordered a bumper just like mine. So if this is true they shipped my bumper to someone else and I have to wait even longer to get mine. They said it (a different one I'm assuming) was being powder coated and would be shipped out maybe on Monday or Wednesday. Am I to believe them after I've already been told this from them a month ago? And you still can't give me a ship date at this point? Pretty terrible service if you asked me. I put a SDHQ hidden winch bumper on my 2017 PRO a couple years ago and had a great experience with them. And just got a bumper from Warn for my wife's Tacoma and that went great as well. Wish I would have went either of those routes after dealing with Southern Style. Very disappointing in how this all went down. They couldn't even be honest in their status updates (my bumper was also supposedly at a grinding station for over a month). Would have thought after all this they would have offered a discount or done something to make up for it. No, nothing, just told me it might be shipped out next week and sorry for the mix up. Was planning on ordering their Hybrid Stage 2 High Clearance but after this experience I'm going to have to pass.

Just thought I would let you all know what I've gone through. Really not worth the hassle or wait if you ask me as there are a lot of other great vendors out there who not only make great products but also take care of their customers a lot better as well.

 

Thank you for sharing your experience.

 

Sorry to hear this. A lot of armor companies have long wait times, especially for new items or something proprietary.

But, I’ve never been a fan of subsidizing even a smallish business with prepay. There’s too many great bumpers in stock to have to.

 

I hope @SouthernStyleOffRoad is too busy getting your bumper out to monitor this thread regularly. MOST are ok with waiting on armor they really want, as long as the company can be honest about the wait times or even if issues come up. Too bad because it really is a great looking bumper.

 

Well I've gotten to work a couple of more times on this project. We got the passenger side dialed in Thursday evening, took us a lot of mock ups and trimming to get it right. And a 3lb sledgehammer. My original measurements (Taken from the install video) and my actual final cut measurements are very different. I also had to to some grinding on the edges of the Bumper to get even reveal.


I worked on it today for a few hours, recut the plastic on the drivers side starting mocking up stage 2. I could not get it even close to looking right, tried shimming ect. Was getting frustrated that it wasn't fitting no matter how I shimmed it. I had poor reveal on the seam 1/4" at the top and a 1/2" gap at my wheel well trim with 2 stacks of 3 shims in the bottom.
I removed the stage 2 and did some tweaking with a 3lb sledgehammer on the flanges upper and lower where it bolts into the side of bumper. And I tweaked the end 8"-12" of the wing so it would fit into wheel well better. Bolted it back up, the reveal is now even, but it's 1/8" gap. I'm planning on welding everything up so that's not an issue. The gap along the plastic is nice. Both sides are Looking Good.


Next time I work on it, we'll double check everything, see if we can remove complete assembled bumper from truck. If that works we'll be welding the stage 2 kit to the bumper and welding the seams on the face. Than reinstall the Warn winch into the bumper and reinstall full bumper into the truck. If everything works as planned than it's time to remove it, sand and prime and paint with rustolium bed liner paint to match my sliders. Or have it sand blasted and re powder painted.
One step at a time.
Hope this helps some of you guys looking to tackle this project.
If you don't mind an 1/8" gap here or there, than you might just be able bolt it up using a few shims, but I'm wanting to make this look as close to factory as possible. Be Blessed.