So I decided to have my bumper valences actually painted at a body shop rather than having them plasti-dipped since it's a lot of work to keep plasti-dip looking good in an off-road rig.
The rear valence was replaced and painted black during my body shop repair a couple weeks ago (
thread here). I really liked the way it turned out so I decided to pull the front valence off and have it painted as well.
I have never done a "write-up" before but I have used hundreds of them in the years I have been working on cars. Since I couldn't find a "removing the front bumper" write-up that had working, active pictures I decided to make one. So here it is and let me know if I should add/remove/change anything since this is my first.
So first thing is to open the hood and remove the radiator top cover. There are 13 pop retainers that hold this piece on. Just push down on the center and then they are loose and ready to be removed. I pop all 13 and then pull up on the cover to remove the retainers.
Now you need to remove two retainers and a 10mm bolt seen here. For these clips you need to raise the center portion rather than pushing it down. I use a small blade screwdriver to pop it up and then they can be pulled out.
Now with those three things removed you can remove the top grill from the lower IF you want to or have a need to. It is not necessary to separate the two pieces unless you have a specific need to do so. If you do want to separate them though there are eight slide-in clips that hold the two grill pieces together. These were pretty hard to separate on mine so I wouldn't do so unless you needed to.
There are then four more retainers holding the upper portion of the lower bumper to the frame. They are the type you have to raise the center portion to remove
Next you use a 10mm wrench or socket to remove the three screws in each wheel well as seen here
Now you need to crawl under the front bumper and you will see there are six bolts/screws holding the bumper on. This picture is looking towards the drivers side and you can see three of the bolts/screws. They are the exact same on the passenger side. Again they are all 10mm
The bumper is now loose and can be pulled off but keep in mind that on each side where it meets the fender, you need to pull out rather than pulling the entire bumper forward. So start on each side and pull the bumper out towards the sides to get it free before pulling the entire bumper off the truck. Here you can see the ledge that the bumper sits on, on each side of the truck
When pulling the bumper to the sides, another thing to keep in mind is the top wheel well screw, screws into a protrusion that the bumper sits around. So you need to lift the bumper over this protrusion to be able to pull the bumper out to the sides. You can see the protrusion here
With the sides of the bumper pulled out, you can now pull the entire bumper forward and it will come off the vehicle. However, the bumper will only hang as the fog light wiring is still attached. They are simple snap connectors that you need to remove to get the bumper fully removed
Now you have the bumper completely off the vehicle
If you also want to remove the front valence from the bumper, there are 13 retainer clips holding it onto the bumper. You just need to depress the clip and slide each one out the to side as you can see
And this is what my truck will look like for the week while the valence is being painted
Hopefully this helps others
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2015 Trail Edition. Toytec Ultimate Lift, LR UCA's, Goodyear Duratrac 285/70R17's, SpiderTrax 1.25" Spacers, Eezi-Awn K9 2.2M Rack, StormRunner Rock Sliders, RCI Aluminum Skids, TredPro Traction Boards