Ty I've tightened all the bolts

Awesome bro. Hope they help you out. Mark seems like a real nice guy.

Also your truck seems less rusty than mine haha.

my buddies and I removed OEM bumper and installed Shrockworks with the swing out and it took us about 5 or 6 hours. looks exactly like your does. that gap is for flex purposes. even says to paid the plastic piece since you will be able to see it with the gap. i had poly body bushings installed all around after and i think you got a good deal as they can be a real pain. looks nice.

Mark is a real nice guy. He was helpful in trying to resolve my bolt issue.

Less rusty...well, not sure When I started this bumper install, it has taken a month, mostly because I typically take extra time to look at everything as I remove things, like clean things up. My underside did look a bit better than yours, but I still had some rust. Looks better now though.

The below pictures are what I got done this weekend. Not without some frustration though. Seems I didn't have any mounting hardware for the tire, which is why you don't see it. I wasted time a Home Depot / Lowes trying to find hardware, with no luck. Where did I find hardware? Amazon. Found in minutes and all I needed without me having to hunt for everything that I should have with the hardware $40 spent in minutes, unlike the 1.5 hours I wasted driving around and looking. Additionally, it seems I was not sent some cabling needed for the license plate relocation.

Attached Images

   

Here are a few pics of my bumper installed, your gaps look about the same as mine. I like those dual fuel cans!

It's more difficult to see my gaps, but seems our gaps are the same, so that is a good thing! Your rig looks great! How's the awning on the driver side?

Here's a picture of the tire finally mounted. Although admittedly, I am disappointed with Shrockworks. I contacted Mark about the fact that if I was supposed to receive a wiring kit to extend the license plate wiring out to the new location, it did not come with that wiring / lighting. Additionally, I had to spend another ~$30 for hardware to mount the tire holder because there weren't enough bolts, nuts and washers for that.

Attached Images

 

Thanks! I really like the awning on the drivers side. I chose to put it there to help offset some of the spare's weight on the passenger side.

The stock bumper mounts to the body, not the frame, which is why it can tuck in much more closely to the sheetmetal and have small gaps.

Aftermarket bumpers need to be a lot stronger - so they bolt to the frame, which wiggles around vs. the body since they are separated by rubber mounts.

After I got my 4XI rear bumper on, I could see the rear-mounted spare wiggling around a bit. After looking a bit more closely, I was able to see that the swingarm the spare mounts to wasn't wiggling, nor was the bumper itself, it was the rear section of the frame. So I swapped to some poly mounts back there, which are considerably stiffer. This allows the body to help support the frame. Which is perhaps conceptually a bit backward, but whatever, it works. Hah.

I just posted on another thread because after I got everything mounted for the rear bumper and went on a camping trip this past weekend, I noticed a much more obvious body sway on the freeway with all the added weight. Many people mentioned in that thread to swap with poly mounts, among other things. I guess I will being doing that.

Any links to the poly mounts you used?

It was these: 1996-2002 4Runner Rear Polyurethane Body Mounts (Pair) - $82.90 : Sonoran Steel Fabrication LLC, Toyota Truck Parts

In your situation, I'd suspect people are telling you to try poly rear axle bushings? I don't think the rear body mounts would make enough motion to ever detect while driving. It was just a sort of quiver/wiggle from the spare tire, visible through the rear window.

Thanks! Sonoran Steel seems like they have some really great quality hardware. I will have to order my upgrades from them.

Yes, they are talking about suspension components, not the body mounts / bushings. I plan on replacing all of them, but wanted to resolve this issue first. I appreciate the advice.