As I mentioned, I'm headed out to the mountains today but I am awake and thought I would post up some pics of the CBI.
20120628-IMG_2035 by
RickaShay24, on Flickr
20120628-IMG_2037 by
RickaShay24, on Flickr
Bumper/body clearance:
20120628-IMG_2038 by
RickaShay24, on Flickr
Slightly more gap on the back end, but I have not shimmed the bumper at all with washers. I honestly don't think I will either as you don't even notice the slight difference in spacing in person.
I also wanted to try and eliminate my rear tire rub. Now that the CBI is cut back farther than the stock bumper, I should not rub in the exact location. However, I didn't like how the pinch welds stuck out farther than the CBI, so I trimmed them down:
20120628-IMG_2033 by
RickaShay24, on Flickr
Here you can see the piece I trimmed off. Unfortunately despite me checking and re-checking, I cut a little too far and ended up with a small hole leading into the body where the two pinch welds met. About the size of a dime. Next time I need some welding done I am simply going to get the welder to throw a bead on the edge of the pinch weld I trimmed, filling the hole and sealing up the trimmed pinch weld. For a temp. fix I primed the bare sheet metal and filled the hole with some black gasket maker to avoid moisture entering the body. Here is the end result from the side, nice and flush:
20120628-IMG_2034 by
RickaShay24, on Flickr
I'm kinda bummed about the hole but I should have triple checked for clearance and I think I will be happy with the "mod" once I get it welded shut. No rear tire rub should be nice.
CBI: So I thought I would post my own personal review of my experience with CBI. After hearing of their mounting issues and seeing what BFAD went through with his bumper, I was honestly a little apprehensive about the whole purchase. I do think that the negative feedback on these forums is bad for business on a large scale, and I was really happy when I saw CBI trying to reach out and contact all their bumper owners, trying to find a solution to their issue.
Customer Service: Throughout my experience with them, Nathan was extremely responsive to all of my emails and answered all my questions very promptly. The bumper took a little longer than I initially had hoped, but CBI did not jerk me around, they kept me updated on when the bumper would go out and told me after about a week that it would be delayed. I think I waited 6 or 7 weeks from order date until it was delivered to my US address. I also made some minor changes to the lower tube design and I was sent a photo of the changes they had made to my bumper, before it was shipped, so I could make sure it was how I wanted it. Nathan had seen a couple of my posts regarding how worried I was with bumper fitment on this forum and PM'd me, assuring me that it would fit and that they would remedy it if something was not correct. After the bumper was sent, I was sent an email asking how the purchase had gone, like "what are your initial impressions, how was the customer service..." which I think is a great way to try and get feedback from the end-user. I still need to send that back their way.
Bumper fitment: Nathan had assured me that they were aware of their fitment issues and had found a way to resolve them. Whatever they did worked as my bumper bolted up flawlessly. All of the mounting holes lined up and it simply bolted on. I adjusted it along the 4sliding mounting points (2 per side) to make sure that the bumper was on as square as possible, then bolted the whole thing up after drilling my frame holes. I honestly don't think it could have fit any nicer knowing the inconsistencies between all of our 4Runners.
In MY experience I would not hesitate to deal with CBI again in the future
And another update: It seems that I just bought a local ARB bumper for $100. Can you say, "score"? It's in pretty rough shape but I figured for that price I couldn't say no. Plus, that leaves me some money in my budget to "chop" the thing up and make it unique before I sand-blast it and powdercoat. Blcktpgsr is going to be choked when I copy his modded ARB bumper.... haha I'm going to try and make some subtle changes but his is so close to what I want that I can't promise I can be completely original.
Stay Tuned.
