The rear bumper wasn't going to work for what I had in mind so I decided to sell it and start over.
I wanted as much ground clearance as possible without cutting the sheet metal so the tailgate had to go.
I have always hated the electric rear window on these, they freeze shut in the winter and weigh a ton, I liked the idea of cutting the top down to resemble a 4 door pick up, so losing the back window was not a big deal. I didn't want to do a pick up tailgate conversion, it just looks like too much work to make it look really good.
I decided to modified one of our Tacoma bumpers to fit around the outside of the rear body panels and tuck up close to the pinch weld on the corners.
The swing away is now the tailgate, it doesn't close it off completely, but I mainly use it for ice chests, camping gear, so on..larger things that won't slip through the cracks. I have plans to add a few more things to make it more secure.
I felt like the factory bumper mounting wasn't going to be near enough for the load I was putting on the swing away. I went with a two piece mounting that ties back into the xmember, so far this has worked great! the swing away is solid as a rock.
I didn't take many pics while building.
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