I think you guys need to see things from both sides. I will say up front I don't own anything from CBI so I have no personal experience to share. I will also say that I have fabbed up over 50 custom bumpers in the last 15 years both personally and professionally for a few different shops in San Diego.
There are a lot of things that go into making a bumper that you guys might not know. The biggest thing is that all cars are not created equally. Every single car is different. I don't care if you have 2 identical year/model vehicles, 2 1999 limited 4runners for example. There are differences between each of them, not always in the same places either. They have stations on the assembly line specifically to address the differences from the manufacturing process where they litterely have hammers and chisles and other tools they use to persuade things into place. Then number two, these are not new cars. They have been on the road for a while now and I would take a guess that the average 4runner have around 150K miles or more on it. The frames on all cars are designed to flex and move based off of the hell we give our cars so there is a high chance that every 4runner out there has had things move around a little bit.
So with that in mind, when you design and build a bumper off one car, there is no garuntee it will bolt up the same on the next 10 cars you put it on. Each has it's own story and differences and things aren't always perfect. That is the hardest part when you mass produce something as riggid as a 3/16" plate bumper which is designed to not flex at all (thats why plate is used vs tube, it doens't flex as much). So when you design something like this for mass production that is why you have larger holes than required and slotted holes for adjustment so that things can be slightly adjusted to fit each specific vehicle. CBI does this, you can see it in the pictures, so that is one thing they do right and that is their attempt to give you the adjustment you need to get it on there correctly.
Now that said, I am not backing them either. You can see in some of BFAD pictures that some holes are just completely miss placed. For example one of them is slotted in one diirection to give you forward and backward adjustment, but the hole is placed off to the side too much to line up with the frame. This is just poor quality assurance on their part, and they are not making sure the parts are being bent corectly, which gives them the poor placement of the hole. In my personal opinion it is not a case of poor design, but they are not checking the quality of their parts as they are mass produced, which leads to this poor placement.
With all of that said, no bumper will ever be perfect from any manufacture. I am sure there are people out there that bought ARB bumpers that didn't line up too, and ARB has a great reputation. Expect that your 4runner will have it's own variences, and build that into your expectations when you go to do the install. The real question I would be asking myself if buying a bumper from one of the many companies is who is going to fix my problem the first time? IF I am the un-fortunate person who gets something that just doens't fit like it should, will it get resolved quickly and properly? Will I be treated like a valued customer, or someone they view as a nuisance? ARB doesn't have the reputation they have from never sending out a dud, but because they fix the problems quickly, and treat you with respect. I bet BFAD would have a different opinion of CBI if he was treated right, all his concerns addressed, and been able to get a good response from them every time he had a concern. They attempted to help him, but didn't take it serious, treated him like he was the problem istead of the bumper, and you can see what happened... If I was in the market for a bumper that is what I would be looking for, they can all fab, but who is going to take care of me!!!
