This is part 1 - Thanks to JohnandMandi, and before them Rallypanam, and before them who knows, I recently got a Ruenel front and rear bumper and an Aluminess spare tire rack. They were rode hard and put up wet, as we say around these parts, and my wife sorta scratched her head at my idea to put these on the van. She wasn't a fan of the polished diamond plate tops, but I told her I would fix that. As John and Mandi can attest to, the biggest fun was me, them and 2 other guys, BIG guys, getting 600 lbs. worth of steel and aluminum in to my tiny BMW wagon, but I'm a glutton for punishment. I also made a 20 hour one-day trip to get them from TN to Florida and back. Like I said, glutton for punishment. The price was right of course.
front bumper before:
I was planning to just spray the tread plate with bed liner and make the whole bumpers smooth black, but I decided any weight removed from these would help so I un-riveted the tread plate and filled the holes with body filler instead.
Then I used lots of energy, sandpaper, filler primer, etc. etc. on them, then finally got them masked off and bedliner sprayed.
I went with the same matte black that I've done all my trim with. It matches Aluminess and Bushwacker black perfectly.
There never seems to be anyone home when I get myself into predicaments like needing to lift a 400# bumper, so it spawns creativity.
After it fell off this apparatus once I managed to get the winch mounted inside. Winch mounting is not a quick 4 bolt process if it's going inside a bumper. It took a little fabrication to get the control box to an accessible location and the damn bolts they send you just aren't easy to get where they need to go. Alas.......I won. Next, drive the jack carefully up to the van.
I'm thrilled with the finished product but I don't have my lights working yet. I'm headed to the woods this weekend. Perhaps I can use all this new steel. Watch out Bambi!
My Curt front reciever still fits fine under there. Nice since my Reunel didn't have a front receiver already.
to be continued. The rear is going to take a little more work.