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Here we go! XLT bumper off:  Teaser pic:  ...and installed!    Green was the right choice. Looks awesome! Started putting all the extra bits on the bumper this morning  One of the bumper brackets was bent from the deer strike (which i straightened), but i wasnt expecting the brackets for the lightbar to be bent too  all parts, lights & wiring installed, so as long as its not raining tomorrow the bumper swap begins again!  So this summer i built a 'scale' version of the wifey's one-ton bronco, complete with leaf springs front & rear   Meanwhile, in real truck world....i kinda miss my SD bumper  ...which got mangled by a deer last year  Finally got my hands on another one, this timer primer black  Trimming for tire clearance   This time im gonna try my hand at painting it. Never sprayed a metallic color before. Lets gooooo   ....and, i screwed it up.  sanding....  and round two!  This time it came out better. First time i used the wrong reducer, and the wrong amount. Lessons learned, this one isnt perfect either but now i know what to do next time. 3rd times the charm! Visiting family this weekend, so next week i will assemble all the trim, brackets, lights, etc and get the bumper installed on the bronco. Sigh....that didnt last long...  Hit a deer last night on the freeway on my way to work. Cruise set at 70, no time to react. Knocked her over, and ran right over it. Coworkers said i splattered that deer all over the highway! Bumper is wrecked, lower valance dented and it pulls to the right.  valance dented  No time to waste. Yanked bumper off. Good thing i made the wiring harness for the lights modular  One of the LED foglight brackets broke; LED lightbar made it out unscathed  Bumper adapter bracket bent:  Bumper mount bent:  draglink bent up when the deer went under the truck  I used a winch to straighten the tierod  ...and a winch + torch to straighten the bumper bracket  Took it for a test drive to the carwash to wash the blood and fur off the undercarriage (its everywhere- i even have fur on my motor mounts!) and it drives straight down the road again, so i dug out the original bumper and slapped it back on   At least it drives straight and looks ok, but im going to need to fix that valance at some point.  Bumper's installed, now weve got to wire it up. First up, i found the pigtails for the OEM fog lights  I built a harness using them for both fog lights, plus a deutsch connector for the lightbar  This pic shows how tight the bumper & fog light is to the body, how i trimmed the fog light bracket for tire clearance, and the harness itself, safely tucked up out of harms way  ...and the tie-in for the light bar. I reused some old OEM wire keepers to keep the harness tucked up nice and tight  i bought a small 2-relay fuse box from Amazon  ...that i mounted here in some free space next to the battery  Im using 4 of the fuses. One for switch power, 2 for the two relays, and a 4th that i wired up now, but will be used for a future project. For control wiring, i found these cool flange connectors from deutsch that im using to pass power back & forth thru the firewall  From the firewall (under the dash) the wiring comes to this plug  which plugs into this 2-gang switch panel using a a pair of Carling Contura V switches  cut a hole in the dash to make some room...  ...and the switches are installed!  ...from the driver seat  ...and the completed project!     So i picked up this bumper off of a 2020 Superduty, probably a year ago now. Its been sitting in the shed taking up space. Well no more! We're going to get it installed on the 96 Bronco.  Since i dont have a diesel, ive removed the center air dam in favor of a lightbar  We're using these adapter brackets from Complete Performance, which basically make the bumper bolt onto the truck  Step one, get the old bumper off!  We have to trim the body a little bit to clear the bumper. Before:  ...and after:  Because im running a 35" tire with only a 2.5" lift, the corner of the bumper needs trimmed as well as part of the plastic bracket for the LED fog light needs to be trimmed. This is before:  ...and after:  both sides trimmed, brackets installed fog lights installed and ready to go on the bronco  ...and installed!  Next up: Wiring up the lights |