Last Sept or so, I somehow found (through Craigslist?) a Fishbone Piranha Rear Bumper that was never used for $120. I looked it up and found that Fishbone is within 20 miles of where I live and that bumper was priced over $250. Well for 50+% off how could I resist replacing my stock bumper? The Piranha bumper may not be the best but seems considerably tougher than the stock bumper and should handle my off roading. While installing it back in November, I found the black textured powder coat to be pretty brittle. I think it may fail a pellet gun test. For the $120 price I'm not too worried about that.
Bumper installed:
Chipped paint on corner while installing. I hit it with some quick spray can black because it was bare metal. Maybe they didn't bother with primer, who knows?
Earlier this year I looked around the interwebs for frame tie-ins. I saw various brands for various prices but happened to find someone on Amazon (in California, IIRC) selling Fishbone frame tie-ins. Free shipping and with tax they were about $54.00.
With the nice weather yesterday, and some spare time I decided to put them on. On the driver side I tightened the bolts to the frame not quite finger tight. Then I made sure the bumper bolt holes lined up. Everything looked good so I loosened up the frame bolts so I had room to brush on my favorite, Fluid Film, before tightening them up. Next I started the bumper bolts, then slightly tightened the frame bolts. When tightening the bumper bolts I noticed that there was a gap of about 1/8 inch between the tie-in and the crossmember. Oops I need to slide that back. Loosened the frame bolts but it wouldn't move back, it was already back. With too much F-F blocking my view it took a while before I realized that tie-in isn't square.
The other tie-in ain't quite as bad but still I ask, WTF?
At this point I'm not too happy. I know they were made in HELL (china) which is something I tend to avoid and I should have known they could screw this up like anything else but I figured at least some of my $54.00 would end up coming back local even if some of it stayed in HELL USA (california). The worst part may be that the box they were in and any paperwork they came with is long gone so I figure a return probably isn't possible.
My son says I should just fill the gaps with some washers and not worry about it. That might make sense... IF I had some washers that were two different perfectly angle shaped wedges. WTF? Did I say that? It makes no F-in sense and "I'm not too happy" is a F-in understatement!!
Anyway, when I was going to post about this last night I figured I better just have a beer, or two, and try to think of something else. I did find Zorba's Rear bumper bolt replacement? thread mentioning his "Frame tie-in from Next Venture on order". I wish I would have found those Made in the USA!!! Next Venture tie-ins back in January. For $10 more plus whatever shipping would be I could be posting on this rainy morning about my (probably) better Next Venture tie-in experience instead of considering another beer while posting this.
Of course I got questions:
Are there any tie-ins that are square?
What kind of tolerance, if any, might be used? Even +/-1 degree (.017" per inch) has both of mine out.
Maybe my expectation of frame tie-ins being square is considered some type of a disorder.
Does giving a F*** about quality put me in a small group?
Bumper installed:
Chipped paint on corner while installing. I hit it with some quick spray can black because it was bare metal. Maybe they didn't bother with primer, who knows?
Earlier this year I looked around the interwebs for frame tie-ins. I saw various brands for various prices but happened to find someone on Amazon (in California, IIRC) selling Fishbone frame tie-ins. Free shipping and with tax they were about $54.00.
With the nice weather yesterday, and some spare time I decided to put them on. On the driver side I tightened the bolts to the frame not quite finger tight. Then I made sure the bumper bolt holes lined up. Everything looked good so I loosened up the frame bolts so I had room to brush on my favorite, Fluid Film, before tightening them up. Next I started the bumper bolts, then slightly tightened the frame bolts. When tightening the bumper bolts I noticed that there was a gap of about 1/8 inch between the tie-in and the crossmember. Oops I need to slide that back. Loosened the frame bolts but it wouldn't move back, it was already back. With too much F-F blocking my view it took a while before I realized that tie-in isn't square.
The other tie-in ain't quite as bad but still I ask, WTF?
At this point I'm not too happy. I know they were made in HELL (china) which is something I tend to avoid and I should have known they could screw this up like anything else but I figured at least some of my $54.00 would end up coming back local even if some of it stayed in HELL USA (california). The worst part may be that the box they were in and any paperwork they came with is long gone so I figure a return probably isn't possible.
My son says I should just fill the gaps with some washers and not worry about it. That might make sense... IF I had some washers that were two different perfectly angle shaped wedges. WTF? Did I say that? It makes no F-in sense and "I'm not too happy" is a F-in understatement!!
Anyway, when I was going to post about this last night I figured I better just have a beer, or two, and try to think of something else. I did find Zorba's Rear bumper bolt replacement? thread mentioning his "Frame tie-in from Next Venture on order". I wish I would have found those Made in the USA!!! Next Venture tie-ins back in January. For $10 more plus whatever shipping would be I could be posting on this rainy morning about my (probably) better Next Venture tie-in experience instead of considering another beer while posting this.
Of course I got questions:
Are there any tie-ins that are square?
What kind of tolerance, if any, might be used? Even +/-1 degree (.017" per inch) has both of mine out.
Maybe my expectation of frame tie-ins being square is considered some type of a disorder.
Does giving a F*** about quality put me in a small group?
