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Steve St.Laurent
Staff Alumni
Front Buckstop bumper, PIAA lights, new grill, Skyjacker coils installed
I got my bumpers back from the powder coat shop. They charged me $250 to custom paint both bumpers, grill guard, door for the front bumper, 5 brackets, 8 bolts (for the rear bumper), skyjacker coils. Spent the day at LSFARM's house yesterday installing everything with Greg and Rob Thomas's help (that bumper is HEAVY).
The front bumper went on easily (other than the weight) - everything bolted right up. It's a very impressive piece of equipment and I love the look. The mounting brackets are very heavy duty and bolt right up to existing holes in the frame (six 1/2 inch bolts on each bracket). Rob helped me with welding 4 small bolts around the openings in the bumpers so that I could install the stull bumper inserts (stainless mesh) so that rocks don't hit the intercooler. I still have to install the tow hooks and front license plate bracket too. I'm going to try to get the rear bumper installed tonight - ran out of time.
The grill was a pain to install because of the stainless stull grill inserts. They make it into a jigsaw puzzle because you have to put it together in just the right order to get it all to fit. But I think it was worth it because it really looks great. Once the rear bumper is off the only chrome I'll have left on the truck is the nerf bars.
The skyjacker springs (2. 5") were a very easy install with the use of Greg's hoist
! Took us about an hour to get both of them installed. The truck finally sits level and I didn't even have to recenter the steering wheel. It even rides better now although part of that may be the extra 150 lbs sitting on the front end. I don't know why I waited so long to install the lift springs!
The PIAA fog lamps (540 Plasma Ions) work awesome too. I used the PIAA wiring harness and instead of using their switch just soldered those wires to the stock fog lamp harness so I could use the factory switch. It's kind of hard to explain but theres a "bubble" of light in front of the truck from right in front of it out to about 100 feet and about 20 feet on either side of the truck (lights up the trees, road signs, etc on the side of the road). They are bright enough and fill enough road that I could easily drive at night with the fogs on only. In a 2 hour drive I got flashed once for having my brights on and that could be my headlights because I didn't reaim them after lifting the front end.
Here's a couple of pics and I'll follow up with more later:
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I got my bumpers back from the powder coat shop. They charged me $250 to custom paint both bumpers, grill guard, door for the front bumper, 5 brackets, 8 bolts (for the rear bumper), skyjacker coils. Spent the day at LSFARM's house yesterday installing everything with Greg and Rob Thomas's help (that bumper is HEAVY).
The front bumper went on easily (other than the weight) - everything bolted right up. It's a very impressive piece of equipment and I love the look. The mounting brackets are very heavy duty and bolt right up to existing holes in the frame (six 1/2 inch bolts on each bracket). Rob helped me with welding 4 small bolts around the openings in the bumpers so that I could install the stull bumper inserts (stainless mesh) so that rocks don't hit the intercooler. I still have to install the tow hooks and front license plate bracket too. I'm going to try to get the rear bumper installed tonight - ran out of time.
The grill was a pain to install because of the stainless stull grill inserts. They make it into a jigsaw puzzle because you have to put it together in just the right order to get it all to fit. But I think it was worth it because it really looks great. Once the rear bumper is off the only chrome I'll have left on the truck is the nerf bars.
The skyjacker springs (2. 5") were a very easy install with the use of Greg's hoist
! Took us about an hour to get both of them installed. The truck finally sits level and I didn't even have to recenter the steering wheel. It even rides better now although part of that may be the extra 150 lbs sitting on the front end. I don't know why I waited so long to install the lift springs!The PIAA fog lamps (540 Plasma Ions) work awesome too. I used the PIAA wiring harness and instead of using their switch just soldered those wires to the stock fog lamp harness so I could use the factory switch. It's kind of hard to explain but theres a "bubble" of light in front of the truck from right in front of it out to about 100 feet and about 20 feet on either side of the truck (lights up the trees, road signs, etc on the side of the road). They are bright enough and fill enough road that I could easily drive at night with the fogs on only. In a 2 hour drive I got flashed once for having my brights on and that could be my headlights because I didn't reaim them after lifting the front end.
Here's a couple of pics and I'll follow up with more later:
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. The Buckstop rear bumper is also a cover and you have to reuse the frame. While beefier than the stock cover (it weighs more than the frame and bumper together) I don't think it would hold up well in an accident. In all fairness to Buckstop they told me that it was cosmetic only and wasn't meant for protection. I will probably pull it back off this summer and make a better frame for it to offer more protection. Here's a couple of pictures of the actual bumper that's under the cover once removed from it and on the truck:
