All pro Apex front bumper and sway bar

Picked up an unused, still wrapped, powder coated all pro apex front bumper for $600. Felt like I had to buy it for that price. Sat in my garage for a couple months and tried to install today. Mostly straight forward, but from what at instructions and other forums that I read, I see nothing about having to remove the front sway bar to install the lower “valance.” But that’s how the holes line up, so I just went for it. The top “main” part of the bumper bolted right on to the 6 studs that the stock bumper was on, so that part is fine.

I started to take off the sway bar, got one of the 4 bolts out, and it just started to spin. Not coming out, won’t go in. So I’m assuming that there was a welded nut inside the frame that broke. Now I don’t want to take the other three off because I want to keep sway bar on.

Questions - those 6 studs are enough to support the bumper, correct?

how else can I access this nut on the inside of the frame?

are all 4 of the bolts that hold the sway bar on similar, and going to do the same thing when I pull them out?

I feel like I could run it this way without issue, but I do want to add a skid soon and might as well add this lower part too.

thanks in advance for any input

 

Yeah maybe. You have a lot of rust that looks pretty bad. I would recommend spraying some PB Blaster on all of that for a few days before attempting to remove any more bolts.

 

So to answer your questions. You truck looks to have a good bit of rust so its safe to assume the nut on the backside did break loose. Happened on my skid plate bolts. The fix for me was to drill out the hole and weld a new nut on there. The lower valence part does require the sway bar portion. Now it would be fine to run the bumper on street probably with just the upper bumper but i would winch from it or anything without the lower part. Id take the swaybar off for now since the bolt holding one side in it jacked up. One of my holes was stripped when i had this bumper and i just removed swaybar all together and never looked back lol. Hope this helps.

 

Are you looking to sell your lower valance? I would buy it from you.

 

Nah I’m all set. Ended up welding a bolt in that faces down out of the frame. Then just put a nut on that.

 

Just installing mine. I ended up contacting the company and they sold me the lower valance for a great price. The instructions on their website are tough to follow. You have to take off both brackets that hold the stock skidplate/ plastic bumper on. I almost removed my sway bar too, was fighting it forever. I think I need to grind down the edges of the front frame where you remove the end plugs. Trial and error I guess. Not really any other info regarding installation of this bumper. I might have to do a write when I’m done

Also what kind of gap do you have at the top where the bumper meets the fender flare? I have about a half inch maybe more

 

I had to remove my stock skid, and the sway bar brackets to install the bumper with the lower valance - I'm not sure how you would do so without doing so. I ended up just removing the sway bar when I installed my lift. I didn't have to do any sort of grinding on the frame, and I don't think that you should have to. My gap where between the fender and the bumper is quarter inch or less. All lined up pretty good.

And yes, the provided instructions were a joke.

If you are on stock suspension, you may want to consider putting in some sturdier springs. I destroyed my front tires fairly quickly after adding the bumper and did a lot of bouncing when I hit bumps. Added and Ironman lift and it rides so much better now.