OEM Rear Bumper Swap and Restoration

I decided to do a bumper swap with my dad's Tacoma. Both Trucks are 2006 TRD Off Road's

The plan was to take off his chrome bumper and replace it with my chrome bumper. Well it didn't go quite as planned....Here's a few pictures of the experience so far.

Here is the bumper I removed from my dad's Truck.


Frame was replaced in 2017 by the previous owner. All the bolts that where in the frame all came out. The others bolts into the bumper bar only came out just enough to get the bumper off. I got really lucky if you ask me.

Here is his truck without the hitch and bumper


The frame where the rusty bumper was held on.



I got the chrome bumper off my truck.



Broke 8 out of 10 bolts doing it...Doh!


I found a good used bumper from a fellow TW member. Shout out to RedTaco2007, Thanks Joe! I bought his used Black Bumper, Bumper bar and Hitch Combo....Got them apart no problems.

I'm gonna put the black one on my truck. The hitch and chrome bumper go on my dads.



I've got my work cut out. I'm planning to sand and wire wheel the rust off, primer and paint these parts. I need to drill out the broke screws from my rear bumper bar. I've drilled out broken bolts before and got lucky not to mess up the threads too bad. I'm not sure if my luck will hold out. I'm planning to keep on using the PBLaster Penetrating Oil while I drill. Is that a bad idea?

I'd love to hear what you guys think, I'd love some advice going forward.

Should I use Anti-Seize on the reassembly?

Should I plan to take it apart every few years to treat for rust?

Or is this it, most likely my last chance because rust is just gonna seize everything eventually?
I'm not planning to attempt to remove the hitch from my truck for this reason. It seems like a losing war to try to fight it too hard but I'd like to make these trucks last as long as I can.

Anyway...I don't know what I don't know so fire away if you can think of things I should know.

Thanks and Enjoy.

 

I also picked up a free black bumper and pulled it all apart/stripped it all down every bolt out and then sanded it down.
Painted 2 coats of Rust Reformer then 2 coats satin Rustoleum so far. Brushed all bolts and painted them too.
You should do the same and the outer cover triangular braces need to be done. The 2 corner plastic cover bolts were trash so got carriage bolts that should slide into the plastic grooves and work (have not assembled yet).
Was thinking of bed liner as top coat but decided it will be easy to just touch up scrapes with the satin. Clean and sand all the frame rust before you put it back on.

You can paint the back of the chrome one too after sanding.

Anti-seize is a big mess. After all the painting I would never take it off again just touch up the rust as required while on.
Good luck it was a lot of work and I still have to pull my other one off and then clean up the receiver hitch.
I'm waiting till after my summer trip out west to UT and CO as will beat the old one some more first!

 

These parts are usually max $150. They can be chrome but do not have to be.
You can look into legitimate steel bumpers for $600+ that are better

If you're set on chrome stock, painted, or unpainted, they can be found new, or used, in better condition than that
without having to waste labor hours time for nothing
I say that because that rust looks like it could be deep enough to make the bumper weaker, which is already thin weak flimsy metal to begin with. It's your decision if you want to try slapping some POR-15 or something on there, or a rust converter, and getting creative on how to quickly remove any old rust. I'd probably try a needle scaler. I bet it'll be loud.

I would not remove a bumper to de-rust, for the sake of de-rusting a $100 bumper and valuing it more than the truck. I'd coat in corrosion protection and wash it.

then when someone inevitably backs into you or something in a parking lot, they can buy you a high clearance

 

Rockauto has aftermarket bumpers fairly cheap. Defiantly use anti seize putting it back together.
Your frame looks like it needs fluid film. That's alot of rust on a 6 year old frame.

 

Anti seize any bolts that you might want/need to remove in the future.

 

It's a Michigan truck so yeah the frame is worse off for it. It's too bad the previous owner let it rust so bad. I knew that the hitch was close to the "never coming off" point. I'm hoping after this swap I can maintain it a bit better. The old one was completely unusable. It might be now or never for the aftermarket bumper and I can't afford it right now. So it goes...

Looks like I'm gonna have to do some work on the 7 way too. Im having trouble finding a video that shows how this harness comes off. I seen an after market harness that's plug and play but they what $276 before taxes and shipping. Yikes. I might go the de pinning route instead.

Is there a good video that shows how to get this harness off? Thanks

 

^I'd be looking for replacements on Amazon or something closer to $30 to install

 

When it is disassembled and completely apart (hitch, frame, side mounting components, bumper: everything: like it never had a hitch on it in the first place.) Grind, prime and paint every surface with two coats of each and then coat them all by hand with chassis grease or even wheel-bearing grease. Don't over-do on the heavy grease. Re-assemble it and Fulid-Film everything. Pay special attention to the hitch, and the inside surface of the bumper: chrome or painted. Go ridiculous on the coating there before you re-install it. They are thin like toilet-paper and rust through again in no time. Be especially meticulous with the hitch itself: every spring mine has new flaky rust under the paint I applied. Every vehicle I have had with a hitch had this problem. You can't go crazy with coatings on some of it because it exposed and it will be mess if you tow. I scrape and re-paint it every spring and fall and there is always several spots that have to be addressed.