Installing 2005-2015 Toyota Tacoma Rear BumperShellz
Installation Manual PDF (printer friendly)

installation_manual_-_bumpershellz_-_tacoma_2005-15_013117.pdf |
Installation Video Demonstration (with transcript)
Hi my name is Darren Evans from ecological if you're looking for a way to easily and inexpensively restyle your pickup truck by restyling the standard equipment bumper you're watching the right video today.
We're going to talk about how to install bumper shells which are high impact ABS formed covers for your truck bumper these are great not only for adding maybe a different color not to your truck you know cover up the chrome they're great for maybe covering a little bit of damage that may be existing on your bumper damage by dents dings rust whatever or even just to protect your bumper from road debris and salt snow you know you know the drill.
I'm going to show you today just how easy they are to install you need just a few very simple tools to accomplish this task first thing you're gonna need to do is make sure that your bumper is nice and clean and dry that's because we need to make sure that there's a good surface to adhere the 3M adhesive tape that's on the backside of your bumper shells to make sure that your your bumper shells are nice and secure so first thing that we're gonna do is just clean up this bumper a little bit and then we'll be right back okay now that I've got the bumper nice and clean and dry what we need to do is take off a few of the pieces of trim that being the license plate lights the license plate and this Center step pad trim luckily we've designed the bumper shells so that you shouldn't have to remove the upper step pad trim you'll see why in a moment so like I said easily take off the license plate lamps by just unscrewing the Phillips screw pulling the housing out and then you'll see that the lamp housing just needs to be twisted relative to the outside housing comes off easy set those aside and then maybe just tuck these in so you can grab those later the next thing is we'll remove the license plate easy enough and now to remove this Center step pad trim you'll need to just gently pry off these little square covers that I use a just a flat head screwdriver they once you get an edge underneath I should be easy just to pop up just be careful you don't damage them now this is retained two ways one is by some what are called like pushpin clips from the top and then from the bottom there are ten millimeter screws that we'll have to take out now these pushpins you need to kind of pry up the top cap and then pry them out like that they don't always come out that easy there is a chance you could damage them getting them out but they're very inexpensive just pick up a new set at your local auto parts store look at the next one out and you pry up the center part and then pull the housing out I'll remove two screws underneath then just with your ten millimeter socket there's two now I want to remove the trim you just need to kind of flex it up a little bit should come right off just like that your bumper shells are constrained to your bumper in by two primary means the first is this flange there's a flange around the top here that will basically tuck under this existing step pad trim and then additional constraint is by a high-strength adhesive acrylic foam tape now these are pressure-sensitive tapes so they won't be extremely sticky to the touch to begin with but once you put pressure on them and that's important to get good adhesion to put a lot of pressure on those taped areas to make sure that they fully adhere to your bumper you might need a little tool like you know plastic trim tool or something you know like a putty knife with a little bit of tape on it to protect the edges from scratching your bumper maybe even an old credit card may be a good use for credit card so you just need to kind of get to the the edge started underneath the trim and you'll see it'll slide up in and then easily like that now I would suggest that the first time you do it you don't take the backing off of the foam tape we're going to do what's called a dry fit just so you can kind of see how everything works before you get into you know having to work with the with the foam tape so I'll show you how it goes on before taking the tape off and then we'll do it again with with the film of the tape film backing on the tape off okay so I usually start just right here at the end board side you can see it's pretty easy just to slide in I don't even need my tool but just so I can kind of show you the technique you can get the tool underneath your step pad trim a couple of areas just to help get it started that and around here the corner just get the top going underneath the trim and you'll want to kind of pull it this way so kind of out and up in order to get the kind of corner flange covered okay so that's how it should look and you saw how easy that is now once we take that tape off or the the backing of the tape off you want to make sure that it's in the right position before you put much pressure on on your bumper show that right position is basically by pushing in this corner we want this corner to be flush this way and that way you can kind of feel that and it should be that your license plate lamp hole lines up nicely like that so here you're basically making sure that that corner is nice and snug and that will make sure that the rest of the bumper shell is in the right spot okay so now we'll do that again but with the tape off okay this time we're gonna do it for real but the only piece of tape backing that I would take off now would be this one right here by the license plate area so again just kind of start in this area being careful that that doesn't touch down first you just want to slide this up and in that little line use your tool if necessary to just kind of pry that up a little bit kind of like a shoehorn okay now that that's relatively in the right position now I want to again push in this corner make sure everything's nice and flush and then you can put some pressure on that piece of tape there okay next thing you want to do is reconnect your license plate lamps these are handed so you have to get the right one for the appropriate side reach in don't forget to reconnect your light grab that again it's just a simple twist of the housing okay get that in the proper position that in reason why I assembled this first and put that tape on because that'll kind of keep this in the right position for our next step next thing I'm going to do is install the the other side basically using the same process okay so I've taken a moment just to install the other side again just kind of this Center area I haven't really finished up the corners yet because I want to get this area completed first so now we're ready to reinstall your Center step pad trim these little tabs here help you align it about the center and again just kind of rotate it into place you'll see it's fairly straightforward make sure those tabs go underneath the bumper okay now because we have added a little bit of thickness with our bumper shell this fit is going to be a little bit tighter so you'll have to use just a little bit of force to get the holes to a line so you push on this Center portion and then put this retaining clip down into the hole so push on it with one hand get that pole aligned I'll fit in there then push the retaining clip in until it snaps that sides in and then do the same to the opposite side again you have to put some force on it get the hole to a line push the retaining clip down in and secure it with the center little button thing that's on now put my little covers back on and then my ten millimeter screws that I have to put back in the bottom okay now that those are secured we'll go around the corners and we'll secure the the tape in those areas okay so you can see that I've kind of left this side hanging out a little bit that's because I need to be able to access the tape backing this one here on the corner I'll take that off and then there's two on the bottom a little short one okay so again I'm being careful not to let those touch until I'm completely I've got the bumper shell completely in position so I kind of grab it here from the bottom make sure we're tucked in at the top there you might need to use your trim tool a little bit right in that corner just to get that started you can see it kind of sucked in and now I want to just pull it from the center outboard and up because I want this area here tucked nicely up into the the step pad once that is in place and you can see that the flange of the corners are completely covered you feel good about that position then you want to put some good pressure kind of a rolling pressure on that pressure sensitive tape now it's very important to get good pressure on that tape for it to adhere well the other thing that's important is the temperature outside should be at least 60 degrees Fahrenheit when you do this if not maybe you can kind of warm up the area a little bit with a hairdryer or something like that bring it inside the garage but the tape supplier really recommends for good adhesion the temperature should be at least 60 degrees Fahrenheit okay again good pressure there good pressure on the strips underneath that sides done let's go to the other okay so I've just about got the license plate here the last step is to step back and take a look at your restyled bumper this one that we covered we actually converted a chrome bumper that had a little ding on it on this side a little bit of rust on the corners and now we've got a nice tough shells very curable cover. Thank you
We're going to talk about how to install bumper shells which are high impact ABS formed covers for your truck bumper these are great not only for adding maybe a different color not to your truck you know cover up the chrome they're great for maybe covering a little bit of damage that may be existing on your bumper damage by dents dings rust whatever or even just to protect your bumper from road debris and salt snow you know you know the drill.
I'm going to show you today just how easy they are to install you need just a few very simple tools to accomplish this task first thing you're gonna need to do is make sure that your bumper is nice and clean and dry that's because we need to make sure that there's a good surface to adhere the 3M adhesive tape that's on the backside of your bumper shells to make sure that your your bumper shells are nice and secure so first thing that we're gonna do is just clean up this bumper a little bit and then we'll be right back okay now that I've got the bumper nice and clean and dry what we need to do is take off a few of the pieces of trim that being the license plate lights the license plate and this Center step pad trim luckily we've designed the bumper shells so that you shouldn't have to remove the upper step pad trim you'll see why in a moment so like I said easily take off the license plate lamps by just unscrewing the Phillips screw pulling the housing out and then you'll see that the lamp housing just needs to be twisted relative to the outside housing comes off easy set those aside and then maybe just tuck these in so you can grab those later the next thing is we'll remove the license plate easy enough and now to remove this Center step pad trim you'll need to just gently pry off these little square covers that I use a just a flat head screwdriver they once you get an edge underneath I should be easy just to pop up just be careful you don't damage them now this is retained two ways one is by some what are called like pushpin clips from the top and then from the bottom there are ten millimeter screws that we'll have to take out now these pushpins you need to kind of pry up the top cap and then pry them out like that they don't always come out that easy there is a chance you could damage them getting them out but they're very inexpensive just pick up a new set at your local auto parts store look at the next one out and you pry up the center part and then pull the housing out I'll remove two screws underneath then just with your ten millimeter socket there's two now I want to remove the trim you just need to kind of flex it up a little bit should come right off just like that your bumper shells are constrained to your bumper in by two primary means the first is this flange there's a flange around the top here that will basically tuck under this existing step pad trim and then additional constraint is by a high-strength adhesive acrylic foam tape now these are pressure-sensitive tapes so they won't be extremely sticky to the touch to begin with but once you put pressure on them and that's important to get good adhesion to put a lot of pressure on those taped areas to make sure that they fully adhere to your bumper you might need a little tool like you know plastic trim tool or something you know like a putty knife with a little bit of tape on it to protect the edges from scratching your bumper maybe even an old credit card may be a good use for credit card so you just need to kind of get to the the edge started underneath the trim and you'll see it'll slide up in and then easily like that now I would suggest that the first time you do it you don't take the backing off of the foam tape we're going to do what's called a dry fit just so you can kind of see how everything works before you get into you know having to work with the with the foam tape so I'll show you how it goes on before taking the tape off and then we'll do it again with with the film of the tape film backing on the tape off okay so I usually start just right here at the end board side you can see it's pretty easy just to slide in I don't even need my tool but just so I can kind of show you the technique you can get the tool underneath your step pad trim a couple of areas just to help get it started that and around here the corner just get the top going underneath the trim and you'll want to kind of pull it this way so kind of out and up in order to get the kind of corner flange covered okay so that's how it should look and you saw how easy that is now once we take that tape off or the the backing of the tape off you want to make sure that it's in the right position before you put much pressure on on your bumper show that right position is basically by pushing in this corner we want this corner to be flush this way and that way you can kind of feel that and it should be that your license plate lamp hole lines up nicely like that so here you're basically making sure that that corner is nice and snug and that will make sure that the rest of the bumper shell is in the right spot okay so now we'll do that again but with the tape off okay this time we're gonna do it for real but the only piece of tape backing that I would take off now would be this one right here by the license plate area so again just kind of start in this area being careful that that doesn't touch down first you just want to slide this up and in that little line use your tool if necessary to just kind of pry that up a little bit kind of like a shoehorn okay now that that's relatively in the right position now I want to again push in this corner make sure everything's nice and flush and then you can put some pressure on that piece of tape there okay next thing you want to do is reconnect your license plate lamps these are handed so you have to get the right one for the appropriate side reach in don't forget to reconnect your light grab that again it's just a simple twist of the housing okay get that in the proper position that in reason why I assembled this first and put that tape on because that'll kind of keep this in the right position for our next step next thing I'm going to do is install the the other side basically using the same process okay so I've taken a moment just to install the other side again just kind of this Center area I haven't really finished up the corners yet because I want to get this area completed first so now we're ready to reinstall your Center step pad trim these little tabs here help you align it about the center and again just kind of rotate it into place you'll see it's fairly straightforward make sure those tabs go underneath the bumper okay now because we have added a little bit of thickness with our bumper shell this fit is going to be a little bit tighter so you'll have to use just a little bit of force to get the holes to a line so you push on this Center portion and then put this retaining clip down into the hole so push on it with one hand get that pole aligned I'll fit in there then push the retaining clip in until it snaps that sides in and then do the same to the opposite side again you have to put some force on it get the hole to a line push the retaining clip down in and secure it with the center little button thing that's on now put my little covers back on and then my ten millimeter screws that I have to put back in the bottom okay now that those are secured we'll go around the corners and we'll secure the the tape in those areas okay so you can see that I've kind of left this side hanging out a little bit that's because I need to be able to access the tape backing this one here on the corner I'll take that off and then there's two on the bottom a little short one okay so again I'm being careful not to let those touch until I'm completely I've got the bumper shell completely in position so I kind of grab it here from the bottom make sure we're tucked in at the top there you might need to use your trim tool a little bit right in that corner just to get that started you can see it kind of sucked in and now I want to just pull it from the center outboard and up because I want this area here tucked nicely up into the the step pad once that is in place and you can see that the flange of the corners are completely covered you feel good about that position then you want to put some good pressure kind of a rolling pressure on that pressure sensitive tape now it's very important to get good pressure on that tape for it to adhere well the other thing that's important is the temperature outside should be at least 60 degrees Fahrenheit when you do this if not maybe you can kind of warm up the area a little bit with a hairdryer or something like that bring it inside the garage but the tape supplier really recommends for good adhesion the temperature should be at least 60 degrees Fahrenheit okay again good pressure there good pressure on the strips underneath that sides done let's go to the other okay so I've just about got the license plate here the last step is to step back and take a look at your restyled bumper this one that we covered we actually converted a chrome bumper that had a little ding on it on this side a little bit of rust on the corners and now we've got a nice tough shells very curable cover. Thank you