Installing 2009-2014 Ford F150 Rear BumperShellz
Installation Manual PDF (printer friendly)
| installation_manual_-_rear_bumpershellz_f150_09-14_013117.pdf |
Installation Video Demonstration (with transcript)
Today we're going to install a set of bumper shells on a Ford f-150 this particular model is a 2009 to 2014 has the same bumper on it and hopefully you'll see that it's quite easy to make a very significant transition in the way that your truck looks in order to complete this job.
You really only need a few simple tools hopefully you've got something like a little plastic pry bar or trim tool if you don't have anything like that you can use like a putty knife but I would maybe cover the putty knife with some tape or something like that because you're going to be using that to kind of pry up your a step pad a little bit you don't want to scratch things so those are the main tools that you need maybe a screwdriver would help out a pair of pliers but just some basic tools so the first thing that we're going to do is we're just going to make sure that the surface is clean so just clean off the surface of the bumper so that there's no debris on that before covering it with your shells you can see on this particular bumper we've are already got some damage and the bumper shell is going to cover that right up the attachment of your bumper shell to the bumper is actually quite simple the whole idea is you're going to be tucking these perimeter flanges on the bumper shell underneath your existing trim and in order to do that you're going to have to either pop up part of the trim or just kind of loosen it a little bit so that you can get these flanges underneath there on most bumper trim there's also some clips that you might need to get out here on the f-150 there's just this one clip here at the bottom in the middle you'll need to pull that out in this version that we have it looked like a factory-installed clip and we had really damaged it in order to get it out but you can get replacement clips to reinstall your trim real easily at your local auto parts apply store.
So don't be worried about that the other way that the bumper shells are attached to your vehicle is we've coated the backside of them with a soft kind of tacky urethane so what that'll do is it'll kind of take up some of the air space so it feels nice and solid but it actually then kind of clings to your bumper so that's not going to move around or squeak or anything like that and it'll help protect your bumper so two basic mechanisms the soft kind of clean the urethane on the backside will help it stick as well as again tucking the flanges underneath the trim so on the f-150 the first thing that I'm going to do is I'm going to remove this lower clip I can use like I said either a plastic trim tool like this just kind of get under it in order to get that off also on the f-150 you don't have to disconnect all of the clips on the on the step pad just the corner here I think is all that you'll need to do and then you should be able to get your pry tool in and just lift this edge for the remaining flanges so I'm going to go ahead and crawl underneath and kind of push up on the on the snap fits you can also try to get your tool underneath and just kind of try to pop it up you really have to be careful that you don't damage your step pad in this process though so on the f-150 you can see there's three snap fits in the corner here and again I think that's all that you need to get out so a couple of mechanisms or ways to get those out one you can kind of squeeze them together and push them out you can get a screwdriver in there and just try to leverage them out so that'll really be up to you whatever way that you think you can best get these out but again do your best not to damage them in the process so the three snap fits in the corner here actually pretty easy to access from underneath and you want to squeeze them a little bit with the pair of pliers maybe try to get them up just a little bit then you can get your tool again something that's not going to scratch or abrade your step pad get it underneath and just try to get near where the snap fit is so that you're not put too much stress on it then just pop it up here locally okay that's about all that you need to get loosened now take this leading edge of the flange kind of just tuck it under slide it across go slow if it's stopped it's probably stuck somewhere so don't try to force it find out where it's stuck and tuck that under and before you get that all the way on come back around here to the corner lift this this corner piece up and slide this end on now I've supplied a piece of double-sided tape this would be a good time once this is in position take off the backside of that tape tuck it under here and then you know press that down that'll keep that edge right there where you want it it's not always necessary but I supplied the tape just in case if in your particular situation you want to do that but normally just by then pressing back down you see I've got the flange all the way under the trim piece and it's all in position now I'm just gonna push the step pad back down and make sure everything's all in alignment and then really the last step here is to put the clip back in so if you haven't damaged the old clip just put that back in or grab your new clip make sure and there you have it.
You really only need a few simple tools hopefully you've got something like a little plastic pry bar or trim tool if you don't have anything like that you can use like a putty knife but I would maybe cover the putty knife with some tape or something like that because you're going to be using that to kind of pry up your a step pad a little bit you don't want to scratch things so those are the main tools that you need maybe a screwdriver would help out a pair of pliers but just some basic tools so the first thing that we're going to do is we're just going to make sure that the surface is clean so just clean off the surface of the bumper so that there's no debris on that before covering it with your shells you can see on this particular bumper we've are already got some damage and the bumper shell is going to cover that right up the attachment of your bumper shell to the bumper is actually quite simple the whole idea is you're going to be tucking these perimeter flanges on the bumper shell underneath your existing trim and in order to do that you're going to have to either pop up part of the trim or just kind of loosen it a little bit so that you can get these flanges underneath there on most bumper trim there's also some clips that you might need to get out here on the f-150 there's just this one clip here at the bottom in the middle you'll need to pull that out in this version that we have it looked like a factory-installed clip and we had really damaged it in order to get it out but you can get replacement clips to reinstall your trim real easily at your local auto parts apply store.
So don't be worried about that the other way that the bumper shells are attached to your vehicle is we've coated the backside of them with a soft kind of tacky urethane so what that'll do is it'll kind of take up some of the air space so it feels nice and solid but it actually then kind of clings to your bumper so that's not going to move around or squeak or anything like that and it'll help protect your bumper so two basic mechanisms the soft kind of clean the urethane on the backside will help it stick as well as again tucking the flanges underneath the trim so on the f-150 the first thing that I'm going to do is I'm going to remove this lower clip I can use like I said either a plastic trim tool like this just kind of get under it in order to get that off also on the f-150 you don't have to disconnect all of the clips on the on the step pad just the corner here I think is all that you'll need to do and then you should be able to get your pry tool in and just lift this edge for the remaining flanges so I'm going to go ahead and crawl underneath and kind of push up on the on the snap fits you can also try to get your tool underneath and just kind of try to pop it up you really have to be careful that you don't damage your step pad in this process though so on the f-150 you can see there's three snap fits in the corner here and again I think that's all that you need to get out so a couple of mechanisms or ways to get those out one you can kind of squeeze them together and push them out you can get a screwdriver in there and just try to leverage them out so that'll really be up to you whatever way that you think you can best get these out but again do your best not to damage them in the process so the three snap fits in the corner here actually pretty easy to access from underneath and you want to squeeze them a little bit with the pair of pliers maybe try to get them up just a little bit then you can get your tool again something that's not going to scratch or abrade your step pad get it underneath and just try to get near where the snap fit is so that you're not put too much stress on it then just pop it up here locally okay that's about all that you need to get loosened now take this leading edge of the flange kind of just tuck it under slide it across go slow if it's stopped it's probably stuck somewhere so don't try to force it find out where it's stuck and tuck that under and before you get that all the way on come back around here to the corner lift this this corner piece up and slide this end on now I've supplied a piece of double-sided tape this would be a good time once this is in position take off the backside of that tape tuck it under here and then you know press that down that'll keep that edge right there where you want it it's not always necessary but I supplied the tape just in case if in your particular situation you want to do that but normally just by then pressing back down you see I've got the flange all the way under the trim piece and it's all in position now I'm just gonna push the step pad back down and make sure everything's all in alignment and then really the last step here is to put the clip back in so if you haven't damaged the old clip just put that back in or grab your new clip make sure and there you have it.