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New bumper + hitch


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On today’s Pathy adventure, I’m finally getting around to restoring a bumper (in decent condition other than a dent I tried patching) and a trailer hitch I pulled off a junkyard Pathfinder. Two coats of rust neutralizer and some sandpaper later, the first coats of primer are going on. Next up, gloss black.

 

9c590bbf731552aeb2e645778a12d0af.jpg 

 

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Was the little liscence plate bracket caked in rust? I just pulled my bumper all apart and most of the screws and bolts twisted off, I have to replace 3/4 of them, be nice to see how yours turned out. I had to do some bondo as well, along where the caps are bolted on


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Was the little liscence plate bracket caked in rust? I just pulled my bumper all apart and most of the screws and bolts twisted off, I have to replace 3/4 of them, be nice to see how yours turned out. I had to do some bondo as well, along where the caps are bolted on

 

 

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No doubt it was. It took three coats of rust neutralizer to finally eat away at the rust. Two coats of primer and base coat, and three coats of primer later and she’s ready to go on.

 

Now for the hitch. It’s ready, but where should the guide holes be drilled for the screws to the frame? My frame might be different than the ‘92 SE (same year and model as my Pathy) I pulled it off of because I was able to access the nuts from above the bolts. On my frame, it’s closed so I can only drill into it without fitting a nut in there. It’s hard to describe in words but I’ll have to find a photo to describe the process.

 

 

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Had a look at mine today. There are three holes in each side of the tow bar. Two per side to the frame, one to each bumper bracket. If you look at your bumper brackets, you should have a little bracket bracing between the bumper bracket and the frame. Remove those little brackets. The captive-ish stud coming down from the frame (retained by a big flat head welded on so it won't spin) goes through the rearmost frame mounting hole on the tow bar*, and the hole in the bumper bracket should line up to the hole on the side of the tow bar (hopefully you saved those fasteners off the donor). BF-8 of the '95 FSM shows how it goes together without the hitch if you want a better idea of what it is you're removing.

 

If you lift the hitch up and get the rear holes lined up, you should be able to see if the front holes are present and correct. I'm not sure if there's supposed to be a nut welded inside the frame or a plate or what. Hopefully they're where they're supposed to be and the threads are clean enough to use.

 

*I don't know if the tow bar kit came with alternative hardware for this stud, or if you were supposed to reuse the stud that held that little bracket on. If you got the hardware off the donor, I'd compare and use whatever looks stronger.

bumper bracket bolt.png

Edited by Slartibartfast
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I pulled the hardware off the donor. However, that side bracket with the fasteners on it wasn’t present on the donor. It had two sets of nuts and bolts mounted to the frame without any sort of assembly on the sides. I’ll have to pull up a photo later on of what I’m talking about because once again it’s very hard to explain in words.


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