Help, I stripped my Bumper bolts and flange nuts

Greetings,

I have stripped two bolts and two nuts trying to put on my Victory 4x4 Strike bumper. Unfortunately, my tap set is for SAE, so I wasn't able to fix. I am wondering what I should do to get this thing working. I am not sure if the Bullet coating was too thick and didnt let all the bolts line up properly, but I am at my wit's end.

 

Right now, I think I might just get an air chisel and remove the welds from the back side of the mounting plate and replace with some stainless bolts. I hate the idea of taking the bumper off and scraping off the coating at the mounting plate, but I think that might be in order. Funday Sunday!!!!

 

Is it just the vertical nuts and bolts or the bottom where the nuts are in the frame? If its the vertical ones you can just use new nuts and bolts. If its the ones on the bottom you need to try to fix the threads or its going to be a bitch because you can really get in there to put a nut and washer on the inside of the frame.

 

Stainless bolts are weak,
I’d use Grade 8 ones if you can find them, especially for bumpers
Good luck Sir




you might be able to order @Roman for new Toyota OEM ones on Monday...?


Start a nut bolt collection too
Sounds crazy but you not left out in the cold

 

Got it fixed!

Part1: Found a tap and die set that had m10x1.25 and rethreaded all the bolts. Couldn't use the wrench, had to use vice grips.

Part2: I cut off all the bullet lining that would touch the frame. Some was 1/4"! Picture attached.




Part3: reattach everything. The wife asked me why I didnt test fit it without the winch the first time. I drank another beer.




Crisis Averted!

 

Went to lowes bought a bunch of grade 8 bolts. Couldn't sleep this morning and studied metallurgy.

 

You scuffed, primed and spray painted that bare metal right?

 

Affirmative

 

Good deal!

 

Did you have any issues putting in your parking sensors?? Mine won’t fit. The stick bumper hole is roughly 1 15/16” x 1 13/16” and the strike bumper is just a round hole at 1 13/16”. Tried sanding the sensor down on one side but i still couldn’t get it to fit.

 

My SR5 did not have parking sensors.

 

Gotcha thanks for the reply man I appreciate it

 

What size bolts did you end up going with?

 

He re-tapped the holes and used a die to fix the threads on the OEM bolts.

 

Thanks... also found out that 3/8" Grade 8 bolts will replace stock M10 studs

 

Hey all, sorry to revive an old thread; I’m trying to keep threads down to minimize search results, and hopefully my mistake will help someone in the future.

Trying to install a spacer to move the bumper forward to allow for better clearance for my 35’s, and I reckon I over-torqued the nuts, and the studs are stripped to where the nuts won’t fully tighten, but will “tighten enough”, if you catch my meaning. Similar to the pics above, only the stripping goes further down the stud length. For the meantime, I doubled up in front of the factory nuts with grade 8 nylon nuts, but again, they will only snug. I know I won’t be confident in using my winch for now.

I don’t think I’ll be able to rethread them. I like the idea of replacing with grade 8 bolts, but would like to explore a factory replacement option first. See pic below, that’s the replacement part. I can’t really see well enough to determine how the stud plate is mounted to the frame rail. Can someone please tell me (if easier for you to see or you recall when replacing your front bumper) is the stud plate mounted to the frame rail with other factory nuts/bolts, or, is it welded? Thanks in advance for any potential help!!

 

It is welded. It looks like those studs may be pressed in.

 

Thanks George! Looks like grade 8 bolts it is. I think for the studs there are spot welds, which I’ll probably air-chisel out, or maybe cut the stud back and drill through it and feed the grade 8 bolts through, so I don’t undermine the structural integrity of the stud plate itself.

 

No problem. If they press out and come out somewhat easily, let me know what you replace them with. I am using the CB shims with my aftermarket bumper and it makes the studs fairly short. What part of SC? I'm originally from Myrtle Beach.

 

About 30 minutes outside of Charleston. Mentioned in the posts above are the grade 8 bolts I’ll probably use. I intend to get bolts a little longer than the factory studs, to give the nuts a little more “meat” to grab onto. I’ll definitely post up the results.

 

Sounds good. It will give me another project to do lol. Might be a little more challenging than the head unit that I just put in lol. I was just looking online....the studs in the Tacoma are tack welded. I'll look at mine in the morning to see if they are or not. If not they should come out somewhat easily.....hopefully.

 

Well I finally had the opportunity to pull the front end apart and see what’s what. They were stripped pretty good, but figured I’d roll the dice with rethreading original M10x1.25, vs. cutting down to M8x1.25 or using new bolts. Even using new bolts, looks pretty difficult as there’s not much clearance to feed a new bolt. Glad I tried rethreading first because it worked, even with my cheapo Pittsburgh tap and die set. Broke the die, took it to HF and got a free replacement. First two pics are stripped condition, second two rethreaded with factory nuts put back on for fit test, final two pics with bumper installed back on. Also pic of front end off. This time when I tightened, since I can’t fit a torque wrench up there, I just got them snug tight, using a new 14mm offset box wrench also from HF which was a HUGE time saver. Took a long time, about 7 hours, but well worth it.