Swapping a 2008 chrome front bumper for painted.

Hello guys. Trying to help out a buddy getting some bodywork done on a 2008 SR5 DC 2WD w/4.7 V8.

His OEM front chrome bumper was a little banged up so he wants to switch to all black.

The body shop has ordered a bumper and it came in chrome and has decided to dump the problem off on him.

The Toyota parts fiche clearly shows a Resin bumper cover for a 2008 further down the fiche page. The stock SR5 chrome was a chrome lower front bumper and a painted upper cover.

Is this as simple as ordering the OEM Resin bumper cover from Toyota and it will replace the OEM chrome bumper and upper cover? All of the supports and stuff under the OEM chrome bumper are the same and the resin bumper cover just bolts up?

ETA: After looking at the fiche it looks like the side supports, braces, and a few other parts are resin bumper specific.

TIA for any help.

This what he has.




This what he wants:

 

Any development on the front end swap?

 

it was my buddy’s truck and he ended up having the body shop wrap the new chrome bumper.

he painted the center bumper piece with SEM bumper black and bought a black grille.

it came out nice and really modernized the look of the truck.

 

The all black looks really nice, I will have to see if I can find some of the SEM paint, my lower valance is pretty grey.

 

The SEM bumper black is a good product to temporarily restore your faded plastic bumper fascia.

I say temporary as it will not stand up to the front end abuse permanently. Expect 4-5 years before you have to refinish.

Also, proper surface prep is key, you need to use brake cleaner or something very aggressive to get rid of past attempts to turn the faded plastic black (silicones, armor all, etc.). Especially if you have used one of the newer "ceramic" black plastic coatings.

With that said it is a cost effective repair for the benefit, cost, and time it lasts.

 

I did the swap on my 08 many years ago, it did require new side supports but it’s been so long I don’t remember what else. It wasn’t difficult at all though.