Looking for recommendations on where to find and buy a ARB front bumper for my 97 Montero Sport. Questions like price and usual availability. Will they deliver to a residence? Also, everything I see listed on line shows black powder coat, 90% of what I see on the rigs on the forum look like a mat aluminum finish? (are you guys refinishing them or did they come that way?). I've got 2 reputable off road speed shops in my area that I plan to hit, but if there's a good on line dealer here in the U.S. throw me a bone
4wd parts has them on sale sometimes. I got mine for just over 500? The box it comes in is the size of a car. It comes in a black finish. Most guys on here have it repainted to match said fender flares and or paint. This thing is literally bomb proof. Saying that it weighs 100 lbs.;D ES can chime in and add modify or delete if need be.lol part number is 3435010 I believe.
Once upon a time - MANY years ago - there was a company that made an aluminum bumper for the Sport. Looked a lot like the ARB and was bare silver. They're long, long gone but you still see one once in a great while.
Otherwise, what bd said. Lots of people have them re-powder coated to match whatever color. ARB only sells them in black powder coat, though. And, they're HUGE! They don't look so big on the vehicle, but off the vehicle in a box, ....
I don't think they'll ship to a residence and I'm not sure you want to do that. Shipping to a residence for something that big usually costs more than to a commercial address. Any 4x shop that sells ARB products - which would be ANY 4x shop
- can order the bumper from ARB. So, I'd pull out the yellow pages and start looking for reputable 4x4 parts shops in your area.
I think the days of getting them for $500 is long past, though. The last one I bought was a couple years ago and ran me around $800 w/shipping. The shipping costs are what suck now days.
However, given what you're getting, the total price isn't that bad. BD is right. They're bullet prof. I've got rock rash on mine from running it into granite outcroppings at a few MPHs and that's about the most damage I've been able to do.
This is something that you won't ever have to replace.
BD, I don't remember what they weigh exactly, but 100-120 lbs sounds about right. Add another 80-90 lbs for a winch and you end up getting close to 200 lbs.
Misc:
Recommended winch is the Warn XD9000. Yes, its 'old', but it works well, lasts forever and is plenty for even a serious off road vehicle - which you don't have. Don't go less than 9000lbs - Mitsu products are HEAVY.
The 9.5XP will fit with modifications to the bull bar. I don't recommended it, even though this is what went into my latest bull bar. Jack-asses at the shop modded the bumper without telling me until everything was done. I have NO idea how this is going to work if I have to do any serious winching.
Replace the steel cable with MasterPull or AmsteelBlue synthetic winch line. This will cut a good chunk of weight off the front. All that steel cable is HEAVY.
The Hi-Lift 48" jack fits well on top of the bull bar hoop. All you need is four stainless bolts and washers, a couple 2" spacers that are available from any hardware store. Its a lot easier to get to when you need it than having it mounted on a rack.
Although there are two holes on either side of where the winch control box mounts for lights, unless you're planning on teeny tiny 3" LED lights, don't put anything there. It makes spooling even more difficult than it is (and believe me, it's a pain in the rear) and it blocks air flow to the radiator. A LOT. I just pulled my 8" IPFs off two weeks ago and I can't believe how much of a difference that made even at 20-30 Mph speeds - and I have dual electric fans instead of the single mechanical.
*** IMPORTANT ***No modifications are require just to ***INSTALL*** a ARB Bull-Bar on a '97-'99 Sport. Its pretty easy and doesn't require much more than basic hand tools. It IS a two guy job without a winch. Three with.
!!!HOWEVER!!! The mount plates at the end of the Sport frame rails need to be reinforced before the bumper is installed. The bumper basically has two 'sections'. The bull bar and the two legs that attach the bull bar to the vehicle frame. The two legs attach to the frame and the two plates Mitsu welds to the ends of the frame rails.
The welds ARE NOT STRONG ENOUGH to withstand winching for very long!!!! Those welds must be reinforced and some gusseting added at the tops of the plates to the frame. This needs to be done by a competent fab shop with a competent welder BEFORE the bumper is attached.
*** If you do not do this, after not too many pulls - it took about half a dozen for me - you will tear the plates off the frame, the bumper will swing down (into your front tires), and the ears of the bull bar will swing up and tear the crap out of your front clip, rip out the cabling and probably your battery and anything attached to that. I'm assuming this doesn't happen on the highway, 'cause if it does you're gonna die. ***I caught mine at the end of a trail run, thank God, before it came completely loose, but I couldn't see what exactly was wrong. Thought a couple bolts had loosened up since it hadn't been on there that long. Drove it SLOWLY the 120 miles home. Got up the next day, flipped the winch line over a big tree branch above the driveway, took most of the slack out of the line, grabbed a hold of the bumper hoops and gave it a good yank and the entire things fell loose. Damn good thing I had it supported 'cause 200 lbs of bumper and winch would have landed on top of me. Didn't tear the fenders out but sure crunched them up.
Almost pulled the cables out. Stopped just short of yanking the posts out of the battery or tearing the battery out of the holder. Lucky I didn't leave any more slack in the line.
Unfortunately, others haven't been so lucky. There's a YouTube from back in the day of one of us trying to winch a guy out and tearing the bumper completely loose and completely trashing the entire front clip of his Sport. Its gruesome.
I would
STRONGLY recommend having this done EVEN if you never plan to put a winch on your Sport. Stuff like this gets forgotten and then you get a wild hair one day to slap a winch on and everything goes straight to Hell from there. Its a simple fix and shouldn't take anyone competent more than an hour. Whoever, though, NEEDS TO KNOW WHAT THEY'RE DOING! This is NOT a time for booty fab hack "I'm too cheap to spend any money" jacking around. There is some serious leverage going on with those mounts and whoever is doing this needs to understand geometry.
*** IMPORTANT ***Edward
However, given what you're getting, the total price isn't that bad. BD is right. They're bullet prof. I've got rock rash on mine from running it into granite outcroppings at a few MPHs and that's about the most damage I've been able to do.