OEM Brushguard Install

Well, I couldn't pass up on all the people that were selling their OEM brushguard on fjcruiserforums.com so I picked one up. It looked brand new and it should fit nicely with the other mods that I'm planning on doing next - Lucrum mount and winch.

First I received the Hella 500 halogen driving lights which were to be mounted on the guard. Once I saw the covers with so much white all over I took the black plastic spray I used on the skid plate and painted them black. It looked much better. I only wish I had covered up the white letters where it says HELLA. NOTE: ***Install the lights on the guard PRIOR to installation. *** There is no way to put them on afterwards that I could see. The lights were still hard to bolt onto the brushguard when it was off.


I first took off the center grille by unscrewing the top two screws and taking off the two expanding black plugs. There are three white plugs on the bottom which hold the grille in so make sure you pull back so that the whole grille comes out perpendicular to the bumper. There are two long prongs on the top of the grille that will snap off if you take it off up or down.

Here's one side with the white plug on the bottom and the long prong on the top.

Here's the other side.

This is what the car looks like afterwards. I then taped off the bumper and the lights and put on the templates. The templates seem to have been reduced to a smaller size since I found the instructions on the internet. More on this later.

Once you look behind the top of the bumper you will see a bumper support bracket of sorts and it will have two of the black expansion plugs in it. Take those out since it will make the installation much easier once you loosen those up. I put in a bolt from the bottom and pushed up after the hole in the bumper was drilled.

Another picture of the plugs removed from the bumper support bracket.

Right brushguard support bracket installed. You have to take off the bolt on the right and the cap on the left (bottom of brush guard bracket) to put it on. You also must put it BEHIND the radiator support bracket. Once installed just tighten these two bolts along with the bolt provided on the top.

Top view showing radiator bracket in front of brush guard bracket.

Installed right side bracket.

Installed left hand bracket. This was very much like installing the right one except the mounting holes were in different places.
After the two brackets were set I placed the brushguard on top of the bumper and noticed that the template was not the correct size. I then proceeded by using a pencil and marking out the holes on the bracket onto the paper. Then I drilled some small pilot holes using the smallest available drill bit I had and looked around the general area where I had marked with the pencil. I found it on the second try for both sides. I then made a hole big enough to mount a bolt from underneath. I placed a washer on the bolt since I noticed that the bolt was too small for the bumper support bracket hole under the bumper and it would go through.

Top view of grille and brushguard. Not much room to work with when tightening bolts. It was very hard to do so.

This is what the nut looks like after tightening. I suggest that you put as much tape around the bottom of the grill guard prior to installing since I nicked mine with the bolt. You must also put the bolt so that it sticks up just a little bit from the bumper in order to fit the brushguard in place. It won't fit very easily if the bolt is sticking up all the way and almost impossible to do so. This actually took the longest!

Front view after installation and tightening. Nice painted blacked out covers and wires sticking out.

Side view.

Another front shot.

Full frontal picture with all the wires tucked in behind. Next will be to connect all the wires for the lights and somehow make the switch fit into the dashboard somewhere. I might just tuck the switch underneath the dash and use it when I need it for now until I can figure our a way to make it look nice on the dash.