Worked on it today..... decided not to do any paint work, as I don't want to spend the time/effort to do it right, and the truck is getting rusty enough, I'm not sure it's worth it anyway. I decided to simply spray the parts with Blaster's new Fluid Film competitor.... it's a bit more expensive, but sprays MUCH MUCH better than Fluid Film. I think this has replaced the much cheaper petroleum product that they had for awhile.... spray vasoline, basically. The new one is lanolin, like FF, but doesn't smell the same.
I was going to attach the main brackets to the bumper, and then slide the assembly into the frame, but found that the bed interferes with that. The edge of the bed drops below the top edge of the frame rails. I only had the brackets hand tight on the bumper, so I removed them, and began assembling them to the frame. I then put the receiver in place, and then added the outer bumper brackets. Everything is just hand tight and is waiting for me to fit the bumper on, adjust the position and tighten everything up. I was running out of light.
It looks like I'll be using some of the original hardware as I didn't buy enough to replace everything. No big deal, I'll just pick the best of the original hardware, and it's all been wire wheeled already.
JOHNGAAA1, got me thinking about tool clearance, so I put the bolt heads to the inside, and the nuts outside.... no idea how it was before. I simply don't recall, and the bumper has been replaced twice already. Once by a body shop, and once by me, so no telling what was original.
I also sprayed out the electrical connection for the plate lights. That was nasty. I hope it actually makes a connection.