Video Review & Installation

Hey, guys. Adam here with americantrucks.com. And today we're taking a quick look at and installing the factory replacement front bumper with the fog light openings available for the 2013 to 2018 RAM 1500 excluding the Rebel model. You should very simply be checking this out if you're in need of a factory front bumper replacement for your models that had the one-piece front bumper. This is a great option for guys who may have gotten in a front-end accident and are looking to replace their front bumper very affordably and if you're looking to do it yourself very easily in the driveway at home. This is made from OEM quality material, so it's the exact same as your factory front bumper that came with fog light openings, and this is also made using OEM CAD data from Dodge to make sure it is the exact same fit and finish as that factory bumper. It is, after all, a direct fit replacement. Now, this one does ship unpainted right out of the box. As you can see here, we did not paint match it to our factory silver paint color. But you guys, it is, of course, recommended to take it to your local paint shop to get properly paint-matched to your OEM color. It can easily be primed and painted right out of the box.This matte black material here is super durable. It's, again, the same as your factory ones, you don't have to worry about it fading or cracking over time when it's all OEM quality. It's also great for guys whose trucks did not common factory fog lights and you may be looking to pick that up separately with a bumper that accepts them right out of the box. Instead of having to modify a factory bumper that didn't come with fog lights by cutting or trimming a delete plate, this one is ready to go out of the box, so you just need the bracket system. When it comes to the price tag, this guy comes in right around 250 bucks, again, making it one of the more affordable solutions. If you go straight from Dodge, you may be spending a little bit extra for a direct fit replacement. All you have to do is get this guy painted out of the box, so 250 bucks, not a bad price to pay for an OEM quality bumper.Install wise, I'm giving it one out of three wrenches on our difficulty meter. While it is a bumper replacement, replacing bumpers on a factory RAM at the front end is extremely simple. It's going to take you guys an hour or so from start to finish. And I'll walk you through that entire process with very simple hand tools. What do you say we get started? Tools used in the install including impact gun, extension, a couple of ratchets, 7-millimeter swivel and deep socket, couple of 10 millimeters, 18-millimeter deep socket, and a Phillips head bit or screwdriver.First step of the uninstall here is to go into your wheel wells, you can start on the driver or passenger. I'm on the passenger side. I'm going to grab my Phillips head screwdriver, a small one, and remove the three Phillips head screws in our wheel well. Now, some models may have 7-millimeter or 8-millimeter bolts instead. But either way, you're going to get these guys often out of the way. Now with these guys are out of the way, we can peel back our wheel well liner to expose the bolts holding the bumper to the fender. I'm just gonna fold that behind the tire to gain access to the back end. Now, the next step is extremely difficult to see but there's basically a bolt on this bracket here. You can see the top of the stud bolt facing up. And then there's one directly here facing down. Now you can get a ratchet and socket in there. There's just enough room for me to get my impact gun in though, and that's what we're going to do here. But you can grab your 10-millimeter socket, whether it be with a ratchet or an impact like this, I'm using a swivel socket to get these guys off. All right. So, that's the one facing up like that. Now we can tackle the one facing down. All right. We got that loosened up there. That one's tucked in this corner here. Just like that, facing down. Now, this comes off. All right. So, now you can repeat this exact same process on the other side.All right. So, we have our truck up in the air. If you're working in your driveway, of course, you're just going to crawl up under the front in there. We're going to unplug the master harness for our fog lights. Now, if your vehicle doesn't have fog lights, you may not have this harness, but we do, so we're basically just going to pinch this guy and disconnect. It's there on our driver's side. So, I'm showing you guys on the passenger side how to remove the bumper bolts connected to the frame. There are three of them, take 18-millimeter nuts. For this one, I'm gonna use my ratchet, a short extension for a couple of them, and my 18 deep socket. Get those guys off. Once you crack it loose, you can most likely get it off by hand. All right. Repeat that on the other side. So, at this point, your bumper is loose we can pop it off from the front end. You want to make sure you're cracking both sides loose just like that, carefully pulling it off the truck and setting it aside.So, we got our factory '14 RAM bumper off and it's on the ground next to our replacement here with the fog light openings. I want to take it through some similarities and differences and I got to say, guys, it is an identical OEM replacement for the factory bumpers that came with fog lights. Now, if your RAM didn't come with factory fog lights, this is going to be a little bit different. And there are some other packages out there instead of the Sport package that we have here that come with a two-piece factory bumper. This is going to be the replacement for the guys who have the Sport or who are looking to pick up that one-piece dumper instead of the chrome split. Right out of the box, it's the bare OEM material just like your factory one, just without your factory paint color. So, I recommend taking this to your local paint shop to get paint-matched, whether it be off car before you install it or after you get it on the truck to get a good blend going with the fenders and the hood.Now, this having the factory fog light openings, it doesn't come with fog lights, but your factory bumper that came off the truck will have the fog lights, so we'll transfer over that skeleton or the bare bones behind the bumper in order to make it work with the new option. So, out of the box again, exactly the same as your factory one. We're going to transfer over the backside brackets and we'll transfer over the bottom lip. So, let's move on to that now.All right, next up we have our factory bumper facedown on some foam to protect it from scratching. We have to unbolt this entire skeleton from the inside here and that's got the brackets for your foglights as well. Now, it's bolted to the bottom lip. Ours is pretty stripped out, but I'm gonna show you guys anyway what this looks like when you're taking it out. Grab a Phillips head screwdriver or Phillips head bit and unscrew all four from the bottom of your factory bumper. All right. Just this little screw and there are four of them. All right. From here, we can lift up on that and set it aside.Next up, we want to transfer over this bottom lip. It's held on by the same Phillips head screws all the way around here. We're going to start this one, work our way around, and then we have two corner screws we have to get off. All right. Last one's in this corner here. Repeat that for the other corner and we're good to swap that over as well. All right. Now we can pop that guy off. All right. There you go. Now you can set your factory bumper aside and we can assemble the new one. Next up, we can just lift up on the lower grille, on the back of our factory bumper. Next, we can snap on the lower grille to our new replacement bumper. Next, we can do the lower chin spoiler.All right. Next up, we're going to put these threaded unit clips back behind the tabs that we just installed. Now, you can use your factory ones. Ours were pretty rusted, so I just picked up some replacements but you can definitely just transfer over your factory ones and snap them on right under that tab. Once you have that there, take one of the Phillips head screws and put it through. Now, I'm just going to thread this guy in by hand here, and then we'll come back and tighten them down once they're all in place. Okay. Next up, pick up the skeleton and drop it in place. All right. Next, we can bolt them down from the bottom.Next up, you can take the entire bumper assembly and set it into place on the truck lining up the bolts with the open holes on the frame. All right. At this point, you're gonna have to head under to make sure the bolts go through, grab your factory nuts, and put them back on. All right. Now that we have the truck back up in the air, and of course, you can do this on the ground on your back, we're going to put our factory 18-millimeter nuts on here, I'm going to thread them all the way down by hand. We've already got the top one in place to hold the bumper on and put these two bottom ones on, on our passenger side. Of course, you want to make sure the bumpers align properly and tighten them down. All right. Tighten it to the top. Okay, repeat that on the other side.Next, we can plug in our factory fog light harness. If your truck came equipped with one, you want to plug that in now. At this point, I've got my wheel well liner pulled back behind your tire here to expose the inside. There is one 10-millimeter bolt that connects in the fender. So, where the bumper meets the fender, you're gonna put that bolt just like that, you're gonna have to reach behind through. There's already threading on the inside of the new bumpers, so you just want to catch the threads and go in with your 10 socket. And I recommend a 1/4-inch ratchet just because it's a tight space. All right. Repeat that on the other side and we can finish up by connecting our wheel well liner.All right. We can bring back down our wheel well liner, tuck it behind. Grab your factory bolts and tighten them back down. All right. Now, our wheel well liner is not in amazing shape. We have a broken one here. So, I only have two that I'm going to put back in at the top and in the middle but you want to make sure you're putting all your hardware back in the same way you took it off. All right. Repeat that on the other side and you're good to go. That's gonna wrap up my review and install for the factory replacement front bumper with the fog light openings for the '13 to '18 RAM 1500, excluding the Rebel. Get yours right here at americantrucks.com.