Here's a status update...

He borrowed my bumper and frame brackets for a few weeks. He built some jigs so he can confidently reproduce it, plus built most of the next one for a test-fit, plus at least portions of the next few bumpers. Before he returned my bumper to me, he cleaned it up and had it powder coated. Wow! I didn't realize its appearance would be so improved with the powder coating and clear coat. I'll be afraid to set tools and stuff on it now because it looks so nice. We had agreed on silver, which does match my silver vehicle pretty closely.

Before he borrowed the bumper, I drilled and cut new holes for standard "oval" semi truck LED lights for new turn signals since I was tired of the dim '84 Toyota turn signals. Today I got the new LED turn signals mounted (flange mount and recessed). Those look awesome too. I'm very surprised the stock turn signal flasher works fine with these LED's. I convinced Layne to go with a nice LED light on his production bumper, and he found some nice surface mount ones that minimize his labor. I'll have to take some pics of mine to share with you guys soon. No one will believe me anymore that my bumper is over 9 years old since it looks so beautiful now.

He said he needs to figure out the options and prices for publication, which should be within a couple weeks. I told him I'd update my old article and include the new prices. Actually I think I should update quite a bit of my article.

I did ask him if he's interested in building bumpers for other vehicles. He prefers larger bumpers since larger ones show a bigger difference in weight between steel and aluminum. He's particularly interested in making bumpers for models that don't have other possibilities (like ARB). He did say that he won't enter the Jeep market because it's so saturated with aftermarket suppliers that it drives the prices way down. His starting price for materials and tooling is way above that for steel parts.

No progress yet on anything with the Tacoma. Just the 4Runner so far.