Spare tire mount reinforcement kit now available from Ford Performance Parts

[bebrown1075]

They fit. I still need to clean the glue and replace the Bronco. One hole for the exoskeleton bolt wasn't tapped correctly. I had to redo it to make the bolt fit. Other than that, I think it is pretty well made.

I received my kit Friday after picking it up from my local dealer.

I too am having issues with the 2 holes on the left side of the top and bottom hinge. Sadly the bottom hinge started to take the bolt but then seized up and now cannot be removed. The top hinge left side bolt will not thread at all.

I have sent an Email to [email protected] which is the tech support Email and will follow up with a call.

It seems they have some QC issues with these hinges and makes me feel a bit better it isn't just me but seem to be worse off than others who were able to chase the holes.

Hopefully others see this posting and can check the exoskeleton holes before installing the whole kit.

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[Steve B]

I received my kit Friday after picking it up from my local dealer.

I too am having issues with the 2 holes on the left side of the top and bottom hinge. Sadly the bottom hinge started to take the bolt but then seized up and now cannot be removed. The top hinge left side bolt will not thread at all.

I have sent an Email to [email protected] which is the tech support Email and will follow up with a call.

It seems they have some QC issues with these hinges and makes me feel a bit better it isn't just me but seem to be worse off than others who were able to chase the holes.

Hopefully others see this posting and can check the exoskeleton holes before installing the whole kit.

I only had the issue on one of the kits. The other kit worked perfect. I had one that was stuck. I put my impact on it and it came out fairly easy. Over all, it appears to be a good set up and the price was worth the issues to me. Looks like there will be a lot of these on the road in the next week or two.

 

[cobretti]

They fit. I still need to clean the glue and replace the Bronco. One hole for the exoskeleton bolt wasn't tapped correctly. I had to redo it to make the bolt fit. Other than that, I think it is pretty well made.

Same here also had one hole that I had to re-tap.

 

[SoloBronco]

Mine arrived on Saturday and I got it installed over the weekend. Like others, I swapped one hinge at a time. I used a M8 stud in one of the hinge bolt holes to ensure the nut plate stayed in place while I swapped the hinge. Definitely much easier to make adjustments and get the alignment right with a second set of hands.

I’m not sure I love the matte black horse. I had a gloss black one - it might look better given the hinges are gloss black but at least Ford included something in the kit.

One thing that was not included in the instructions - my new hinges did not come with the little plastic limiter piece(I think that’s what it does?). I popped it off the old hinges when I took each one off and inserted it into the new hinges.

 

[lewy]

So mine was finally shipped and arrived yesterday. I installed it today. Took a couple hours. Most of which were dealing with the buggered up bolts from previous owner of my Bronco and getting the rubber tire bumper off. Those stupid body clips that you unscrew the center of are annoying. Especially when the previous owner really screwed a couple of them up.
I did remove the tailgate but just sat it in the back instead of disconnecting cables. I marked the existing hinges, but that ended up being useless for me because the ones that were on there were different sizes and didn’t help. I had my father help with fitting it back in place and aligning it. Wasn’t hard at all.
Other than the messed up bolts from previous owner the only problem I ran in to was that the left bolt on the bottom bracket that holds the reinforcement plate on has something up with the threads and I can’t get that bolt to go in. It might just be paint in the hole. I’m going to run a thread chaser through it tomorrow to try to clean it up. Hopefully that takes care of it.
And I have to find a new way to mount my gmrs/ham antenna as my cheap Amazon bracket won’t fit with the reinforcement plate. Oh and I need to add the Bronco logo still. Got too late and cold to keep going tonight.

I had the same problem with the bottom left bolt as well. And I did exactly that ran a thread chaser in it and it went right in. I believe it was a M8 for the rest of you . I would check it before installing the hinge.

 

[DaveInSA]

Using the thread chaser on my stubborn bolt hole worked fine.
I got a cheap kit off amazon:
https://a.co/d/9hFZTPG

The M8x1.25 is what I used.

Still need to put the bronco on it.

 

[derichio02]

Mine just shipped but I no longer need it. I’m going to sell it once it arrives. Not looking to make money just to get most of mine back. I’m in SoCal if anyone is interested DM me. Northern LA County.

Mine arrived today and is up for grabs. Again, I just want to make my money back so $275 and its yours. I am in Northern Los Angeles County. I will ship at buyers expense but due to the weight and box size it can get expensive.

 

[CarGuy]

They fit. I still need to clean the glue and replace the Bronco. One hole for the exoskeleton bolt wasn't tapped correctly. I had to redo it to make the bolt fit. Other than that, I think it is pretty well made.

Looks like the horse is crashing into the support and is in mid-end over.

 

[Steve B]

Looks like the horse is crashing into the support and is in mid-end over.

Yeah. I need to remove it and the glue and add the replacement horse. The glue is challenging. Go0 Gone works, but it is time consuming.

 

[KRAKEN]

I am interested in seeing what the exoskeleton looks like... can someone snap a photo & post.
Also.. is the exterior "cover" plastic?

 

[nolimits]

I am interested in seeing what the exoskeleton looks like... can someone snap a photo & post.
Also.. is the exterior "cover" plastic?

See post #252 and #264. Also a few pics afterwards that show it.

I decided to cancel my order this AM and going with the Turn Offroad brace & hinges instead. I just want something much stronger and more bulletproof.

We will see how it works out. Ironically, after FP auto canceled my first order, they are now giving me grief over cancelling this second order I placed on 2/7 as more than 60 minutes has expired since I placed the order. The second order gave a 2/12 delivery date to the dealer. They failed to meet their own date by 6 days. They have escalated to their operations team to see if there is anything more they can do. Gag!

I don’t really care about the dates, I just want to go a different direction. LOL, I feel like I am in one of those CareerBuilder.com commercials.

 

[KRAKEN]

Thanks... I saw those photos... really looking for a photo from the back side before installation.

 

[zer010gic]

I ordered this kit as well since it was cheaper than the hinges by themselves, but I still plan to use the hammer-built raptor plate.

 

[Steve B]

I ordered this kit as well since it was cheaper than the hinges by themselves, but I still plan to use the hammer-built raptor plate.

I just looked that up. That would be a much better set up than the plastic exoskeleton if it works with the new hinge set up.

 

[zer010gic]

I just looked that up. That would be a much better set up than the plastic exoskeleton if it works with the new hinge set up.

As long as they are the raptor hinges, they should work. Is there any indication that these are not the same hinges as the Raptor uses?

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