Go into my gallery and look in the "Aftermarket Leather" and there are pics on the grill guard. I hope these will help you in your decision. It's an AWESOME grill. No problems.

You will notice in the pic called "Driver's Side Brace" you can see that the braces are NOT touching the bumper at all. They only touch at the 90 deg turn once the brace is in the engine compartment on the back side of the bumper.

Sorry for the quality of some of the pics but you will get the idea.

 

Decisions, decisions. Thanks for taking and posting the pics! I really like the bars. But those nicks it makes on the paint really concern me. I'm very **** when it comes to vehicle scratches, marks, dings, etc. If there was a way to install them so that they didn't leave a mark, I'd seriously consider them. I know they're on the bottom of the grill, but it would annoy me so bad knowing they're there. I find it hard to believe that they purposely designed them to rub against the paint.

In one pic, you said it bolted into the bumper metal. Was there a place to specifically mount them? How did you bolt them to the bumper?

 

You can see there where they attatch to the bumper. Now I cannot answer for certain if the metal is the actual bumper or if it is a metal sheet between the bumper. You should open your hood and take a look in there.