Converting 1999 2wd Tacoma grille and headlights to 95-97 style

So, life happened to throw an opportunity in my lap.. my friend slid down the icy hill of my driveway, and the corner of his F250’s rear bumper punched right through my grille. Dented the core support, folded the hood inwards, pushed back my AC evap and radiator. I managed to manhandle everything back into drivable shape, but as I now need a new grille, I figured I might as well take the opportunity to try and swap it over to the 95-97 style, as I prefer the look and I’m a sucker for glass headlight lenses.

How adaptable do y'all think that would be? If I were to get a 95-97 core support, would everything pretty much mount right up?

For some added context in case it matters much, my truck is a 1999 2wd base model, single cab, 2.4, 5 speed manual

 

I've a 98 and would love to switch to that DeLorean look even with the dimmer yellow headlites...

however I dont think the hood matches up.....

unless you find some adaptor solution out there...

pull up the pics and go back and forth.

 

its been done if you type “95-97 grill fonversion” a lot of info.

 

@Madjik_Man did this on his truck, and wrote about it here: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/front-end-swap-98-00-to-a-95-97.307810/

His truck is 4wd/6-lug, which does have slightly different body panels than a 2wd/5-lug, but I don't think any of the differences are relevant to this swap. Just make sure you get the 2wd parts whenever there's an option.

Summarizing what's in that thread: Apart from the obvious differences (grille and lights), the only major difference between the early front end and the first refresh front end is the core support. The hood and fenders you have should be fine. If you're going to replace your core support anyway, just get one for an early truck and everything should bolt up. If you're going to keep your core support, you'll have to do a bit of fabrication, as documented in the front-end swap thread.

In addition to the core support, you'll need headlights (and the associated mounting buckets/hardware), corner lights, grille, and the filler panels that sit below the head lights. Ideally you'd get those filler panels paint-matched, but you can get away with leaving them black or leaving them out entirely if you aren't a perfectionist.

 

95.5-97 has same hood as 98-00, the core support will be a bit different at the headlights, 98-00 have larger hole behind the headlight housing than 95.5-97, may give you some issues with fitment but you could likely find ways to make it work

 

A bit of a quirk in Toyota's timeline... the refreshed front end typically referred to as "98-00" was actually applied to 5-lug trucks for the 1997 model year before 6-lug trucks got it in 1998.

 

awesome, thank you!! With my biggest pair of channel locks, I was able to get the core support *mostly* straight, the hood lines up and latches to it, so I think it’ll probably be fine and not need replacing, although I’ll probably try to fine tune it at some point. I imagine replacing it would probably be a lot more involved than modifying it, not to mention how far I’d have to drive to the nearest scrapyard where I could find one. As for the bumper fillers, I’ve been missing the one on my driver’s side since I bought the truck 5 years ago, and it hasn’t ever bothered me enough to buy a new one. She’s covered in dents, scratches, and dings, it’s all part of the charm!

 

I should share my conversion here. wrecking yard parts cut from a 95 Tacoma and bolted to the thankfully deeper light cavities of the 98. aftermarket grill and sidemarkers. Looks great.
I had the new white under the headlight pieces powdercoated but haven't been able to get them to clip into place satisfactorily. and I'm not sure I care.

 

a fuckin dually?????? god dammit I am jealous lmao, that’s so sweet. Not sure if you’d know since yours is a 6 lug, but from where I’ve seen aftermarket 95-97 grills listed online, they all have the RWD and 4WD grills listed separately, and the listings say that the 4WD grills aren’t compatible with RWD. I have absolutely no idea why that would be the case, aside from the fact that one design is “not supposed to” be on the other, just because that wasn’t that truck’s grill design from the factory. But I prefer the style of the 4WD grill, and I can’t imagine it wouldn’t just mount right up to my RWD truck

 

So the black bit is cut from the core support of a '95 and just self-tappered to the core support of your '98?

I've never tried myself, but I have seen pictures of trucks with the "wrong" grilles on them. I'd expect them to fit fine.

 

First off, what you are looking at is a five lug 98 Tacoma with six lug dually adapters. That dual axle is a genuine 1989 Toyota full floating rear-end GIVEN to me by Toyota for free in a campaign to replace all the mini-winnie fake dually standard axles that were spinning bearings. All I had to buy was seven dually wheels and the adapters and the labor to bolt it all on. Can you believe it! Also, what you are looking at is a short bed 1998 cab/engine/5spd welded to the frame and bed from a totaled 1980 10' stake bed truck shown here. By the way, I drove it for 43 years, I bought it new. http://tinyurl.com/Crazy8Truck






I had to find a 3.42 8" third member to match up with the new tranny ratio. The original was 4.10. (edited from, 4.30. Ask kiko why.)
I put 2" front spring spacer/lifts to attempt to raise the front. I got about 1.3" not quite as nice as the 1980's easy torsion bar lift. I'll just have to live with it because I don't want the expense of the spindle swap option. The grill and side marker kit was supposedly 4WD and it fit the 2WD fine. Here it is on eBay

https://www.ebay.com/itm/201089387495

Who knows why they don't admit that they fit both 4WD & 2WD. They would sell more I would think. I'm thinking of doing a whole workup on the conversion. I took a lot of pictures all along the process. Those mirrors are for a 90s RAM, they swing up in moose antler style. That was a chore but they are perfect. I'm just now finishing up with adding a Tacoma tach cluster to this Speedo-only truck.

 

By the way, I didn't need a new core support, I just took a 4" grinder and cut the headlight area out of a 95, and whittled it down to the bare minimum. It bolts in about 1/4" forward of the 98s core support. Good luck. If you buy the grill kit I referenced just remember that the side markers go in last and hold the grill tighter than the old grill could ever be. Super tight. No rattles. I know because I tried to put the markers in first and almost returned the whole thing thinking it didn't work. One side marker had to be shaved on the bottom to conform to the body but it is completely unnoticeable. There was also a little shaving on the back of the grill for a pipe to either the radiator or the condenser. good 'ol 4" grinders! How'd we do anything without them?

 

I can say I would absolutely spend an evening reading through your conversion build if you put it together. Such a cool truck

 

I’m just now seeing this, this is super super helpful, thank you!! Do I necessarily need to get new side markers? From all of what I’ve seen, they look like they’re all pretty much right in line with the sides of the hood, on the older and newer styles. Sooo, I’m imagining that it wouldn’t affect the fitment of the grill, since both styles appear to be leaving the same amount of space in between the two markers, but I could be mistaken, hence why I’m asking lol. I don’t really care if it matches up aesthetically, it’s a work truck, so close enough is enough for me. Thanks for confirming that the 4WD grill will work, I will go that route, although I’ll probably look for a chrome one.

 

I recommend you get the sidemarkers that come with the grill as they actually hold the grill in in a fashion that the original side markers could not. It's a integrated system more than just independent universal replacement parts. I'm really impressed with it because the side markers hold the grill so tightly that it could never rattle like the rattletrap original grille. The original grille was the noisiest element of the truck before I did the conversion. The Chrome version would look great too. It was a tough decision, but no turning back for me. Adapting the pieces you cut out of a donor truck is going to test your creative abilities. I did a lot of mocking up and measuring to make sure I drilled holes accurately for the fasteners because if they are off even by a little the margins won't be even when the grill is attached. Make sure you get the plastic parts that contact the buckets and springs and adjusters (I don't show the buckets here) The sealed beams are held in a bucket by a chrome ring, and that bucket is isolated from metal to metal by the nylon peices that help allowing the units to adjust up and down and sideways. I had to make a special trip back to the wrecker for small parts. Good luck. I hope you find a worthy donor and have good 4" grinder skills.