Cut and weld-it-yourself bumper blueprints

The cool thing about our trucks is that the bumper is flat on top, makes it Soo much easier to make one

 

You need the dx cut file.

Take the file to any fab shop with a plasma table and they can cut you the parts.

Plasma spider.com has a file for a FourRunner. Might be something you are interested in.

 

hmmm maybe the earliest 3rd gens but this one is definitely missing some stuff taco frame rails have (not talking about ends of frame that were cut to fit ARB bumper already).

2000 T4R


01-04 Taco

 

Taco frame rails changed through the years too I believe 3 times

 

But all have two threaded holes on the bottom. The only changes were to the horns at the end. 96-97 were short with regular horns, 98-00 were long with regular horns, and 01-04 were short with larger plates on the ends of the horns.

 

Well yeah that's constant on all 4 runner and tacomas, gotta mount the tow hook/eye there

 

I’m not seeing them on that frame rail in the picture. That’s where the Tacoma ARB bumper is supposed to bolt to and they’re talking about drilling a hole there and running a long bolt all the way through from top to bottom on that video.

 

They're there, every 3rd gen 4 runner and 1st gen tacoma has them

Well at least my buddies 96,97 my 98 my 01 4 runners do and my 95 tacoma did

 

Then they’d have to be further back in the frame so you couldn’t see them in the picture. I heard you couldn’t swap t4r bumpers to Tacoma’s but maybe it’s armchair mechanic myth.

 

I agree I don`t see them either I wonder was the front of the frame changed

 

https://youtu.be/Wey2f8n0Klc

Read the description

 

So after inspecting @Timmah! ’s ARB Tacoma bumper install on a 2000 T4R I think I noticed the key differences between the frame horns. Most importantly the width is the same which, if you’re diying a bumper based on measurements from one or the other for the opposite, you’ll be glad.

So on Tacoma’s there’s never a welded plate that is wider than the frame rails at the ends of them. Even 01-04 which had the frame horn extensions that were wider than the rails were bolt on as you can see here. The extensions are removed and you can see the threaded bolt hole that was used to secure them to the frame horns.



The 98-00 Taco frames were longer, but you could slide aftermarket bumpers over them if there were holes left for them like the Trail Gear bumper or they were deep enough to cover them like the ARB bumper because they didn’t have anything wider than the frame rail itself welded to it.

However on this 00 T4r you can see a big welded plate on the end of longer frame rails similar to the 98-00 Tacoma’s longer frame rails which didn’t have any plates welded to the ends of them. The plate had to be cut off in order to get the ARB bumper to fit which isn’t necessary on Tacoma’s which all had regular frame rails once you unbolted bumpers and frame extensions from them.



Just guessing I’d say there’s a chance the design for both vehicles is the same up to the tow hook holes and varies from facelift to facelift on each model. So it’s petty cool how similar they are if you don’t mind a bit of cutting and maybe welding depending on what you’re ideas are.

 

So they all have the same mounts, some just have extra metal... Sounds about right and insignificant if you have the skill and facilities to fab a bumper you should be able to snip excess metal

I had to chop up my 01 4 runners frame to fit a bumper

 

Mounting holes for the hooks and possibly the two threaded holes on the sides of the radiator body mounts. Idk about those though - if they were the same you’d be able to install a Trail Gear bumper for a Tacoma on them.

 

That's something I was thinking about the holes may be the same but their spacing in relation to the body/front end may be different

 

Based on this thread it looks like they’re close enough to work loosely - the guy’s install is a little questionable, but if you really needed to make it work by modding the bumper it seems like it would work. The Trail Gear bumper uses all 4 tow hook holes and the body mount holes - not sure why he has only one bolt in the body mount - whether one hole doesn’t line up or he hadn’t finished installing all the hardware (which it looks like he’s missing a washer on the bolt in there). I had to wallow out those holes on my Tacoma so hard to say completely.



Same as the ARB, he had to cut the oem bumper mounts to get the bumper to slide over the frame rails.



I would have done a better job making them to length and actually welded a threaded bolt cap and a full plate on the bumper for one more tie in on the same bumper on my 98.



Only additional mod wasn’t frame related and had to clearance a place for the AC line in the bumper.

 

Yeah none of the body mount holes lined up with the weld it yourself bumper I got from true north fab it bolted up fine with the 4 tow hook bolts and lines up with the body perfectly

 

Pics? Did you just drill new holes for the body mounts?

 

Still have it?

 

Yeap, on my laptop that I don't use when I find the time to boot it out to f hybernation