Bumper mounting same between 95 and 99?

Looking at a potential front bumper that someone's selling. Was previously installed on a 95 Tacoma and wondering if it'll fit on my '99.

 

The frame horns on a '95 are about 2" shorter than a '99. You can make the bumper fit, by cutting off the extra on the '99. This is a common practice on '98-00 Tacoma's, with most of the big vendors (Relentless, CBI, etc.)

'96-97 and '01-04 are the same, it's just the '98-00 that have the longer horns.

 

Can you expand on that last sentence? Would a 97 bumper bolt on to an 01?

 

Yep. With the caveat of the whole grill/face being a bit different, so there might be some superficial fitment issues there.

Here's a photo of my '00, which has the longer frame horns. You can see that the driver side has been cut off, but the passenger hasn't (yet). So, that driver side (as shown) is the same length as '95-97/'01-04.

 

The frame mounts are the same. The brackets between the frame and bumper are different, so make sure you get those to match whatever bumper you want.

 

Are you sure? I was under the "personal experience" impression that the horns on the front (that are being cut off my truck above) were different.

 

Sorry, sloppy wording on my part. I meant to add detail, not contradict. It's not clear to me whether we're talking about OE or aftermarket bumpers, so it's hard to tell what details are important.

The frame horns are indeed different, but the four bolts that the factory bumper attaches to are (as far as I know) the same across all 1st gen Tacomas. For some reason they're ever-so-slightly different on 3rd gen 4Runners though, in case anyone was wondering.

 

Ahh, yes! I was under the impression (but maybe it's just Relentless that does it) that aftermarket bumpers all used the holes on the side of the frame as well as the frame horns (after removing the crumple blocks) for bumper mounting.

Didn't know about the difference with 4Runners. Weird.

 

The OE bumper mounts aren't strong enough to support an off-road/winch bumper by themselves, so aftermarket bumpers also use some combination of the tow hook mounts, the crush can/bar mounts, or a custom welded-in crossmember.

But none of that matters if we're actually talking about swapping OE bumpers

Very weird, and frustrating for me. I have a 4Runner bumper on my truck and it "almost" bolts up, but the spacing between the two holes on each side is different by 1/2" or so.

 

Thanks. Basically I want to get a 97 OEM bumper and grille on an.01-04 But hoping it would bolt up