Front End Swap: 98-00 to a 95-97

Some of you may know about my abnormal boner for the 95-97 front end looks. After years in the making, Monte finally found his way to my garage and I decided to take advantage of him

So I gathered all the parts needed and we went to town. Here's the best I can do for a walkthrough.






Front End Swap

Putting a 95-97 4WD front end on a 98-00 4WD

Tools You May Want (besides the obvious):

Dremel with cut off wheels, grinding wheels, etc
Three square metal file
Ball peen hammer
Drill with bits


Parts Needed:

95-97 4WD grille (mine came with the mounting clips)
95-97 headlight assemblies
Bulbs of your choice
(R/L) 95-97 headlight mounting brackets (PN R: 81113-04010, L: 81153-89149)
(4) Adjustment screws for headlights (PN 81195-89101)
(2) 95-97 Retaining rings for headlights (PN 81111-04010)
(4) Tension springs for headlights (PN 81121-14670) (we used 4, you may use less or more?)
(8) screws to mount retaining rings to headlight mounting brackets (PN 81136-12571)
(R/L) 95-97 4WD Bumper fillers (PN R: 52512-35020, L: 52513-35020) - buy them from Rockauto, they're $3.50 ea.
(R/L) 95-97 4WD Corner lights (buy these aftermarket, they’re 1/3rd the price)
(4) 95-97 retaining clips for corner lights (PN 90189-04144)

First thing is first… master of the household has to let Monte know who’s boss



Step 1:

Remove 98-00 grille, bumper fillers and headlight assemblies. If your truck is anything like mine it requires snipping various zip ties and listening to the sound of brittle clips snapping. Removing the headlight assemblies is pretty straightforward, there is one hidden screw on the bottom. In order to remove the bumper fillers unfasten the one bolt holding it in. Then pull the bottom of the bumper filler down and towards you (as if you’re rotating it up along the horizontal axis). There is a pin that goes through a hold on the bottom of the filler and the top lip of filler is held in place by the clip behind it. By rotating it in the way described above you release the pin from the hole and the top lip will pop off the clip. Once the bumper filler is removed, remove the clips by rotating them out of the hole they’re nested in.

Once everything is removed your front end should look like this:



Step 2:

Loosen and lower the bumper/valence. This makes it a lot easier to keep mocking things up with the 95-97 grille.

Step 3:

Assemble the headlight assemblies. Put the lenses in the mounting brackets then secure down with the retaining rings and four screws.

Step 4:

After looking everything over (eg lining up the headlight assembly, mocking it up with the grille semi in place, etc) we decided to put the vertical adjustment screw in place as our guide to installing the headlight assemblies. On the 98-00 core support there is a square hole the exact size of the adjustment screws plastic retainer. However there is an inner skin that is in the way of the screw adjusting in. So you must drill out the inner skin then make it the same square dimension as the hole. First use the largest/appropriate drill bit. Then Monte used the three-square metal file to perfection and finished off the square hole.









Step 5:

Obviously the shape of the 95-97 headlight mounting brackets are different than the 98-00 headlight holes in the core support. This is where it requires a lot of fine tuning and measuring so that in the end the headlight assemblies will sit level and plumb. For the driver’s side headlight hole we first put the 95-97 headlight assembly in the hole and determined that the upper portion of the hole needed to be trimmed. See the markings below:



We ended up notching the edge of the hole then using a cutting wheel to remove the material



The sheet metal is so thin, that it was actually easier to eventually grab it with needle nose pliers and peel it back. When we did the passenger side second, all we did was notch the entire upper portion of the hole then peel it back with pliers and a little love from the ball peen hammer. Sorry for the shitty picture, you get the idea though



Step 6:

Making another square hole for the horizontal adjustment screw. Murphy’s Madjik’s Law naturally dictates that this hole needs to be placed in a part of the core support that has a curve to it. First thing to do is flatten the area where you will drill the hole. For this we put a piece of flat stock behind the core support where it needs to be flattened. Next we put the flat side of the ball peen hammer up against the outside of the core support and then lightly tapped it with another hammer until the metal was flat. Next step is to drill the hole then make it square (see step three). IMPORTANT: PUT SOMETHING BETWEEN THE CORE SUPPORT AND COOLANT OVERFLOW RESERVOIR BEFORE YOU START TO DRILL. This way you won’t put a hole in the overflow reservoir. Do the same for the passenger side so you don’t drill a hole in the washer fluid reservoir neck..... *AHEM* Monte







Step 7:

Mounting the tension springs. The purpose behind the springs is to hold your headlight assemblies in place yet still allow them to move (for adjustment’s sake). This step is going to be entirely custom to your swap due to the nature of how you trimmed the headlight holes in the core support and, if you chose to do so, the shape of that plastic piece off the 98-00 headlight housing. We found that we needed to mount three springs for the driver’s side: one in the upper right, lower right (not pictured) and lower left corners. We found the mounting spots by playing with the headlight assembly until it sat level and plumb.







Like I said, it’s custom all depending on how the hole was trimmed. For the passenger side we only needed one spring for it to sit perfectly.




I have no idea what the hell is in Monte’s ear canals but I’m scared



Step 8:

We needed to trim the upper corner of the grille to accommodate the uppermost spring.





Step 9:

Mount the grille and put the bumper/valence back into proper place (note the bumper/valence is still lowered in this pic)



Step 10:

Insert 95-97 bumper fillers.

Step 11:

Installing the 95-97 corner lights.

Insert the retaining clips into the holes in the core support.

Install the corner lights.

Step 12:

Insert bulbs (I coated the prongs with dielectric grease before nesting the wiring harness) and properly adjust your headlights.

Obviously do not touch the bulbs with bare fingers. I wore latex gloves the whole time even though the only part of the bulb I touched was the metal ring in the back.

Step 13:

Put the Toyota emblem back on using the two/three screws.

Things of note:

Throughout steps 4-8 we were constantly putting the grille up in place and holding the headlight assemblies in place as well while making adjustments. Never did we decide to mount, drill, etc anything until we were 100% sure it was the right spot.

The new headlight housings and bulbs make a huge difference in terms of light output compared to my original, and oxidized, 1998 lenses. However due to the size, shape and recessed nature of the 95-97 assemblies, there is a noticeable difference in beam pattern. All said and done though the difference in visibility is significantly better now. I’ll just have to get used to the slight difference in pattern.

Hope that helps.

 

Dude, your project is coming together and looking good! Great job on the color matched grill. Now I want to see some finished pics!

Also which headlight housing did you go with?

 

A new wrinkle into the plan.

Next week I'm picking up an 01-04 bumper/valence for a 6-pack.

Will color match, black out and install (will have to hammer out a dent too).

Then the project will be complete.

Thanks for the compliments.

 

Id like to see how it looks without the bug deflector. thoughts?

 

Ha we posted on each other. Hey which headlight assay did you go with?

 

pretty cool!

Props for effort!

 

I always take it off in spring/summer but with all the gravel on the roads in winter, I like the protection.

Ended up going with the Rampage ones. Will return the Vision Xs. Although I am curious to see if the Vision Xs have a wider pattern and less of a spot light effect.

The Rampages have a bulb shield that is not fully incapsulated, while the Vision Xs do. I have no idea if that makes a difference or not.

Thanks. You need to eventually Satoshi this for me

 

Nice write up

entertaining haha

still can't get over how damn good it looks..for reals..

also..there are 2 springs on the passenger side..

in for the finished photos!

 

Corner lights are going to be even trickier to mount than I first thought.

Stay tuned....

 

Nice write up! I'm excited to see the final result and some pictures! I love that front end as well and even contemplated doing that to my '04 double cab.

 

You traitor!


Just kidding, great job and can't wait to see the finished product!

 

Sounds like sour grape jelly to me

Thanks... and yeah, me too.

 

Finished installing the color matched bumper fillers and corner lights. These pics are weird because those four pieces are brand new paint and totally clean while the rest of the truck is covered in winter road grime. You get the idea though.

A couple of things still bother me.

1. The gaps between the headlight housings and the grille

2. The 95-97 grille has a plastic backing behind the emblem. The 98-00 was open air. So the emblem looks pretty stupid to me. If I care enough in the spring, I think I'll color match the plastic backing behind the black emblem.

All in all, it looks pretty decent IMO. I'll have to fully embrace my "good enough" philosophy.

 

Dude. It looks killer.

I don't notice any gaps from the photos really.

Also. I'd color match the emblem. Be easier and cool I think.

 

Could you just dremel out the backing of the emblem?

 

Must be the angle:





As for the emblem, I like Lauren's idea of dremeling it out but I don't think I could do a clean job. It'll either be color matching the emblem or the backing behind it.

Come spring time... which is when I might put the 01-04 bumper, which I just picked up, on.

 

Which raises the question...

What the hell does the 95-97 emblem look like?

 

Looks the same?

Also, I see why all the 95-97s are missing a bumper filler or two. What a horrible design for retaining clips. Seems like they won't do shiat.

 

Pretty much yea.