hey everyone, i have bought a 1997 tacoma from a friend of mine to use as a work truck, he rear-ended someone at low speed and only had liability on it and didn't want to pay to get it fixed so i bought it off of him for real extremely cheap, the damage is minor but the radiator core support is bent/wrinkled up quite a bit on the driver side.

My question is, If I go to a junk yard and drill the spot welds off of one and bring it home, would it be possible to turn it into a bolt on installation rather than spot welding it back on? I know it would probably take some time, but I was just wondering if it's possible/safe and if anyone has ever done it?

Another question I have, if anyone has ever did the front end conversion or swapped one of these, do you happen to remember how many spot welds hold it on? I looked for them, and they're very hard to see on this one.

 

They make them hard to see for a reason, and bolting it on allows it to shift. If you do, make sure your bolts are lock washered on, and its drilled exactly precise. I think you will have to figure out some new mounting locations too, since the welds are flush, and bolts will interfere with a few bolted on things.

Someone on here did a front end conversion to a 2001+ setup, do a search for that and you will be able to ask them, or just view their thread.

 

If you really want to do a bolt on set up I would suggest mounting the radiator to the mount frame or just not removing the new junk yard one and adding some steel to it via welding and then drilling once it is together, however if you go that far you will most likely be better off just welding it in the first place in the same way!!

 

buy a new core support and weld it on.. I did see a thread on here of someone using aircraft grade rivets.