does anyone know if the 99 front bumper can be replaced with a 96-98 bumper with little or no tweaking?? i really hate my 99 and would rather swap in a 96-98 front bumper as long as its all bolt on or little work. thanks for help in advance.

Emmanuel

 

Not too sure about that, the 96-98 and 99-02 use different brackets.

 

I recently bought a '96 4runner which has a '99+ bumper on it.. so i would say yes, you can swap them with very little to no extra work.

BTW, your the first i've ever herd that wants the earlier O.E. style bumper. I've considered doing the same (swaping an original 96-98 bumper back on) but i don't think i'll be wheeling mine enough to justify doing so....plus i already have lights mounted on it.

I'll look at how mine was mounted Sunday late afternoon and let you know...

 

It wont be hard. I did it the other way around

 

You may have to weld and reposition the brackets.

 

I saw a 99+ bumper at the junkyard the other day and was curious about this aswell. Hopefully someone has done this that can educate us.

 

id swap mine out for a 96-98 with the pp front spoiler

 

i noticed your in los angeles, i have a 96 chrome i was thinking of putting on the 99....would u want to trade? mine in in perfect condition, no dents. easier since we can straight trade brackets and everything. let me know.

 

Sktdvs, my '99+ front bumper on my '96 is a 99.9% direct bolt on...NO significant mods were needed. The main brackets are the same.

 

thanks for all the help guys, imma give it a try so how it goes. thanks

 

i wanted to do this too if it wasnt a pain. How about the signal bulbs. Do they just screw onto the 99 bumper signals.

 

Cool! Keep up updated.

 

Did you take any pics of the process?
Can you take some pics of where the brackets mount if you didn't already?

......there might be a few looking for a newer bumper! (myself included)

 

this is the perfect thread! i have stumbled across a free tjm and full leather interior that i need to get today. the only problem is, i have to put my 98 bumper on to the 2000 i am getting the bumper off of. i have my camera, so i will take some quick pics of the "alterations to the brackets" if any are needed.

 

also take pics what to do with the turn signals, im guessing their different and will need to be cut and spiced into the old ones. let me know as were gonna trade off bumpers on thursday.

 

will do!
i am thinking this will be easier for me, since i am going to keep the lights that are already in the tjm (so long as they share the same screw in type connection), and i am going to leave my lights in my bumper...again, as long as the screw in type connection is the same.

 

This is awkward. I had planned to put on a 99 front bumper on my 97 but I heard from a number of people that the 96-98 and 99-02 used different brackets and a new one would be needed to accomodate a 99-02 bumper on a 96-98, but from what I hear in this thread, looks like I'll be looking into a 99 bumper again.

 

me too

 

well, no pics because we had to finish stripping out and replacing 2 interiors and making sure my truck would be able to fit the tjm (99+ brackets going on a 98). well, that went well. i have 8 bolts holding the tjm on for right now and we had that removed/installed in about 45 minutes!

now for the mouting of the 98 bumper to the 2000....
there are 8 bolts holding the bumper on right now. however! the truly different mounts is on the 2 ends of the front bumper right in front of the wheels. but, seeing the truck is being totalled, we didn't care. i do have to admit though...it looks so crunched in on the later models...

 

so the brackets from the 99 fit on the 98 and vise versa on the other runner?

did u happen to notice if the signal lights mounts are different? if the one from the 98 will be able to fit inside the hosuing for the singal on the 99?

so the only things that didnt match up were the two end mounts of the bumper switching to the 99? would a bracket have to be made?