I’m trying to figure out the name of the metal frame that wraps around the front of the hood where the fenders are attached, and where the hood latch is attached as well. The '97 Toyota Tacoma that my grandfather owns was recently involved in a front-end-to-rear-end crash that forced the front end of the '97 Tacoma to bend inward tremendously. The “unknown” metal frame that hold the fenders and the hood latch buckled inward, and I’m trying to find a replacement for it.
Are you talking about the “cross-member” ?
Radiator support.
Tester
@LasagnaHog
Can you provide some pictures, please?
You may or may not need a body shop.
My brother did the same thing to a car of his. I replaced the hood, grille, battery and lights.
Since the radiator core support was all welded, I straightened everything with a portopower and a slide hammer with pulling attachments. I must say the car looks pretty darn good,
I suggest getting lights, grille, hood, etc. at a pick your own parts junkyard. The savings are well worth a little work on your part.
I think you are talking about the “front clip”.
here is the part…I believe it’s welded into the structure of the vehicle…
I’m with bloody knuckles on this one . . . always called it a front clip. Rocketman
I’ve always heard the ‘front clip’ referring to the front bodywork. Hood fenders grill etc.
I’d call that part the radiator support.
Go to your toyota dealer parts department and ask them to print out exploded views from the parts catalog.
fenders , radiator and support, hood latch, or any other till you see your area.
Or take the pictures with you to the car and compare.
It might be a single parts or it may be an assembly, these parts diagrams will help you help yourself.
Yeah a front clip is the entire sheet metal front. Grill, fenders, hood, all together.
Just a word of caution though. I’ve done a little hobbiest body work, and if you aren’t familiar enough to know the names of the parts, can’t weld, measure, grind, align, paint and so on, it might not be a good idea to tackle something like this. Just swapping parts is one thing but restoring a radiator support to properly latch the hood takes a little more skill. I guess depending, I’d be inclined to strip the bolt on parts, then take it to a body shop for the support replacement and checking the frame alignment. Then you can bolt the new parts on, then back to the body shop for painting.
The Tacoma has a full frame. The part that I believe you’re alluding to is the radiator support and the inner wheelwells. Both are metal, and I think the inner wheelwells need welding to the cab and the radiator support gets welded to the inner wheelwells. The wholle assemblage gets mounted to the frame using body mounts.
A “clip” I think of as being an entire front or rear end from a unibody. I don’t think ull framed vehicles have “clips”.
A front clip is all the components that can be unbolted from from the front of vehicle. This includes the fenders, fender liners, hood, header/grill, bumper, and air dam.
All other components are structual. Such as the radiator support.
Tester
radiator support or core support. Sometimes this is a one piece part and sometimes it consists of
upper tie bar
lower tie bar
and lt & rt sides.
It is not a ft clip which consists of fender, grille, support, apronsand some cooling.
The auto body mechanic called the metal frame an “apron”. Is that a legit name?
I’ve repaired front end collisions on all sorts of vehicles for over 40 years. And that part is called either the radiator support or the core support.
Never heard it called an apron.
Tester
the apron is the structural part behind the fenders.
He may have been refering to the fender apron. The inner fender support (apron) goes from the core support to the cowl.
If you need to replace the inner fender I’ll bet you need alot of parts.
I always called it the core support.