By
mystery156, December 21, 2011
hello i have a ae102 or in other words a 1995 corolla... ive been wanting to do some body work on it.... and iam not really into body kit... and cant find a good enough lip that i like for my car ether... one day i saw a corolla on cardomain were he swapped the front with a 2002 corolla... and i havent been able to find anything ever since... does anyone know were i can find more information or if u know anyone that has done this type of swap... can anyone lead me. id appreciate any input
Quite a few early 8th gens swapped to the later 8th gen front ends without too much work. Fortunately, the 7th gen Corolla is similar, dimensionally, so the front end will look OK. But new mounting points will have to fabricated. Depending on if you want to swap over the corner lamps as well - a fair amount of body work will also be involved.
Is it doable - sure, but that relies heavily on your experience with fabrication and body work. Not a plug and play swap - you'll have to pull the hood off the 8th gen and mod that, or mod the 7th gen hood to fit the contours of the lamp assemblies. Fender can be swapped, but again - have to mod the 8th gen fender to fit or mod the 7th gen fender to match the contours of the corner lamps.
I've seen only a handful few clean examples - 7th gen Corolla sedans and even wagons! Takes a lot of fabrication to bring it all together - if you have access to a body shop, even better. Be hard pressed to get something halfway looking right in your typical home garage.
I do have bodywork experience... And thank you.. I knew it wasn't going to be easy and iam up for the challenge.... Hopefully everything turns out well.. do u know were u found those gen7 's
Do u think it would be easier to swap the corse support
They used to post on TRDforums several years ago. One had a white 7th gen wagon, used the side skirts from the TRD package (curiously, they were a bolt on affair, as same wheelbase between the 7th gen and 8th gen). Fair amount of body work on the front, as the 8th gen bumper and hood lines up differently compared to the 7th gen. Rear, just kept the OEM 7th gen. Think he mentioned that it was more involved than just the bumper cover - radiator support need to be modded, brackets removed/moved, front reinforced bar need to be dropped, etc.
Some of them kept the 7th gen projector style lamps and modded the bumper to fit, the white wagon kept the 2001 style lamps. Think that owner was from P.R. - big Toyota community there. Really no good DIY guides out there, as this is too custom of a job to write something up - varying levels of fabrication experience made for different approaches to the swap. Those with metal fabrication/cutting/welding experience added new bracket where needed, those with more fiberglass/molding experience modded the bumper cover to "fit" the existing points, bolted on sheet metal brackets where strength was needed.
ive seen were they mod the front 2001 bumper to fit the 7th gen... thats why i bought the fenders, front bumper, headlights,,,, just waiting for the hood to come in... ill start a new thread and put up all the pictures of the swap... would really like to talk to one the the guys that have done it... would help..
Topic List: Go to Toyota Corolla, Chevy Prizm (1998-2008)
