I have an 01 Tacoma... I bent the OE skid plate... which can be fixed fairly easily with a hammer.

However, it also bent the forward support for the skid plate rearwards and slightly twisted it upwards on one side. There is no room to get in there with a hammer and pound it back into place. And it is fairly close to the bottom of the radiator.

I want to fix it... and get the skid plate straightened out and back on.

The only way I can think of to fix it is to anchor it to something and pull... another vehicle, a come-a-long, a winch, etc... but the thought of that makes me nervous.

Any thoughts suggestions???

 

yea, just strap it to a tree as far down the tree as possible so you dont hit that radiator. put it in reverse and ease it real slow. if you can get someone to watch it while your backin it up so you know when to stop so you dont rip it off. i had to do that with my body it had a wrinkle in it from someone hitting me. i tied it to a tree and let it do the work for me.

 

Yah, that is about what I had in mind. It just wigs me out a little...

 

yea i was a little scared too. but i just figured if something broke i can push it back in, stick a piece of rubber or something to cushion between the radiator and the rope. i had to yank mine

 

skid plate is off, so the only thing I am worried about damaging is the front bumper, because that is lower than the front support.

if i can attach it low enough that should work.... ehhhhh hopefully

 

good luck

 

Pull the radiator and bumper off .

cut the old support out make a new one. I found this support does little it is so weak I could move it by hand

I pulled all those plates off my truck at the time of the first wrenching to get all the dropped tools out then never put them back on.

I sure would not treat them as any sort of protection as you seem to have found out.

 

yeah...take radiator out of there and then you can pound on it.

radiator removal and install is a piece of cake, just need a big bucket