okay so when i was leaving my student parking lot it was pretty backed up and i looked over for one sec and BOOM i gave the person in front of me a little love tap. Their car has no damage at all which is great and i thought mine had no damage until i got home and i noticed that the front bumper on the sides were sagging just a bit and well i need some tips on what to do about it and or should i just replace the bumper with the 1999 - 2003 model wich was what i planned on doing anyways???

 

1999-03 models require a different grille iirc. As for bringing the sides back up did you try loosening the bolts that bolt the bumper to the frame and moving it around till it sit's right? And post pictures too, those will help.

 

IIRC the 99-03 have different mounting brackets to the frame than the 97-98, There is a guy on here that did that though, I believe it was "Raptor05121". I believe the whole front would have to be changed around, Grill, Bumper, Valence (unless 1 piece), & mounting hardware. support structure and hood latch and the like I think are the same so they don't need to be messed with but I don't know myself,

 

Yea a lot of people on here have done it, and your right you need the new hardware upper bumper pad, bumper valence, and grille. Everything else is the same iirc.

 

The bumpers on these trucks are pretty tough. If you hit a "car" and it jarred your bumper loose to where it sags, there had to be damage to the car.

 

Pictures would definitely help to describe what he's talking about, I have a feeling it can be fixed but just moving the bumper bolts around and re-tightening them.

 

99+ Swap =

New bumper brackets x2 (you can reuse the same bolts from the 98)
New grille
New bumper, upper pad, and valance (can reuse the same bolts from the 98)

 

First, stay in school. This will help with run on sentences. Just messin'. Perfect time for an upgraded 99 and newer front end. I'd see if there is a junk yard close by that lets you grab your own parts. I put mine in a snow filled ditch once, either live with the misaligned parts or replace.

 

https://www.f150online.com/forums/me...6-imag0193.jpg

https://www.f150online.com/forums/me...7-imag0194.jpg

https://www.f150online.com/forums/me...8-imag0195.jpg

here are the pics

 

Definitely looks like it could be fixed by loosening the bolts and pulling it back up and re-tightening them.

 

I know I am retarded but where are the bolts and what to use to un tighten them?

 

And how would hitting a car going like 3mph do this without bending anything?

 

Worst case scenario it bent the frame inside the bumper (not your trucks), best case your bolts were loose with age and the force caused it to shift.

And just crawl up under your truck you'll have to pull that rubber mat thing off (you can get new plastic pop in things to put it back on at autozone for a couple bucks) and look up on top your frame rails were it meets the bumper and you'll see a perch on either side. Reach your hand up there and you'll feel two big bolts on both sides, just loosen those up, shift it around till it looks level, and re-tighten. It helps to have a second person hold it in place while you tighten, you don't have too I've done mine like 30 times by myself by laying on my back and kinda bracing it in place with my knees though. The nuts are somewhere in the 20mm+ size if I remember correct.

 

Do I need that rubber mat thingy or can i just toss it and not worry bout puttin it back in?

 

I don't run one on my truck anymore, but from what I head it's supposedly will make your ac blow cooler and what not because it re-directs more air to the radiator and other cooler's located up in the front. But I haven't had mine on since I guess last christmas since with the new bumper it just collected snow there and was a pain to clean out so I ditched mine haha.