Went shopping around today and ended up buying a Bugflector by autoventshade at the Campway's dealer. Took it home and installed it in about 20 minutes. Had to take off the grill, which provided a couple of crunchy moments as I took handtools to my new baby. My wife was LHAO at me while she was "helping" hold the hood. The grill is very easy to take off, but I had to adjust the lower hood stops after I installed the shield (The hood wouldn't close) These are adjustable by either screwing the black rubber stops in or out, or loosening a bolt and moving the arm that holds the stop back and forth. After all that, no injuries to my baby and it looks sharp! Silver with a smoke hood protector.
Added a picture to my gallery.
Take it easy!
KD

https://www.f150online.com/galleries....cfm?gnum=3190

 

It looks nice with the ventshade on!

 

KDTruckie, others have mentioned the need to remove the grille to install the bug deflector. I'm waiting for my new 04 to arrive to replace the wrecked one, and I'm starting to look for accessories to add. Can you give a little more detail on how the deflector is mounted to the hood? I envisioning that it is sandwiched in between the hood and the grille, and then a couple of additional screws secure it to the outer edges of the hood?

Thanks

 

I almost took pictures of the process. I'll do that next time I do something to the truck. Basically, the shield has flaps at each end that wrap under the hood, with holes in the shield that line up with holes already in the hood. The holes in the hood can be seen at each end of the front of the hood. Just there, nothing in them, waiting for your shield. You use two philips head screw type things, like sheetrock mollies, included in the package, to attach these flaps to the hood. In the middle of the shield there are two or three flaps that sandwich between the grill and the hood.
Removing the grill is a cinch. Four bolts on arms at each end of the
grill and six nuts along the top of the grill. After I reattached my shield the hood wouldn't close right. It was then I had to adjust the hood stops down at the bottom of the grill. Just look at them and it is self-explanatory.

 

I appreciate the clarification. I'll probably start ordering accessories in anticipation of the new truck arriving. I assume most deflectors will mount the same way?

I ordered the new truck on Nov.1, and as of 11-14, no VIN. The owner of the local Ford dealership said that I probably won't see it until after the first of the year (2004) I guess the wife will have to drive the old Chrysler Concorde for a few weeks after the Dr. finally lets her go back to work. I was hoping to have her new truck sitting in the garage for her to drive on her first day back on the job.

 

Oh Man! Your wife was in that truck when it rolled? My wife wrecked her '98 explorer a couple of years ago. I feel for you, Bro. I don't know exactly where Dogtown is in the foothills, but I've seen lots and lots of '04's here on the 101 corridor in the North Bay Area, around Santa Rosa. If you don't want to wait, these dealers are making dealer trades right and left to get the trucks that their customers want. I searched high and low for my ride, and there are literally hundreds of these trucks sitting on lots througout Sacramento down to Oakland and out in the central valley. Ford.com has a dealer locater that brings up 20 dealers at a time in a city or zip format. Each dealer web site has an inventory search engine on it. I found my ride like that in Sebastopol, had my buddy here get it for me. He traded a screw lariat for my scab fx4, got a difference check from the other dealer, and sold me my truck for under invoice.
Peace and prayers,
KD

 

Yup, she was on her way to work when a 19 yr. old driver crossed the center line and took her out. She's so lucky to be up and walking. She has fractured C-2 and C-3 vertebrae in her neck. Just a slight movement one direction or the other and she could have been paralyzed from the neck down.

Dogtown is just a nickname for the unincorporated community of Magalia, which is right next Paradise, which is just a few miles east of Chico.

I did the online search a couple of days ago and found two identical rigs at dealers in the Sacramento area. I mentioned doing a dealer trade and he said would if I insisted. But, I do need to wait at least a month in order for the $500 AQHA rebate to be valid before I take delivery of anything. The dealer also believes that Ford will be offering some incentives in the upcoming months and it may be worth holding off a bit to see what develops.

The wrecked truck that you saw in the photo was a dealer trade that they picked up for me at a dealer in Santa Rosa (Hansel Ford I believe) It was one of the last remaining 01's available in the Island Blue/Arizona Beige color combo. It was a perfect color match to my Super Duty. This new one is going to be way at the opposite end of the color spectrum.

 

kd,, read your article and turned around in my room to look at my bug shield still in the box,, also a auto vent shield,, glad to hear that you had no problem,, going to put mine in this sunday when packers are on tv,, no sense watching them,, haha,, also put on the rain guards from auto vent shade,, was impressed with how them matched the contour of the truck windows even up to creating a 1/8 inch indentation in the guard to match the lip of the mirror molding that it attached to with the 3m tape,, little cold up here in wisconsin and had to put the garage heater on to install the rain guards,, had to use the wifes hair blow dryer to warm up the metal around the windows for the 3 m tape (finally found a use for that thing) and they are on like a rock,, auto vent makes nice stuff for the 2004,, mine a xlt flareside, 5.4 engine,, linex liner sprayed on this monday,, and ARE cap going on wednesday,, will send pics when all done,, love this truck,, ford did their work on this one,, had 3 f150's counting this one,, and this is the best yet,, then thinking about getting a bull guard and will be all done with truck,, had clearance lights installed by dealer and they look great too,, this forum helped me alot,, take care,, john,, milwaukee, wisconsin

 

Ok, I know where you are now. I spent ten days up there working around Chico, Paradise, Highway 32 etc when the lightening strikes rolled through a few years back. That was a hot summer.
Yeah, I was going to order mine when I started looking around and realised no one really has to wait in this market, unless they want or need to. At least here in CA. Hansel in Santa Rosa has at seventy of these trucks is various configs, and Henry Curtis, also a Hansel shop, has quite a few too.
Good luck to you and your wife.

 

That sounds cool. I'm debating putting a cap on my truck. The debate is with my wife, of course, and the $ involved. Actually, she like the clean lines of a retracting cover, but I like the capacity, looks and storage of the shell. I've been looking at Leer and the Browning edition in a 100XQ. I'll be looking for your pics.

 

KD, I just bought a 100XL, the XQ won't be available for several more months (in the west).
The XL just became available a few days ago.
I should have it, and my bedrug in about 4 weeks.

FYI, it's for a 6.5' bed SCab

I got the overhead storage, twist out windows, headliner, yakima rack and accordian boot.

 

I do remember that you discussed this in a previous post, but I didn't recall the the XQ was so far out. Bummer. Well, I'll either wait or get the XL. I'm going to the International Sportsmans Expo in January, so I'm holding out to see what the vehicle displays there are like.
KD