if i wanna convert my 97 f150 to look a bit like a lightning how would i go bout it?

i mean i dont have foglights or the same grill.

Can a lightning grill fit on a F150 97 extended cab? If so, can u tell me what grill i need? i went looking but all i find r billet grills is that it?

and they never say if its compatible with my truck

my truck is a 97 4.6 extended 2wd f150

i know its the lowest of f150 but after i have it paid off ill do some stuff.

im still young=18.
and if yall think this is dumb and y not buy a lightning, well im a 18 yr old teen who works for SAPD (san anotnio police) making only 8.75 with 33 hrs so 462 every 2 weeks with truck payments of 350 and insurance of 180. i have no money to get a lighting.

so dont flame me plz.

 

Welcome to the group. Your not alone. I can help you do the swap, but really your gonna have to swap your front bumper if you wanna go to a 99 or newer f150 lightning bumper. No one flames me about mine and they want do it to you either. If you wanna save some money go with the 97-98 lightning bumper cover. My friend at school has one and I really like it. He got the cover after me, but it looks great. As for fog lights it is all a matter of what bumper cover you get. Getting a harness to hook the fog lights up isn't a problem. Do you have any pictures of the truck.

 

I say it again, i love this forum.

Man ur were big help, but so where do igo about to find this grill and bumper?

is that ur F150 in ur sig? is that the lightning front?

i want my **** LIKE THAT MAN. thats owns. i have no pics and if i did i have no scanner ima get one iof i could afford it with my damn truck payments. :@

But a lil more info plz, im like truck illiterite. this is my first car, well truck thats actually mine.

 

A little bit of history...

That was my first post on the subject about a year ago. I did tons of research on it. Basically your gonna have to spend a pretty bit of cash to convert a 97-98 f150 in to a 1999. The first thing is the the lightning bumper cover is held on with 4 brackets. The 97-98 bumper will not accept the brackets so you will need to install a 1999 bumper. Also you will need the grill shell for a 1999 or newer sport truck. I'm not really to fimiliar with that part, but someone else will read this and know more about it. I am pretty sure the grill and shell are a direct bolt on. Also there are two different types of lightning bumper covers. Mine is the 2002-2003 model. The other is the 99-2001 cover. The only difference is the 2002 model accepts clear fog lights. If you got like 1,500 dollars is a ball park figure for all of this. I'm like you money wise and just throw a little more cash into the truck every chance I get.

 

I'd go with the Street Scene 97-98 L bumper. I think it looks just as good as the regular L bumper. I like the extra grille insert that it has. I'd say you might spend about 500-600 after buying the bumper cover, fog lights, grille inserts, and paint. You should be able to install it yourself and save yourself some money. I had never installed anything like that before and I thought that it was easy. Street Scene will provide you with all the nessacery mounting hardware and instructions.

Here's a pic...

 

With the street scene side skirts that bumper cover looks sweet. That is what my friend has.

 

Is that also considered lightning?

Cuz to me the Lightning is just to hardcore but that street one looks cool, but if i go that way i need to go all the way that way and not look like some Wetback mojo who tries to look good and fit in with teens. if u understand that cuz im from SA, TX and we have that here, wetbacks drive around in Stangs, but they drive in Ponys, not the GT version or cobra etc, and than drive ****en gmc or somethign and tint them and put their last name in old english letters o nthe back etc. kinda like the street scene look but less agressive, i rather go Foglight with lightning but so damn expenisive

 

http://ftw.truckmoxie.com/showownerp...252681&album=1 This is a guy I knows truck. It really looks amazing with that bumper cover. I'd say as good as mine if not better.

 

Do you absoultely positively want to go with the Lightning bumper or are you just looking for something custom? There are tons of bumpers and air dams our there for our trucks...

Check out the gallery I put together... https://www.f150online.com/galleries...w.cfm?num=4290

The cheapest way you're going to get the Lightning look is going with that Street Scene 97-98 replica Lightning bumper. There are some differences between the Street Scene 97-98 and the OEM L bumper...



You can see the similarities and the differences between the two there. I have had good experience with Street Scene products so I would recommend them to anyone.

You aren't going to look just like a Lightning with an extended cab truck, but you can definately make it look sweet.

Do you have any pics of your truck that we can see?

 

I think you wanna go with the 99+ lightning bumper cover. It will cost you a good bit more in the long run but it will be well worth it. Just realise that you will be converting your front end from a 97-98 to a 1999 plus front end. The only thing that will stay the same is the head lights and the hood. You can change them to if you want.http://www.bumpers.com/productFord2.html This is about the cheapest place I could find the bumper cover. You will still need to find a 1999 ford f150 bumper and get the brackets to hold it on at www.fordpartsonline.com. You might want to give them a call and see what kinda prices they can get you the top grill shell for. I would try to find someone saleing a 2002 f150 grill inserts off a lightning to save money. Also it would be a good idea to sale your old front end to recover some of the money when you are done.

 

I say it again

I love these forums

SO much helpthanks guys

and i know with my extended cab it wont be pimp, But hey Ls (i barely firgured out that L=lightning) look awesome. Ill take some pics of my monster and try to find someone who has a scanner, OR maybe get my friend to take a pic of my truck (if it could fit) wth her phone and email it to me and so on.

But thanks alot for all the info

 

HERE IT IS MY TRUCK

not great pics but the pic was with a camera on a phone and i email ed them to me and so on, i dont have a scanner ill try to get better

Please dont laff @ my monster.

its a 97 F150 extended cab



What ya guys think?

 

Looks like lifeguard joe's rig but extended cab.

You might also consider changing your chrome grill surround to a color matched one with the honeycomb insert. Not sure what that would set you back but it would definately make a nice improvement to the front end.

Can you give us a price on exactly how much you are willing to spend?

We should be able to help you get the most Lightning mods for your money if you give us a price range. We can help you find places to buy it the cheapest and everything.

Invalid can help you with the bumper conversion if you are set on the OEM L bumper since he's the only one I know of that has done it.

I can help ya with about anything else.

 

DAMMIT

well actually i love these 2 trucks here.
I LOVE INVALIDS TRUCK in his sig

and i love this truck here


MAn i want a L so bad, but even if it looks like 1 it wont run like one, so if i lift my truck a bit, can it still have power to run with other trucks? not all L fast but as fast as it is now or can it go faster with mods or so on? or being lifted it cant do that?

Cuz if i can go lifted and actually have my truck run @ a good fast acceleration than i rather go LIFT than L

SOMETHING very similar to the truck in this pic. i really like it, maybe with a diff foggers tho.

 

yup. she looks pretty sexy to me