Ok, I posted in this forum to see if some of the HD gurus out there could help me avoid a possible screwup.

I want to put an HD grill in the nose of my non-HD '01 Screw. I only want to use the grill insert, 'not' the surround. Here's the question. Which year HD trucks have grills that are a direct swap into my surround (I don't want to do any mods to make the grill insert fit)? I 'think', from reading this board, that '00 and '01s are candidates (not 'absolutely' sure though). I wasn't sure though if the '02 and '03 grill insert would work unless I used the HD surround as well.

Josh, I know you can answer this.....Can't ya?

Please help. I'm trying to do my homework so that I can avoid a bad experience with the dealer having to try and return something that wouldn't fit.

 

all year HD' grilles are exactly the same how they mount. 00/01/02 and any f150 or Lightning. they all attach the same way. its a pretty easy swap, just take your time and it'll go fine.
and YES i have swapped a few of these out myself so i DO know what i'm talking about
i found the easiest way to remove the grille from the surround to do the swap, is get a small prybar, and put it under the tabs, then a small flat head screwdriver to work the clamp tab back so it'll slide down past the ledge and work your way all the edge of the grille and it'll slowly release itself from the surround. when you get it all pulled apart off the truck and can see the back side of the grille you'll know what i'm talking about.
just take your time and its pretty easy to figure out. it took me about an hour to swap a 01HD grille for a regular F150 just cuz i was super careful not to break any tabs or anything.

 

Thanks for the input. Somehow I knew you'd probably done this swap before. When you say do one clip at a time as I work my way around, from what I've seen in prior pics and posts, I thought I'd have to ease a number of the clips out all at the same time. Didn't think you could do it one at a time. Also, since you are 'in the know' on HD stuff, why can I buy a '02 complete grill (surround and insert) from a number of sources for $50 to $80 less than a '00 or '01 assembly would cost? I had assumed it would be the other way around. Any thoughts?

Thanks again for the feedback.

 

well yeah, you need to pop one clip loose, pop a few more loose, then go back and the 1st one should be able to pop completely free. just work your way all the way around. its just tedious work doing the whole grille. not that hard though once you get the hand of it. I did the entire thing with just a screwdriver until i got to the last 3 clips. I spend about 20 minutes trying to get those off. thats when i thought of trying a small prybar, and boom, about a minute later i was finished o well, i'll know for next time. LoL

thats weird. only thing i could think of is cuz the 02 grille is easier to make. less peices and make time. The 00 grille has a painted inner surround (piece that just goes around the grille between the bars and the main surround), where as the 01 and 02 is all chrome. the 02 might even be a one piece thing (not sure cuz i haven't seen one in a while). Plus the 00 and 01 HD grilles have more bars, and the back half are painted black. the 02 is all chrome. thats the only thing i can think of.

 

You are totally correct Harley#356. I put a '01 HD grille in my '02 Screw 4x4 (sold it recently) and then decided to put the '02 HD grille in it. The '02 looks a lot better I think.


Here's the '02 HD grille with '02 HD lights.

Sean

 

beautiful truck sfoltz!!!

those lights and grille just brighten up the front of the truck soo much! I thought the lights brighened up my black HD, but wow! they really do the trick on a lighter color truck!

Now all ya need to do is get a clear bugshield and paint the back to match your truck so it doesn't stand out as much, and paint that lower valance to match and that truck will be

 

I got rid of it so I could get an '03 HD I still have pics of it and every time I look at them I wish I still had it.... but I couldn't afford both ya know?! Oh well, I'll forget about it when my new 2-tone baby arrives.

Sorry to intrude like this on your post "BigDeal".

 

Sfoltz...

First the truck, then the lights...now you need the whole entire truck - You must have been happy with those mods...