In my failed quest to find a billet grill that replaces the stock plastic one and fits flush, I am leaning towards having the stock one chromed. There is a place in NJ that will plate the stock grill. Cost is $175 and there is a three week turn around. (COD only)

Has anyone ever had one chromed? What are the pro's and con's of going this route. Does anyone know of a place that can do it cheaper and can recomend the quality of chroming?

 

The following is a quote from Showya regarding lower billet grilles. It is a few months old, but it may help you out.

_____________________________________________

Here is the icing on the cake folks!

I have located a true made to order, correct OEM billet lower insert for 2000-2001 HD F 150 lower air dam. Just give Ernie a call @ 1-800-598-5555. He is the general manager @ JBM Sport Truck Accessories in Orange, CA.

I spoke with him on the phone Thursday and this guy was super nice folks!

They also have a website @ www.sporttrucking.com but they currently do not have a picture of this grille in question here.

Just thought I would throw this in here!

________________________________________________


It is a billet grill, not chromed, so it does not match exactly. In my opinion it looks a lot better than the stock black grill and it is cheaper than the price you quoted for the chroming of the original. I think it was about $120 for the lower grill from JBM. I actually got one for my 2001 and am very happy with it. I am going to try and get some pictures eventually, but I don't have a digital camera or scanner readily available. Good Luck!

 

I ordered a chromed grill from my muffler shop. I specifically asked for one that matched the upper grill. They ended up ordering the itdentical one to the one that I already have in the air dam, just chromed.

Personally, I did not like it. I want something to match the upper grill. I think it brings the front together a lot better when they match.

J & J are the only supplier of matching grills I know of, and they only cost about a hundred bucks.

 

You looking for something like this...



That is a pic from outnumbered...hope he doesn't mind me using it

J & J has them and I think REM was also carrying them at one point. They are under 100 bucks. Good luck!

 

yup, j-jent is the company that makes the matching lower grilles for the 02HD's

their site is www.j-jent.com I believe they are over 100 bucks now, but still worth the huge improvement over the stock ugly black lower grille. not sure why after 00 they stopped putting the chrome lower grilles on

 

The J-J one is not flush but I think it looks real nice.

 

you can make it flush though. I think it was Mitch from the other site who did it to his and it looks sweet

just remove your stock lower grille, and get some 1" strap steel and drill your own brackets. its not that hard, just some really minor fabrication to do it, but i think its defiately worth the trouble.
i can get pics of his brackets if anybody wants

 

Harley 356, pictures would be great. I think I will go that route. Thanks everyone for the info

 

aight, i'll make a post over there to try and find out. it may take a couple days, but i'll find em for ya

 

the brackets are easy to make, like Josh said...1" strap steel, bend and drill to suit.

for some reason I can link my pic from FTW to this site???

go to ford truck world.com and look for "Mitch5170" gallery

 

Ford does a lot of things I don't understand...

1) 2 spoke steering wheel
2) Spark plug location???
3) Lower valence on '03 HD
4) Two tone only on bottom of wheel (would look much nicer on boths sides
5) etc.

We will just have to tolerate the small things I guess...as long as they make the nicest trucks on the planet

 

hope ya don't mind mitch, i uploaded your pics into a gallery over here so they could be posted.

looks sooooo much better chrome and flushmounted!!
then just paint the vertical bars black so they aren't as noticible. i believe mitch already did this after the pic was taken



and the backside with the custom bracket

 

Thanks Josh,
Looks easy enough, I will be ordering one of those bad ****'s after Christmas.

Thanks again.

Tony

 

no problem! Thanks to mitch for the pics and being the 1st to flush mount the grille Post pics when you get it installed, it'll look awsome! really brightens up the front of the truck and completes the look

 

Not to knock the nice flush mount job but I really do not see that much difference between that and my non-flush install. You really got to get up close to tell any difference IMO. Then again, I got old eyes I guess.

...and if the truck is moving, Fast!, all you will see is a flash of chrome go by anyway.