I have got a 1997 F150 with the stock grill with horizontal and vertical bars. I have found a honeycomb grill for sale, year unknown but am told that it will fit the 97-03 trucks. Will it will fit, and what the is the procedure to swap it out with the old one?

Thanks

Kevin

 

I just did a stock grille swap on my 03 last week. The one I swapped with was a 2000 Expy, so the one your looking at should fit as long as its from a 97-03 f150 or Expy.

As far as the procedure goes, it's not too bad at all.

1. Pop the hood and remove the black cover that is sitting above the grille. It is held in by 10-12 phillips plastic pins. You need to pry up on the pins slightly with a flat head screw driver while turning them with the phillips. You'll see what I mean.

2. Once that's off, you'll see about 8 or so screws that are phillips, holding not only the whole front grille but also the front mask that goes around the grille and headlights.

3. Underneath this mask, there are 8 plastic push pins that are connected to a rubber cover. These need to come out, just push down on them with a flathead screwdriver (I used 2 flathead screwdrivers actually, one on each side of the pin.

4. Once those are off, you need to pull off the corner headlights. Really easy to do, there is just one screw in each of them on the top. They may be a little hard to find, but they are there.

5. Once the corners are removed, you will see 2 more screws that are on both sides of the front mask, remove those.

6. Now the only thing that is holding the front mask on that contains the grille are 2 clips at the bottom. They are in there pretty good, but just give them a good yank and they should come out. I thought I broke one the first time around but I didn't. You are going to have to use some force to pull them out.

7. Once the front mask is off, just pop the old grille out and put the new one in. You'll see how it is connected...

That's about it. Good luck.

 

Try as I might, I can't find those corner light screws. When looking into the engine compartment from the front, I see the regular headlight, and what looks like a piece of trim covering the corner light. From what I can tell, I can't see it. Now this is an EARLY 97 truck, the door tag says 3/96. Can you think of anything that may have changed in construction there? Or is it something obvious that I'm missing?

Kevin

 

At the front of the fender there is a bulge that when viewed from the outside forms the cavity the lens assembly fits into, the screw should be on the top of that bulge, on my 97 the screw has a hex head and a set of cross slots for a phillips screwdriver. (actually I believe the slots are for a Prince & Reed screw driver)

 

Do I need to remove the headlight, or will it be obvious? Because I'm still not seeing anything. Maybe I will post a picture tomorrow.

<a href="https://www.f150online.com/reviews/lenses.html">Corner light removal</a>

 

wow wow wow..... grills only fit 97-98 trucks. then in 99-03 are all the same. the 99+ got a bigger grill face along with at diff bumper. so you will need the bumper also.

as for that screw it sits right ontop of the corner light.

 

yah take out corner lights, headlights, panel above radiator, then there is a screw behind each corner light going into the fender, then some plastic clips going up into the grill that hold up the rubber fender trim. there should also be a support that goes into the radiator core support just behind the grill.

 

Please forgive me if I'm ignorant on this, but I have never done much body work before. I'm going to try to post a picture, so maybe you can point out exactly where it is. (I also haven't done much HTML before, so you may just have to check the gallery for it).

<img src="https://www.f150online.com/galleries/cover/gallery11411.jpg">

 

The screw is in the upper right hand corner of the pic, you have to remove the washer fluid tank to get to it.

 

You have a different header panel that holds the headlights in place. I too have an 3/96 date truck. After 6/96 they changed the header panels. You have the one with headlight & corners come out together. Not in 2 pieces. Plus 97-98 grilles are smaller in size also. 99-03 will interchange ,not 97-98 only with a bumper change too.
I changed my header to a 03 style. Now I can put in lightning heads & corners. I hope this helps you.
Lariat#1