Has anyone installed the upper billet grill on 1997 expedition? I got the lower one installed. Just need to get the upper one on now. The problem is Its all molding in. Anyone that has had to cut theres to get new one to fit, Let me know how you went about doing so and DOs and DONTS

TIA
Jason

 

Just remember use a hacksaw thats the easiest way to do it. You need to cut the original off but you have to take out the whole grill and the grille sorround first.

 

Yeah, I did it also. I wouldn't do it again though. Search ebay and find a 99 or up shell that the center grille unbolts out of.

If your just a glutton for punishment then you can do it as follows.

Remove the grille shell.
Find a work surface that is padded or something. I used a towel on top of a work bench and still ended up scratching mine before finished. Mine is the chrome one, not painted.

I used a zip tool to carve out the stock grille, be careful! One slip and your shell is toast. I carved mine out to about a 1/4" of where it needed to be.

Then used 60 grit sand paper and a palm sander to finish up the job.

This will take a very long time.

I got the steel horse brand, the brackets on mine where not long enough to properly position the grill so I had to fabricate new brackets and attach them to the old ones.

The original brackets where welded to the grille so they could not be easily removed.

Those are the most obvious problems encountered. I hope this helps.

 

Heres a picture of mine so you can see the end result.


97 Teal Green XLT
5.4 ltr
JBA Stainless Headers
3.73 LS rear
4 Wheel Drive
Steel Horse Billit Grill
Xenon Super White Head and Driving Lights
Tow Package
Rear Load Leveling
Altezza Tail Lights
Euro clear Corners
Euro Clear Headlights
2000 Wheels
Ford fog lamps
Ford Bug Deflector
http://www.outlawtrucker.com/expfront72.jpg
http://www.outlawtrucker.com/expback72.jpg