2000 grille/ headlight swap on a '97 Mounty, anyone do this? Need info ???

[MidnightRebel07]

I have a '97 Mounty wife fogged/ glazed over headlights. I like the look of the 2000 Mounty headlight/ grille combo and was thinking about swapping it over.

Couple questions...

Is the grille headlights a direct swap or do I need to change out a headlight filler panel, rad support or anything else other then the grille and headlights, marker lights?

Will I have an extra marker light pigtail? It looks like the 2000 only has the outside marker and the '97 has the top marker and side indicator light.

Any help on this would be great, thanks y'all.

This is the Mounty...

And this is the newer style grille/ headlight setup I'm thinking about swapping to...

 

[MidnightRebel07]

Ok, how'd this double post. Can a mod delete one of these. thanks.

 

[dasfinc]

The below post from this thread: http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=174211

Answers your questions

The front end parts are pretty easy to deal with. Since you have no experience, you will likely have the most trouble with the wiring. You need to switch out the turn signal flasher to one from a mountaineer as well as cut off the wiring for the extra bulbs. The mounty only uses one turn signal bulb where the explorer uses two plus one extra small parking light bulb. The flasher looks similar to a relay and is located under the driver side dash near the OBD II port.

You would need:
Header Panel
Grille
LH & RH Headlamp housings
LH & RH Parking light housings
Mountaineer Turn Signal Flasher

This is what it looks like now. Before I had cut and painted over a factory chrome grille. Now I am running a factory painted blue grille from a salvage yard. The paint wasn't perfect on it but it is good enough for me right now and the color matches so I left it.

 

[MidnightRebel07]

Thanks man.

 

[TheXmenTC]

That looks great!!!