96 grill guard on 97, why not?

[red96camaro]

Hey guys, a lady I work with has a explorer sport similar to mine but 96 and is going to sell it so she offered me her grill gaurd. I really wanted it but looking at it she, or actually whoever installed it for her cut slits in the bottom of her bumper to get it to fit. This I found stange but even stranger is it seems to be mount to parts of the frame in places that don't exist on my explorer. Her explorer lower bumber is also different from mine. What is going on here? Is this grill guard even supposed to go on the explorer? Anyone who really knows exploeres and gaurds please help me since I am really wondering about this since she offered it to me for $150 but I don't think it's gonna work on mine :-(

Thanks

 

[Jason_25]

96's and 97's should have the same lower bumper. Hmmm can you get pictures of it?

 

[red96camaro]

i will try but i really think it just can't be mount on mine unless a lot of modifying has been done to fit her "wierd" explorer. The thing that sucks is she doesn't know jack about it just it cost a lot and she had it put on.

 

[jssong]

i have a 96 4 door, but i want to do a 99-01 bumper conversion. i went to the ford dealership and asked the parts dealer if i should put on a 99-01 brush guard or a 96 brush guard after i did the conversion, he had no idea, but he told me that there were frame differences, and thats all he knew. im clueless too?

 

[jssong]

hey red, i noticed you have a buffalo website? do you go there? im a student there. just curious

 

[red96camaro]

jssong, yea, I guess my big question is if there is a frame difference between 96 and 97 . No, I don't go to buffalo. Have a friends that does, that is why the pics are there.

 

[yob_yeknom]

Get a picture. There shouldn't be any difference between the '96 and '97 bumper or frame.

As for the mounts, are you sure they weren't put there by somebody? Do they appear to be bolted or welded to the frame?

 

[jssong]

there shouldnt be a frame difference from the 96-97, but, 97 was when they introduced the sohc enginer rather than the OHV engine they previously had. so they could have changed it. but what i heard was that the 95-98 is the same frame and 99-01 the same. but dont go by my word. ask some of the other veterans around here.

 

[Jason_25]

Yes that information is correct. But I can't see why they would change the frame over an engine that really isn't any heavier than the previous one. If they were gonna do that, I think they would have done it in 96 when the v8 came out.