Mountaineer grille and lights conversion complete

[expo5.0]

its DONE

here's what i did and how it went down-

First off i've been making claims and plan for how to make my 1996 xlt THE best 2nd or 3rd gen. explorer. Obviously i knew i'd have to do something crazy at almost every corner or facet of the vehicle. I also knew the grille and headlights was one of the most visually important parts of the vehicle so i started to try to brainstorm a way to make a statement there. I also desperately wanted to run HID headlamps but didn't think they'd be worth it with the stock lenses.

I thought of tons of things including some crazy ranger swaps as well as trying to use headlights from a chevy.

anyways, i came to the conclusion that the later model mountaineer stuff would be the best and went in search of it. I soon learned that fordpartsnetwork wanted about 1,100 for all the parts i needed not even including the HHID kit.

i searched and searched the net and looked at used parts and finally i found a place that quoted me 290 for the two headlights, the two corners, and the header panel (i picked up a grille used for 50 from bbx since i was goiong to be painting it eventually anyways) i ordered from them... and to my dismay when the parts came they were explorer parts. turns out they had just assumed they wre the same as the mountaineer parts for the 2001 like they are for the 2nd generation. But luckily when i had placed the order the guy had taken down the order properly so it did say mountaineer. When i called and explained the situation the woman said they must have shipped the wrong product and offered to send me the right stuff immediately provided i return the stuff they did ship me upon receiving. She didn't mention the $350 in price difference between the explorer and mountaineer parts and either did i. Needless to say i got very, very lucky on that one.


So i started the conversion last night and worked for about 4 hours then maybe three more hours today. There were a ton of little modifications to make to parts and removing the stock header panel was a real pain (i ended up using the bfh approach and just tearing the fiberglass then using the grinder to grind down the nubs)

Its still all off colored and looks sort of funny on the truck, but that matches my "work in progress" bumper anyways. I won't be painting it until spring so i had better get used to it. YOu'll just have to picture it painted lapis blue up front and white in the back with some flames in between. All the clearances worked out right though, and i'm extremely happy with the result sylistically.

i'll be getting the HID's in the mail next week and i'll take some pics of that conversion as well for sure. For now i just have silverstars.

I will post pictures as soon as possible- i can't find my camera and i'm afraid i've left it at hooters.

 

[jssong]

glad to hear things worked out well. cant wait to see pictures.

 

[GIJOE]

Pics

 

[clarkkent]

*ahem, ahem!

expo5.0! bro, u forgot to mention who gave you the inspiratoin on the conversion... *ahem.

 

[etc]

Sounds interesting, can't wait for pics

 

[expo5.0]

after driving it tonight i must say i am unbelieveably pleased with the improvement in light output and the pattern of light output. The silverstars provide tons of output from these lenses- its amazing compared to stock. The HID's will be infinitely better off set-up this way (and they won't blind oncoming traffic so much too)

 

[clarkkent]

*ahem

*ahem, inspiration? hehe c'mon bro!

 

[james t]

in for pics.

 

[expo5.0]

yes, clarkkent and i were talking about a front end swap that he wants to do and that gave me the idea to take his stuff. He sent me some pictures and then i started really looking into the mountie stuff- here's a pic of his

 

[expo5.0]

here are some pics- i have a question for those with the mountaineers though. are there rubber fittings that go into the plastic of the header panel so that the headlamp alignment "pegs" fit tightly? right now i'm considering fabbing up something from ace to get my headlights snug, but if there is a factory part that would be far easier. hopw you know what i mean.

 

[expo5.0]

the hooter girl looked real disappointed when i came to get my camera- i think she thought it was gonna be hers.

 

[expo5.0]

the bumper isn't quite finished yet either but it had to be put on in progress while i concentrated on school for a few weeks.

 

[expo5.0]

here's a pic of what it used to be- improvement? keep i mind i plan on modding the mountaineer grille too (with a filled mountaineer logo, a batman in the center and a "home depot grille" behind it all)

 

[expo5.0]

one more before

 

[jssong]

looks great drew.. looks kinda photoshopped for some reason. maybe you could cut those vertical bars, and maybe cut your old billet grille with flames and attach it.

 

[expo5.0]

its not chopped but remember when i thought this mountie front end was chopped too? i think they just photograph strange

 

[nnnick]

heres a rather crappy photoshop i did, but you get the idea. Id do it better but it took me half an hour and i need to write a research paper.

i really like it, i think once you get a different grille in it and paint everything it will look totally awesome.

 

[Hartman]

Looks awesome Drew. Any fender modifications needed?

 

[expo5.0]

no the fender was fine- the little details were 90% just things that would occur any time you order aftermarket replacement parts for a truck. There were very few problems related to going from explorer to mountaineer- they are really just the corner bulbs, the lowest bracket on the header panel, and the little panel behind the grille.

 

[99SportX]

That looks awesome!! Where did you get the mounty stuff for so cheap? If the mounty stuff is $350 more, then is it isn't an option for me at this time.

My dad has a '99 mounty. I think that I will go look at the headlights to see if there are any grommets that help the lights fit snugly.