Not sure if its possible but I was thinking about converting my 95 F150 to the 85 style front clip. I think i read somwhere that someone with an 85 switched over to the 95 nose so i would assume its the same but reverse lol. I currently have a rotted radiator support, and the front fenders have rot so I figured i like that nose better why not get some extra parts and swap noses. Will the body lines match up? anything to watch out for?

 

I'm pretty sure the bed won't match up

 

Wheel wells are different between the truck. Your 95 is nice and round, the 85 it more boxed. The bed wont match the front fenders.

 

ive seen it done.. when its all painted up. the converstion looks good

 

I figured it was possible but are you guys sure the bed doesn't match? I have been looking back and forth a 95 and 85 trucks and they look the same to me. My bed needs new fenders as well so i could always replace them with the 85 quarter panel patch if that's where it doesn't match up. I'm not overly worried about the wheel wells I think they can be swapped or i may be able to reuse the current ones, someone who swapped from the 85 nose to the 95 nose reused his 85 wheel wells and just drilled a few new holes.

 

I've been curious about this too, so I looked closely at pics of my old trucks. The top of the fender openings (front and rear) on the '85 have a very definite straight section while the '95 straightens out some, but still has a little arch to it. The rest of the lines look the same to me. So I don't think it would look too terrible putting '95 front fenders and an '85 bed on the same truck. But the front and rear fender lines would be different and some people would definitely notice it.

And from what I can tell, the bricknose trucks have the same curved fender lines as the '95. Is that right?

Here is my '85:


and here is my '95:

 

(edit: my computer said my previous post hadn't been made so I repeated it. But then there were two! So I deleted the duplicate. But while I'm here...)

Another difference between my '85 and my '95 is the location of the body molding: right below the door handle on the '85, much lower on the '95. Not sure how universal that is or how hard they are to move. But that difference would be much more noticeable.

 

The brick nose matches the 92-97 style, I looked up the wheel arches on blueovaltruckparts.com and i can get the whole arch and replace it to look like the 85 bed because it looks like the beds the same just the wheel arch is more rounded at the top like you stated. My current wheel arches are both rotted through and have bondo on them all the way to the bottom of the arch so i would need to replace them anyway. I had originally planned on removing the trim because half of mine are falling off and would need to be removed to fix all 4 fenders anyway. I have a list of parts going that I will need obviously fenders grille and trim, hood, rear arches etc, what about the wiper cowl? does that need to be changed?

 

many bullnose guys (80-86) have bricknose and obs (87-96) beds on it they match overall pretty good so I wouldn't worry about that. Actually our old 86 (we don't have anymore) had 87-96 bed rails on it where as my 88 F150 has bullnose bedrails and both look perfectly fine. Yes it is possible others have done it many of times.
Trav

My 88 which has the same bed as your 95 beside our 86 not much difference:

 

Thanks Trav, i never knew the 80-86 trucks were the bullnose trucks too many nicknames to remember lol i just use the years. So far i have this list of parts, if I'm missing anything please don't hesitate to correct me.

Parts:
80-86 Stone Deflector
80-86 Front Fenders
80-86 Rear Bed Wheel Arches
80-86 Fender Lense
80-86 Upper and Lower Grille Molding
80-86 LH & RH Headlight Bezels
80-86 Headlights
80-86 Blinkers
80-86 LH & RH Grille Support
80-86 Front Bumper
80-86 Rear Bumper
80-86 Radiator support
80-86 Hood
80-86 Sport Mirrors

I am going to get manual mirrors because they are cheaper and the paddle mirrors are too small anyway so that i done really use them and besides my driver side one rattles when i drive so i can see out of it lol. I read the hood hinges and springs are the same and the hood latch is the same, i figured i could still use the 92-97 latch cable though if i reuse the latch. I plan to get almost everything from blue oval because I've heard not so great things about LMC and great stuff about blue oval, if you guys have any other recommendations please feel free to add!

 

I only remember bullnose, obs, and bricknose since that is what we have had. LOL. Anyways I believe all the rubber pieces are different on 80-91s compared to your obs. your rear bumper is the same unless there is rust on it and that's why you are talking about replacing it. But you know that if you get bed skins your tailgate is also slightly different although some bullnose guys have used the 87-96 tailgates on the 80-86 beds. Also your emblems you may want to get unless you plan on going with the shaved look or using your old obs emblems. I am trying to rememeber something else but can't right now. If you go to LMC truck you can see the pieces and such that are different between 80-86 and 87-96.
Trav

 

I have been looking at their pages, i also have a catalog at home that i will look at after work. I planned to only change the arches and not reskin the bed sides to keep the tailgate form sticking out kinda lol but I also planned on removing the silver Ford panel because mine is all dented and making it look shaved. I think I may order more emblems like i did on my 250 from billet badges they came out great and I love being able to make what i want. My rear bumper is kinda rusty but if they are identical then ill keep it and use POR or something on it, there was no picture on blue oval so i just added it, if i can save a few $$$ why not lol. I was going to leave the rear inner fender liners out and use a plastic insert one like i did on my 04, it works way better than the factory ones and not to mention salt wont get stuck up top and rot out the fender again because i can remove the plastic and wash it out/POR it.

 

these bricknose, bullnose, punchnose, snotnose names make people look almost as stupid as the ones that say they have "generation" trucks.

what the heck is so hard about saying i have a 80 to 86 truck. or a 87 to 91, or a 92 to 97 truck??
all these stupid nicknames have me wondering what the heck the person posting is smoking.

 

I think we just make it up for the fun of it. I didn't make them up the people here on FTE did or the overall people whom own them I am not sure.
Trav

 

Here are all the differences you'll encounter, most subtle:

'80-'86 upper bed rail compared to '87-'96 (notice how the '80-'86 has a groove where the '87-'96 does not):





Upper and lower lip near the taillights, same years (which accounts for the different body lines in tailgate, as well as the restyling of the taillight lenses) (Lenses swap between the years with no problem other than mismatched lines, as well as the tailgate, although latch hardware must be swapped):









Wheel arches:





And fuel doors (notice the indention changed places between the years):







Looking at an '80 compared to a '92, you can see that all the main body lines match up perfectly. I've never done this swap personally, but I do know the fender mounting brackets changed after '91, which from what I hear is pretty simple to modify. The biggest challenge will be mounting the front bumper, and the mounting brackets were different between all front ends.

EDIT: Also keep in mind, the cowl panel at the windshield wipers is a different shape, '80-'91 will interchange, but not through to '96. Also, tailgate latch hardware changed and the tailgate body lines don't match after '86 because of the lip at the rear of the bed.