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Swapping front clips

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Old Jan 9, 2011 | 01:37 AM
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Swapping front clips
I have a 76 f150 and a 79 f150. The 76 is my dads and the 79 is mine. He wants my front clip and I want his. My favorite style of truck is the 76-77. Can we just switch the whole front clips out? Or is this not possible?
 
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Old Jan 9, 2011 | 01:42 AM
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Yes, absolutley possible, with no problems. I've done the exact swap you are asking about.
 
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Old Jan 9, 2011 | 01:54 AM
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All you need to swap is grill shells, grill inserts, and headlight buckets.
 
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Old Jan 9, 2011 | 02:07 AM
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Awesome! Its been my dream to have a 79 with a 76 or 77 front clip. Thank you both!
 
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Old Jan 9, 2011 | 02:13 AM
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Originally Posted by Witty73
All you need to swap is grill shells, grill inserts, and headlight buckets.
I thought the grill shell's were the same? I'm near certain they are. I didnt go into detail with my last post, like the fenders, etc were the same because the OP just asked about swapping a front clip, not pieces of a front clip. Mayby I coulda broke it down and explained the difference in parts better.
 
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Old Jan 9, 2011 | 02:17 AM
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Originally Posted by cs361
Awesome! Its been my dream to have a 79 with a 76 or 77 front clip. Thank you both!
I put a 79 front end on my 76 in the eighties, I loved it then because it made the truck look newer. In the nineties, I changed the front end back to a 76, so it looks it's age.
 
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Old Jan 9, 2011 | 02:44 AM
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79 grill insert is one piece, 76 is two piece.
 
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Old Jan 9, 2011 | 09:20 AM
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Yeah, I've done this as well. You can just swap the grill shell, inserts, and headlight light buckets. The fenders and radiator support are the same. You'll probably have to pull the bumper to get at the lower bolts holding the grill shell in place. If you had a '78 with round lights, you wouldn't even need to change the headlight buckets. Just the grill shell and inserts.
 
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Old Jan 9, 2011 | 09:28 AM
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You also need to swap the front bumpers. The 78-79 was a flatter style than the 64-77.
 
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Old Jan 9, 2011 | 10:46 AM
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So what about the part that says FORD above the grille? Do you change that part too?
 
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Old Jan 9, 2011 | 10:55 AM
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Originally Posted by cs361
So what about the part that says FORD above the grille? Do you change that part too?
thats all one piece, the grille shell
 
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Old Jan 9, 2011 | 11:05 AM
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Alright! And I didn't know you had to swap the bumper. Good to know.
 
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Old Jan 9, 2011 | 11:09 AM
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One of you two is gonna end up with a funny looking truck because of the double F O R D
unless you are lucky enough to have the same color truck then just change the hood too.
 
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Old Jan 9, 2011 | 11:14 AM
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All i did was to change to the 73-76 grille on my 78 bronco was bolt on a 73 -76 grille shell . as for the headlights i used 73-76 headlight buckets .i just had to drill the mounting holes for the headlight buckets here's a pic

 
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Old Jan 9, 2011 | 11:16 AM
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I think I pulled the letters out of the grill and left them on the hood when I did mine. I didn't even think about that until I closed the hood. .....DOH!

....or you could just say that you're REALLY proud of your Ford truck!
 
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