Hi I just put a 3" body lift in my 86 F-250 and I am trying to get ideas how others have relocated their front bumper back to the stock height. Any of your ideas would be appreciated.
Thank you

 

Ik that some of you have done it?

 

I bought a bronco that had a body lift and whoever installed it cut the frame horns off, welded a plate on the end of the frame and welded the frame horns back on 3 inches higher. Hope this helps. I try to find a pic.

 

It kinda scares me to cut the frame but would be interesting to see the route

 

This one had a custom bumper on it but the guy I bought it from kept it. I think the horns need moved down a little for a stock bumper. Seems like it would be strong enough and with some planning would look nice. That's the one thing I don't like about body lifts is the bumper gap.

 

Yeah that does look plenty strong enough and exactly i hate seeing trucks with a big bumper gap. I actually wouldnt have even done a body lift but Im swapping a 7.3 powerstroke in my '86 F-250 and the extra body clearance made for a huge help.which reminds me i need to upload a bunch of pics to show yall the swap.

 

Sounds like an awesome project. Cant wait for pics.

 

A former owner put a 3 in. body lift in mine, and the front bumper doesn't look that bad in the stock location. I never noticed that my bumper was slightly lower than stock until I looked at this thread. There is about a 1/2 in. gap between the top of the bumper and the bottom of the sheet metal on my bronco. The back bumper is very noticeable, and I am going to put part of a roll pan in there to make it look better.

 

would like to see if anyone has used or modded brackets from a 87-91 bumper because i beleive they use brackets that mount differently but the frame horns are the same from 80-91

 

That's very true I have an 88 and just looked at the frame horns and they are the same. I have the bumper off I'll have to look at the mounts on it.

 

awesome, will be waiting for what ya find

 

Well I havent had a chance to look at the other bumper since it is -4 outside but i did come up with something that seems to be fairly strong. Here are a few pics...





if i need it any stronger i candrill a hole in the bumper and thru bolt it in the middle.



Im going to put some tow hooks on the bottom bolts when i can find where i hid them since there is no good factory pull points.



sticks out a bit farther than id like it to but to the untrained eye it looks just fine.



I am also going to cut out for '95 factory vents in the bumper to help with cooling and a bit different style.

and here's a quick pic of the powerstroke sitting in there. I have tons more pics of the build so i will eventually try to start a thread of all them for anyone interested

 

looks good! still curious as to what the 87-91 bumper brackets look like when it warms up if you dont mind!


but any chance you could list the measurments of the hardware you used?

i think it looks good did you have to cut the bumper any?

 

yeah i for sure will, should be able to by the weekend.

I did end up cutting about 3/4" x 2-1/2" off the bottom to keep the bottom plate flush with the bumper but you could space it out more if you didnt want to do any cutting.

Here's what I ended up using:

4- 2-1/4" x 4" x 1/4" Plates with a 5/8" Hole centered and drilled 1-1/4" from one end and a 29/64" hole a 1/2" from the other end.

2- 5/8" x 2" Grade 8 Bolts

2- 5/8" x 2-1/2" Grade 8 Bolts

Total of 22 5/8" flat washers for spacing

4 - 5/8" hex nuts and lock washers

4- Factory Bumper bolts and nuts

 

That looks great! I might have to do this to my bronco. I would love to see a build thread of your truck.