Has anyone swapped out the headlights on there XL truck for the nicer ones? What is involved with this? What parts do you need and how much did they cost?

 

On 99-04 trucks you simply need the aero lights. The plugs for the 9007s are on the truck already, they use adapters from the factory to hook up to the sealed beams.

For '05-up trucks, you'll need adapters to convert the plugs to H13/9008 or you can get a heavy duty wiring harness and just hardwire it into the factory wiring. Pretty simple install as its just 3-wires and you get better gauge wire.

I use this harness and it works great!
Upgraded Headlight Harness for 05 up Ford With 9008 Bulbs

 

Bringing up another old one - So there's no header panel difference between the XL and XLT (sealed beam and composite)? The truck I bought is a 99 Lariat, but the owner's son took the lights and grill off sna swaped them with his XL parts. I'd really like to switch back and need to know if the header panels are the same. Anybody do the 05-07 upgrade and have their old composite lights laying around...?

 

I believe on the '08's (different from '05-'07) the only thing needed is the new lights.

Both the sealed beam and the composites have a buffer connection between the harness and the light...

 

If you want to upgrade to the 04 sealed one piece headlights, all you have to do is make the buckets deeper on the front clip (the holes where the back of the light fits). Two options for that are either cut the existing clip by drilling or cutting the holes bigger (cheap fast method) or by finding a newer truck in a junk yard and unbolting things until you can get the whole front support and bolting it onto your truck (accomplishes the same thing just takes longer, is more expensive, but on the up side is done "right")

I just bought a set of smoked lights that were DOT approved and I love them!

 

I have done considerable work on 2 superduty xl F250 trucks that had the sealed beam headlights. One was a 2000, the other a 2001. I can say for a fact that the headlight mounting panel is the same for both a sealed beam and a composite headlight truck. The 2 trucks I have had damage on the sides of the mounting panel from slight fender damage. Both times I found on craigslist the optional 02-04 style jeweled composite assemblys with nice mounting panels. The first one came from a rolled over F250 4x4, the last came from an F350 ambulance hit hard in the back. The mounting panels are the same. The way the lights mount in the panels are different. The composites use different holes and use clips from the back to hold them in. On the ambulance panel the clips were missing. Instead of trying to order the correct clips, I improvised using 3 small snap rings on each mount to hold each in place snugly. One of the easiest swaps you can do. On a side impact on the front of the fenders, the mounting panel gets damaged easily, which is not visible till total disassembly, and then the marker lights fit poorly, and even the 1 grille was cracked and tweaked with a high bulge on top of the grille where you see it just lower than the edge of the hood. Each assembly on craigslist was the same price, $ 75

 

That's what I wanted to hear. I'm not looking to do the 05-07 upgrade, but I want to replace my sealed beams with the composites from the same year. Again, if anybody has a set of them laying around, I'm interested. I've been checking craigslist around here with no luck so far. I probably can't be PMed yet, but you can send me an email at patricktberry@gmail.com.

 

What I want is to either have a kit that goes in where the sealed beam goes, but gives me a HID or LED light... or an aero light kit with HID or LED...


Anyone have ideas?

 

I've seem kits on ebay that will allow you to use a new style bulb in a sealed beam style housing. I'm sure you can make it work from there.

 

My 07' XL has an adapter from the factory that takes it to a sealed beam. To switch to an aero light I just need to take the adapter out.

 

One more question since my eBay deal fell through: Do I need new turn signals or can I reuse them and just buy the headlight housings? I'm looking at this auction: 00 01 02 03 04 05 Ford Excursion Super Duty Headlights : eBay Motors (item 390180327557 end time Apr-14-10 21:32:31 PDT)

Can I buy those and just pull out my sealed beams and buckets and slap those in with my stock markers/signals?

 

if you don't mind the 99-01 style headlights, i have some stock headlights and corner lights you can have, just flip me a few bucks to ship them. one of the headlight has a crack on the back of the housing that needs sealed up, other than that i took them out to upgrade to the 02-04 lights.

 

That's very tempting. The only reason I want the newer ones is for the clear lens that I hear makes them much brighter. I live in Warrenville, IL 60555. Think $20 would cover it?

 

yep, should work. let me know, not a big deal if you decide not to!

 

Send me an email at patricktberry@gmail.com and maybe we can do this.