Well folks, it is no secret that my truck is now ten years old like most of yours. She still looks great and runs well. Alas I had an oopsie some time back and dented my bumper. I drove it for a while like that and a lot of folks did not notice right away but I knew.



Well it is easy to see in that pic but not so evident when just looking. Here is my clearance light pic I posted a while back:



Well it seems nobody saw it due to trick photography and angles. Anyway, I bought a used F450 bumper and grill from Jody and Diane at RRE. Thanks to Diane for making the deal we made. While we both had our reasons I was worried about whether it would clean up because it was rough.

So I set about to cleaning it up which involved disassembling it, polishing the rust off and painting the plastic.

Painted plastic with Duplicolor bumperblack and the other pieces with standard paint. The top piece was horrible gray with scratches and the plastic was in bad shape. I melted it down with a propane torch to smooth that out. Sorry, no before pics but folks from RRE can testify to the condition.



Going to next post folks. Please wait.

 

OK, here we go, so I was not happy with how gravel and whatnot was ruining the backside of my bumper, another reason I got flares, but that is another story. So I sanded down the inside of this one and sprayed some rubberized paint on the inside of this one. Did I mention I will not ever buy a new truck and might as well be buried in this one?



That done, I needed to try to polish the chrome portion of the bumper to see if it would be satisfactory or whether I would be painting it:

 

Enough already, while this is not a new mod I am very pleased with it:



Another angle:



One more and I am pleased how the color matches my Bushwhackers:



So I was thinking that I would need newer lights to match up but it does not look that bad as is. I like it. I am open to ideas on smoked black headlight units to complete this.

Final thoughts before the questions, this is a F450 grill and bumper. It bolted right up. I had to use the fog light mounts from the 05 unit because they are not the same. Other than that they went right in, well except for a missing bolt which is quite proprietary. I Jerry rigged one.

There are a few holes in the bumper that I will be plugging since I don't have F450 flares up front, no biggy. Aside from that I am quite pleased with it. Thanks DP Tuner folks, and thanks to Jim for talking me into it. I like it so much better than the chopped grill conversion that goes with the stock bumper. Thanks to Eddie for your help.

So I will be having that old bumper for sale along with my grill which is pretty much cherry. Anyone with headlight ideas can chime in. I see that the stock units match quite well so I may be looking for some smoked halo LED units or some sort of smoked projectors. Any input is welcome. Thanks for looking.

 

Looks pretty good Mike. Personally I don't care for smoked lights up front.

If it were me, I'd swap out the amber turn signals for the clear ones on the 02 - 04 model and swap to a black toolbox. Your headlights don't look too bad, but the 02 - 04 lights are more clear, so that's something to keep in mind.

 

Looks great on your truck, Mike.

Now you just need some 05 headlights to go with it.

 

One word... WOW.

That looks great with the flares and whatnot. What year is the F450 grill and bumper off of? (or did I miss it?)

 

Looks great Mike, The first thing I noticed was how well the bumper flows into the Bushwackers. Nice job.

 

bumper and grill are great. I like them way better that the stock.

 

I can't believe that's the same bumper!!! Great job, Mike. I vote for '05 harley lights.

 

Looks awesome! Just gives me motivation to overhaul my front end to the newer look. As far as headlights...go to my gallery since i have a silver truck too and look how the harley headlights look. They woudl look perfect IMHO on your truck and would finish it off.

 

05 Harley lights Mike and call it a day that turned out extremely well from the way that bumper looked at RRE your good deal worked out well that is one SHARP front in now.

 

Mike I am glad you finally got that bumper with the big as_ dent in it changed out. It looks good I think, but some 05 head lights would look good.

 

Just to add to what Chris said about the toolbox, I would say have it line-x'd. That would look cool I think. I do like the chrome and black look, like an old school Harley bike. Those would look Harley lights would cap off the front end nicely IMHO.

 

Sorry I stole that from you Pete. I don't think I will go with 05 lights as I have a company car and do not drive the truck except when I want to. Just looking for good looking lights to go with my current setup. I don't necessarily need HIDs or what not, just something that complements the front end.

 

I have to say the way the black flares blend into the black top of the bumper along with everything else blends in well just as long as you go with a dark light all will be well i would think.