Hey guys,

I started my front end swap. I have an 05 Edge, and am putting an 02 Grille and Hood on. Here is a before photo.



Took off the grille, then the head lights, then the corner lights, then the header panel. Once it was started and the attachments were figured out, it was pretty staightforward. I'm not a gearhead, so this is a big job for me.

Anyhow, put everything back on, and then went to work on the hood.

Here is the sad part. A 01/02/03 4x4 Hood will not bolt up to an 05 Ranger. While if you lay the hood down, it will fit, the bolt pattern on the hood does not match up to the hood brackets on the truck.

Here's a picture of the hood bracket, with the epoxy behind in after I unscrewed the screws.



And I stole these photos from the forums here to explain what I need.



This is what the truck looks like with the 02 4x4 Hood. (also referred to in these forums as the EDGE, or powerdome hood). We also tried to fix the gap between the bumper and the grille. Thats as high as it goes.



Now, I need to replace the current hood brackets that bolt up to the truck, with brackets from an 01, 02, or 03. Assuming of course that Ford kept the location of these brackets the same, and just changed to bracket itself to mate with the hood.

So this is what I need now. I need the hood brackets from an 01, 02, or 03. These need to be complete, so all I need to do it bolt them into the truck. I also need the hood latch bar (the bar on the hood that gets hooked by the hood latch/release).

So any advice on what to do next would be greatly appreciated. If anyone would know of a place online to get these parts, that would be awesome as well.

And just a heads up, I'll probably be selling the old parts when I'm done with this. Assuming I can get this to work. So if anyone would like to purchase an 05 grill, header panel, and hood... oh yeah, I'll also have a set of 05 60/40 spilt bench seats (black/grey), lemme know.

 

wow looks tons better, the 01-03 is the best looking by far only thing left besides what you mentioned is the 01-03 valance and it will look damn good.. nice work..

hood latch
http://www.trademotion.com/partlocat...03&catalogid=2

hinge which says on here 99-05?
http://www.trademotion.com/partlocat...03&catalogid=2

 

got a pic of how far off the pattern is? sounds like its time for a junk yard run.
heres the striker:
http://www.trademotion.com/partlocat...10&catalogid=2


looks good so far!

 

Thanks. I'm going to keep the valance and the bumber from the 05 on it. I like the design of the fog lights on the 05 more than the round one's on the 01/02/03.

Thing of it is, and maybe my wording was wrong. I don't need the latch, but I do need the Striker, which is number 10 on the diagram. Hell, maybe I'll just by the latch too.

As for the hinge, I can guarentee that the 05 is not the same as the 01/02/03. If it was, the powerdome hood would bolt on without a problem. Plus, they have 2 left hinges for sale. So that confuses me even more.

Thanks for the links!

 

Thanks bud.

Its dark now. I'll take some more photos tomorrow. I'm lucky I got done what I did. Its over 60 degrees, and its almost December in Western NY. This was something I was going to save till Spring, because I didn't know if I'd have the know-how to do this.