E99 + 07 grille + buckstop front bumper?

[mkurkowski]

have an early 99 with a bent up front bumper, cracked grille, and terrible headlights. want to make it right all at once, so i am going to do an 07 grille with OEM HD headlights and a buckstop front bumper. well i called buckstop a couple weeks ago and they said no problem. i called them again this morning (and talked to someone else) and they said it can't work. something about the 07 style bumper mounts differently and the E99 doesn't have a crash bar. however, if it was an 02 or 03 they would be able to make it work.

has anyone tried this before? the guy at buckstop this morning was not very helpful nor knowledgeable so i eventually got a little pissed and gave up. however, i know it has to be possible as there is not much difference from an E99 to an 02 or 03.

tia. all help is appreciated.
max

[carolinaboy02powerstroke]

05 and up grills have to be modified to fit 99-04 bumpers. They may thing that they would have to drop the bumper to make it fit. Just a guess.

[dieselcrawler]

worst case, you'd have to trim the '05-up grill to fit the bumper if it's made to fit to the '04-back grill. It can be made to work, the frame mounts are the same as far as I know.

[mkurkowski]

well i ordered the bumper for the 05-07. buckstop's way of making a 99-03 bumper fit onto an 05-07 is simply by cutting the back of the bumper away a bit so there is room for the deeper grille to sit behind the bumper. so the problem with the grille fitting with the bumper shouldn't be an issue, as long as the mounting holes on the front of the frame rails are in a similar position between the two series' of trucks.

the crash bar is a whole nother story. my E99 has no crash bar, and supposedly you need one for the 05-07 bumper to attach to on the bottom. does anybody know what style of crash bar (open end or pinched end) would be on a 05-07, and if it would work on my E99?

[dieselcrawler]

how about some pictures of this buckstop bumper?

From how you're discribing it, it depends on the factory lower crash bar that goes behind the air dam for proper mounting? If this is the case, both my trucks would have issues, as the Excursion is the only one that has the 'crash bar'.

One of these years, I'd like to build some bumpers myself, but they will bolt up to the frame horns, and if there is a crash bar, it would be removed in my case.

I'd like to see some pictures of what you're talking about, just for ideas, new designs to incorparate into my plans.

[mkurkowski]

lots of pictures here.

Heavy Duty Winch Bumpers for Ford Superduty F250, F350, F450, F550, Excursion Trucks Outback Model by BUCKSTOP Truckware

the 'outback' is the one i have ordered for my E99. if you look close to a pic of one on a 05-07, you can see that the bottom of the grille is covered by the top of the bumper.

i have the 'classic' on my 03 (with the standard 03 grille) and it attaches by four bolts on each side to the front of the frame rails, but also comes down and clamps to the crash bar to prevent any twisting motion.

[stroker98]