I know the obvious bit... but is the 04 grill just a little shorter than the 99-02's? I've been starting my truck with no bumper for a little to long now... I have the base of the thing done, but I'm irritated how the bottom trim pieces of my headlights don't line up. If I make my bumper flush with the bottom of the grill I have a gap underneath my headlights, if I make it flush with the lights it sucks up part of the grill. My question, are the 03-04 grills flush unlike mine? How does the aftermarket bumper manufactures deal with this? Lemme get somma dem pictures


I have 3 options to choose from:
-Gaps under headlights, my least favorite
-suck up the bottom of the grill about and 1.5"
-go with the 03-04 lights, which is cool, but expensive and I could have like 3 steel wheels for that price (putting it in perspective).


I'm going to start working on it again tomorrow.


What would you do?

 

i did my headlight conversion after bumper. saw no difference in height.
later may stick out more flush. just the incorporation of hl finishers to the bumper was lost. now they are separate

but I say suck up part of grill if those be the options

 

I believe some of the aftermarket bumpers require some trimming on the lower part of the grill on the 99-02 models. I believe I've see some write ups about cutting 1 inch off the bottom of the grill.

 

sold! cutting the grill lol. I don't want to convert to 03-04 headlights now that I'm thinking of it...I like the old style look


Thanks.

 

Can't you just add a piece of metal to the top edge of the bumper under the lights to take up the gap you don't like? Weld it in place, do some grinding, apply some bondo, paint it up and it will look great... No cutting of the grill necessary...

 

there must be a difference as stated earlier most aftermarket bumper require cutting for 99-02.

 

The 03-04 are flat on the bottom and an inch and a half or so higher, the 99-02s curve down and have a low section.

 

You can see the difference here Rock Bumpers | Torque Performance 4×4

look at the facelift vs non-facelift bumpers. They weld a piece of flat stock in the center section to fill the gap from the higher grill on a 03-04.