Hello. New F-150 owner here. Just traded in my little '89 Mazda B2200 picup for it.

She's an '88 XLT Lariat with the 5.0 V8...

I also have the grille/lights off an old school 1985 Ford F150. Has anyone ever attempted to swap front clips before? I remember seeing someone try it one time actually looked pretty sweet.
Ideas? Would the front fenders off the '85 bolt on or are they too different? I could cut my existing '88 fenders to allow for the lights/grille and fill the gaps afterwards... I've done alot of bodywork in the past so that shouldnt be too bad

 

i know if you swap the entire front clip, fenders hood, radiator support, and all it will work, im not sure if the body lines will line up, but i know that for the 87-91 years the 92-96 front clip lines up well, i never though about going back in time, but if you do it, be sure to post pics

 

Never knew that... I might see if i can get a newer front clip cheaper than all the supplies id need for my swap. I just never really liked the oversize lights/signals on this gen..

Also I have an old '90 F250 Lariat that got bent up pretty good in an accident... Toying with the idea of tearing out the old 7.3 and throwing it in the F150 Shouldnt be THAT bad, I once replaced the 305 in my '72 Cutlass Supreme with a 454 no problem

 

the front clip off an 85 won't work on your 89. the 85 has an extra body line over the wheels. I think that it would look a bit odd unless you changed the box too. I have seen a 85 f150 with a box off a 88 or newer truck and it looked like sh*t. if you do swap out your front clip for one off of a 92 or newer you might want to look into changing the extended cab windows to the newer style 1 window design aswell.

 

I think if you loose the topper/ box cap and the bug deflector your truck would look good. a nice ford brick!

 

As far as the body lines, the one down the center will be ok, but the fenders you could get a set of bushwacker fender flares, that will hide the lines.