I had the 01 XLT front end with the flat hood and ugly valance with no fog lights so it had the ugly square holes in it. I decided to go with an 05 front end because it had the raised hood, and the valance without fogs was smoother.

First I bought an 05 hood, front fenders, header panel, grille and chrome bumper. I didn't have to replace the front bumper as the 01-05 bumper is the same but I wanted new chrome. After initial failure I had to buy the hood latch, hood catch and hood hinges. Total cost $400 for certafit body panels and $100 hood hardware from ford.

Installation was easy. Just remove every clip off the old header panel and place it on the new one. There was a center peice that went on the 01 header panel that does not fit the 05 one but it just covers up the center bar of the header panel to make it look nice. Also there was a peice of plastic that mounted to the 01 header panel that created the plastic peice under the head lights. You won't need those as the 05 header panel has those built into it.

The only issues I ran into was that the hood catch and latch needed to be replaced. If you go from the flat style XLT hood to the edge style raised hood you will need the hood latch and the catch. One other problem was my hinges. It seemed the hood did not line up correctly and was way too far off to adjust. I bought 05 hood hinges from ford and it fixed the problem. Only mystery to me was the fact that the 01 and 05 hinges were the same part number in the book. But I did notice my old hinges were cut the same shape and were pointing the same direction. The new ones were cut a certain way and you could tell the left from the right. I'm thinking my old ones were 2 left hinges.

Hope this helps someone. Just remember to look over your parts "completely" even if they are new. I ended up with 2 fenders with dents in each of them and a chrome bumper with a gouge. Gotta love sorta fit.

We need pictures!!!!

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2005 Ford Ranger EDGE
Useful links:
Owners Manual
Beginners threads of interest
How To Guides
How to Post Pictures

Things to do:
Participate in: Truck of the Month
Participate in:Ranger Photo Contest
Visit FRF Store: FRF Store

Yes pics!!

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97' 2.3 5spd
Riding on aiR

pics or it didn't happen

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2006 ranger XL
VW TYPE 3 project: BabyBluFASTY
2.3 liters of fire breathing fury
PNW crew
XBGT:fomoco007

lol

i just shot a kitten in the genitals with a pellet gun bc you didnt post pictures.

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2001 Ford Ranger Supercab (4dr), Oxford White, 4.0 Sohc, 4x4, Manual trans (hurst equipped), 4:10's, 3" body lift.

we need pics of this too! haha

pics or gtfo.

haha

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2001 Ford Ranger XLT 3.0 V6 Automatic, 263K.
PNW Crew!
Follow me: http://twitter.com/aaron_ariens
Friend me: http://www.facebook.com/aaron.ariens

i will keep shooting the scrotum's from kittens until pics are posted.

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2001 Ford Ranger Supercab (4dr), Oxford White, 4.0 Sohc, 4x4, Manual trans (hurst equipped), 4:10's, 3" body lift.

rmao, man im on the floor rolling from you shooting kittens in the nuts

where were you when i needed to get my cat fixed?

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i got a cat problem here, you wanna handle that since you will be here

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2006 ranger XL
VW TYPE 3 project: BabyBluFASTY
2.3 liters of fire breathing fury
PNW crew
XBGT:fomoco007

Well I didnt get any step by step pics because I was busy getting it ready to paint the firewall. Havent spend any time trying to figure out how to get pics on here. You can search facebook for Jason Garoutte and you should be able to see all my pics.

There are 6 Jason Garoutte on Facebook all private profiles how about just post the pictures.

How To: Post pictures using photobucket.com<==CLICK

__________________
2005 Ford Ranger EDGE
Useful links:
Owners Manual
Beginners threads of interest
How To Guides
How to Post Pictures

Things to do:
Participate in: Truck of the Month
Participate in:Ranger Photo Contest
Visit FRF Store: FRF Store