What would an 08 Excursion look like?

[6X4Cowboy]

I agree, would love to see the under the hood pics. I have a 2004 Ex and would like to see about doing the same mods to it.

[bostonX73]

very sharp!
any way to make the fender badge say Excursion?

[sy2030]

Originally Posted by biggrobb

thats 1 good lookin truck ive been wanting to do that for the last 3 years I didnt think any one had done it to there excursions. now that I seen it can be done I will do it this summer as my new project. Can you please post some more pictures (the whole front end, under the hood, radiator suport, hinges, your modifications, any thing you think might be useful for me)
I will take pictures of the whole project from start to end and post it for anyone who is interested.
Thanks for everything

Sorry for the delay guys, I've been busy and it has been raining alot. I will try to detail it as good as possible. Here we go.

Once all the 1999-2007 front parts are removed, fit the 08-09 fenders on first. You will need to cut the factory mounting tabs on the back side of the fender near the door edge. These tabs push the fender out too far. Also, the electric horn is behind the passenger fender and will need to be relocated to where the window washer bottle is inside the inner structure, it is too deep for the new fenders. You may also need to make a couple of the top fender bolt holes larger to allow more movement/adjustment left/right/front/back. Fit the fender to the door and then go forward. The lower bolt hole stays the same. You will need to make one mounting plate/bracket to screw to the fender then the plate will bolt to the truck's mounting tab. Once the fenders are in place, put the hood on. The 99-07 hood hinges (and lift shocks) can be used, they may need to be adjusted slightly, but the hinges have a little play and may adjust without reaming out the holes, only one of mine required any reaming.

Once the hood is on, put the grill on the hood without the vertical supports to the hood, just let the clips push into the hood. With the grill hanging on the hood, this will give you an idea where the lights need to be. The lights have clips that snap into the fenders on the outer edge of the light.

More to follow in the next entry:

[sy2030]

Originally Posted by therabbittree

yeah I second that current pictures of under the hood etc..do you have to change the radiator support and tilt your rad back like a '08-'09? or will your vertical early radiator setup / support work?
Thanks,
Deo

Deo, thanks for your patience. The radiator, intercooler, tranny cooler, pwr steering cooler and condenser all stay put, they don't need to move at all. Once you get the old header panel and lights out of the way, you will be surprised how much room is there. I am going to put an auxilary pusher fan on my condenser to help cooling at idle. It gets edge of hell hot in TX, especially in a solid black truck the size of an efficiency apartment. Here we go some more:

Fenders, hood and grill in place; test fit light up to fender and you will see that the light will not recess far enough, it hits on the inner structure, so part of that will need to be cut away, see pictures. The passenger side will require that the window washer bottle be pushed back about 1 inch. You will need to use some angle stock (with holes) to make two brackets for the passenger side. Make pilot holes and use self tapping metal screws to mount your custom brackets to the inner structure (see pictures behind light mounting bolts). I had to use nylon spacers to get the lights shimmed into location. Once you have the light nearly mounted, then use 1/4" all thread to solidly mount the fender to the frame. This will stop any side to side movement of the fender and will not put added stress on the plastic light housing. Now that all the hard work is done with the custom light mount, you will need to wire your head light. The parking and blinker light plugs fit into the new lamps on the 08 assembly, but the headlamp plug/lamp are different. The new lamp uses "slip over" spade type connectors, so I pulled the connectors out of my 01 harness and simply slipped them on to the pins on the lamp until I got the low/high beam connections correct, then I taped the wires in order to the back of the lamp and taped the hell out of it and since November 07, no problems. Hopefully for you, Ford will have started selling them individually.

Proceed over to the driver side, mark the inner structure area to be cut away and cut at will. Follow passenger side instructions, but the ABS unit will need to be pushed back about 1 inch on the driver side. I mounted on of the headlamp bolts to the ABS mounting bracket, it is thick metal and permanently/firmly attached. I had to use nylon spacers on this side as well, same 1/4" all thread down below also. It doesn't hurt to move the ABS unit, all the lines have plenty of slack to move it without kinking any of the brake lines.

More to follow......

[sy2030]

I know there seems to be a lot of steel cut away, but the structure is still firm. I don't feel any less safe in my truck. Here's more:

**I didn't get all the head lamp mounting pictures in the last post, see them below. Look for the nylon spacers between the ABS unit and the light housing assembly**

Once the headlamps are firmly attached to the fenders and inner sturcture and the hood closes without the grill hitting/rubbing on the lamps, you are good to mount the bumper. I found that the 08 trucks frames drop about 3 inches up front somewhere. So I cut away about a 3" x 3" chunk of the top edge of my frame (see pictures, I cut away a little more than necessary). The 08 bumper had some brackets that bolt to the outer edge of the bumper then bolt to the frame, these will not work on the older frames, I did not use them and did not make custom brackets here. I just bolted the bumper to the frame and that's all. The older trucks had a lower bracket which requires the corner cut off of it. See the picture with the all thread in it and then look past it, the bracket that is horizontal to the ground behind the bumper, you will see the corner is cut off to allow the bumper to be perpendicular to the ground. I did not get driving lamps with the black bumper, but the plugs are still there and one day I will get them.

Yes those are train horns behind the bumper. More to follow......

[sy2030]

Okay it should be starting to look like a new truck that needs paint by now.

I had to trim the inner fender skirts a little around the upper spring perch and shock mount. The new fenders are not as deep and push the skirt inward, this was a dirty pain in the butt. You'll be glad when this is behind you.

The cowl panel, between the hood and windshield, requires a bit of modification because the windshield wipers are moved toward the windshield in the 08-09 trucks. I used washers under the front mounting tabs of the motor arms to get the wiper mounts/swivels farther back, but I still had to cut out portions of the cowl panel to get the wiper arms on and to rotate without hitting the cowl panel. You may want to purchase the 08-09 wiper assembly, but I didn't even request pricing on that, I just always planned on cutting mine. I used a soldering iron to cut through the plastic in a slow, controlled manner. Then used a carpet/utility knife to trim the edges. My handy work on this looks like poo in my opinion, but people rarely ever look past the hood and my truck is no show truck. Also, none of the mounting screw holes line up with the older cowl panel mounting locations. You can make it look better, I was ready for the project to be finished and hurried here. These pieces were really ill fitting pieces and it just wouldn't line up no matter what I did. I also had to trim the corner of them for the hood hinges to go all the way up wihtout breaking the mounting holes through the cowl panel. See pictures.

Mount the fender badges after paint!!!!!!, these clips are STRONG and breaking the badge seems more likely if you can't get your hand behind them to push them out while pulling from the front.

The 08 trucks all had red vents behind the chrome badge, I removed them and painted them black, but pressure washing has caused them to start flaking off. I think 09 trucks are black or have the option to be black. Your preference.

I put an 09 black back bumper on my X. (It doesn't have the reverse proximity sensors, but I may install them at a later date, not a big deal if you aren't parallel parking all the time.) Use your Excursion brackets, they are shorter than a truck's, bumper bolts right up, no problems to speak of. It would help if your hands are not huge here, you will see what I mean when you get there.

I painted my Excursion badge in the back semi flat black and used 3M molding tape.

I had the whole truck painted black and it was the most terrible experience of this whole project. They painted my truck three times, even painted it green in between the two black attempts, see the pictures. I had had enough after not having my truck for a month, so I got it back and decided to wait for a repaint.

I apologize for my truck being filthy in the pictures, but it has been raining and I figured the information was more important that the truck being clean for a non formal "photo shoot".

[sy2030]

One more thing I forgot. You will need to buy the 08-09 hood striker that mounts to the hood. The 01 looks the same and will bolt to the new hood but it is bent differently and will NOT work. Buy the 08 and bolt it on, you will need to get long bolts and plenty of washers from "the depot". See pictures. The hood latch releases differently since the grill is attached to the hood now. I drilled a hole and used 18 gauge wire to run down behind the bumper so that I can pull it and release the satefy hood latch. It was a dirt cheap mechanism, look for the green wire in the pictures. A pivot bracket and solid arms could be made to look more professional, but my fix required no special engineering.

I open the hood at inspections and oil/fuel filter changes, there is no way the mechanics could figure it out in a reasonable amount of time.

My hood lift shocks are shot. The added weight of the grill wore them out in no time. I made a clothes rod that spans the two clothes hooks in the rear of the truck and it subs as a hood prop rod when I need it. I used the garage push broom in these photos, also effective in this situation.

I did not reapply fender moldings to the front fenders. They are not the same as the older trucks and you would have to buy them and have them painted to match the moldings on your X. I painted my truck black, totally black, so you can't really tell if I don't point it out.

I purchased the 04 King Ranch 18" wheels/tires when the second set 16" tires finally wore out, I removed the tires and had the wheels powder coated black. I wanted black wheels, but didn't want to spend $2000 for a set of 20" wheels with semi-low profile tires to fit under my 2wd and that would most likely get bent under the 6500 pounds of Excursion. I like the look of the stock chrome center cap, especially when the truck is moving. The wheel looks like a "knock off" wheel when it is rolling. Also resembles a special service vehicle or secret service vehcile.

My X had Arizona beige trim and matching running boards. I found a set of factory black running boards on Craigslist. I had painted the original boards black in the mean time, but rocks, debris and rain water caused the paint to flake off quickly. The black ones are from an 02 X and the black plastic color matches the black plastic color on the 09 bumpers. Of course the plastic on the new bumpers has the cross thatch design and the running boards look textured, but they don't really look out of place.

I did not have a good experience with Ford Parts during this also!!! Every metal part I purchased was bent or dinged right out of the box and I got tired of having a friend go up to the parts house with me to transport bent hoods and fenders, so I said the hell with it and used the bent and/or dinged pieces. Ford sold me a fan and fan clutch at cost to make it up to me. How generous right. Anyway, my point here is, 100%, ABSOLUTELY, DO NOT PAY WITHOUT, pulling the parts (yes, even the hood) out of the box and checking it for damage in the salesman's presence. Ford Parts Inventory Safety, is NOT job 1.


Okay, I am done and I hope that you guys find this information and pictures helpful. I am not trying to toot my own horn, but I am mechanically inclined. If you are mechanically inclined, you know it and this project shouldn't scare you. I am a McGuiver, "make it work" kind of person, but if I had not been in the accident, I wouldn't have done this. Of course the accident reconstruction work was a big part of my project, but it was still a lot of work and I probably said "what the hell have I got myself into?" atleast twice throughout this. If you find yourself in that position, please PM me or post up and I'll try to help.

Good luck guys.

[sy2030]

Originally Posted by bostonX73

very sharp!
any way to make the fender badge say Excursion?

If anyone out there has a plastic injection molding machine, the skill to make a template and way too much time on their hands, I would be interested in a badge that says "Excursion". I have seen billet pieces that have no lettering on them, but they are still a bit pricey in my opinion.

[therabbittree]

AWESOME Writeup!!!! Great Job.. I was wondering if we could mount the grille soem how like a earlier truck ie not on the hood etc...mummn I think I may start collecting parts. I looked at a 2008 today and I pity the guys who bought them. the engine is so cramped its nuts ha this clip swap on a older truck is the best of both.. now a dash swap would be nice... gotta find one in a yard ..

Thanks,
Deo

[drewkeen]

Do you have a before shot of the rear? I am thinking about putting a newer rear bumper on my X if it looks better.

[DieselDeaf]

I think I saw your Ex a few weeks back when I was cutting across Parmer Lane, in fact it had to be you as I doubt there are anymore 08 ex's in Austin besides yours.

Great job!!

[sy2030]

Drew- I don't think I have a before picture of the rear, but I still have the old rear bumper. I will place the old one on the ground under the truck and take a picture for you tonight. Stay tuned.

Dieseldeaf- Yes, it had to be me. I work at Samsung off of Parmer Lane. I don't drive the X everyday, I bought an A to B car last year when diesel was $4.75/gallon.

[jguzman75]

It looks KILLER!!!! Great job!!

[fitzy97]

Looks awesome,but a set of smoked headlights from an 08/09 Harley truck would add to the sinister look.

[TitoTW]

Looks awesome, what a great idea on the wheels !