Converting ‘88 GW to crate grille

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Milktruck
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Joined: Fri Feb 10, 2017 8:02 pm
Location: North Carolina

Converting ‘88 GW to crate grille

Post by Milktruck »

Spent a good part of the 4th converting the grille on my ‘88. Still waiting on a headlight bucket and the boobies. The work was straight forward and pretty satisfying. I want to get this fitted right, then I’ll pull and refinish when the GW goes for paint.

Steps:

1. Remove original grille
2. Remove headlights/buckets, and fog lights
3. Trial fit new grille and check for interference - in my case there was a bracket in the middle base of the nose that I had to remove with a cutting wheel.
4. Drill out one tab from round buckets for reference to make new mount tabs. (I used top left corner)
5. Mount round headlight bucket using bottom left tab and center in the panel
6. Using reference tab make six brackets from aluminum stock leaving a bit of extra material on one end to trim later. (A bar of stock aluminum can be found at hardware stores for a few dollars)
7. Trial fit your tabs using the original mounting holes, trim for length, mark and drill. Mount in original locations.
8. Mark buckets for drilling to mount on your new tabs, and drill. Then use holes to mark your new tabs in place to drill.
9. Mount buckets to tabs with sheet metal screws
10. Install headlights, with adjuster backing and trim ring. Remember to plug that light in, and if you’re doing the boobies, move wiring from your original turn signals to your new ones.
11. Repeat 7-10 for second headlight assembly using lower right tab to attach
12. Fit new grille. You may need to drill front valence to attach lower corners at mounting holes.
13. Fit headlight trim rings
14. Admire

Photos: https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0J5fk75vHV4AC
1988 Jeep Grand Wagoneer backdating to 78/88 blend
5.3L LS/3" Lift/Bilstein Shocks/Boobie Grille
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fulsizjeep
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Re: Converting ‘88 GW to crate grille

Post by fulsizjeep »

I did this years ago and found that the factory Modine tranny cooler will not clear the back side of the eggcrate grill. I moved the mounts up and to the back side of the valance to gain clearance.

http://jubileejeeps.org/tech/facelift
Flint Boardman
88 GW, 401/727/208, 5" lift, D44s/4.10s/locked up, 35s
https://jubileejeeps.org/quadratrac
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