I've been wanting to do a little painting on the truck recently and finally got around to it. The grille and valance were getting pretty gray. The plastic on the step bars was also getting gray and the metal was rusting a little. After looking at several threads I decided to go for it.

I took off the grille and coated it with the people's choice, Krylon fusion satin black, pretty simple job which turned out really good.

A month or so ago I saw araujomike's thread where he cut his valance and it stuck in my head. I had to copy him :). I cut the valance with a jigsaw, which was actually pretty easy, and painted it with Dupli-Color Bumper Coating in dark charcoal. I thought about doing the satin black here too, but I really don't like how it looks as much. I also like the grille contrasting with the rest of the front.

Last was the step bars. I simply removed them off of the brackets and was just going to paint them. Then I saw the brackets were rusted some too so I thought I'd wire brush them and hit them up with Rustoleum. That turned out to be a mistake. Ford thought it would be a great idea to leave holes in the rails where the top of the brackets connect. The two vertical bolts on the brackets were caked in mud that I would imagine has been there for years. Needless to say the threads were nearly rusted off and I ended up breaking off 4 of the 8 bolts on the rear brackets. I've decided to just leave them off. The only real reason I had them on there was to hide the fugly torsion bars. Hopefully I'll be getting rid of them before too long anyways.

Let me know what you guys think.

 

Forgot to mention I decided to get rid of the clips on the valance ends. All but one on each side was busted anyways so I just ripped them all out. I decided to put a pair of carriage bolts on each side instead. I painted them flat black and love the way it looks. The only thing I'm worried about is if they rust, it may be a bastard to get them off. I coated them pretty good with grease but we'll see. If it comes to it I can cut them off or drill them out I guess.

 

I would have never cut the valence but to each their own.

 

I knew it wasn't going to be for everyone, but I really like it.

 

mine broke as well. i drilled one hole perside and its held just fine. yours looks clean too.

 

That looks pretty nice too. If I had the newer style valance I wouldn't have cut it. I think they look way better than the previous model.

 

I like it!

 

Looking good! I like the cut valence look from the front but not sure after the side pic. The rest looks great though!

 

I'm the same way. I love the look from the front. The side view is isn't great, but I don't hate it either I guess.

 

No...... I have been looking for one for a while now :(

 

looks sick from the front. Only reason i wouldn't do it is because it gets rid of the fog lights but aside that i like it

 

Well I figured cutting them out would be good motivation to get some sort of bull bar with lights on it.