identifying a part of a part

[alexpmcmurphy]

so i ran across an article/request for help on another car site i frequent, the part of the car that needs to be identified came off a killers car during a hit and run, i think they pretty much have it narrowed down to a ford grill, maybe we can help get it down to the exact year/model?

http://jalopnik.com/5900586/identify-this-car-part-and-help-catch-a-killer

 

[Mark_88]

It looks like they've narrowed it down to the F-150 grill...but they need to refine that a bit more to what model of trim level...

If it was me as the owner of the vehicle I'd be pulling the grill pretty fast...

The police should check all the junk yards in the area for people buying the part...like they did around my area to find out who stole a bunch of metal a while ago...

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

I am going to vote either Explorer or F-150, I would almost lean more towards the Explorer because the bottom bar looks thicker than a '150's but without either vehicle here it is hard to say just going by the pics. Reading their comments they seem pretty sure it is a '150 though. I wonder how they hit a vehicle hard enough to kill someone and only one little peice of the grille came off?

95-01 Explorer

97-98 F-150 XL
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99-03 F-150 XL

If not off of an Explorer it would be a 99-03 F-150 XL... or at least a 99-03 that at one time had an XL grille.

Either way, it is a stupid common vehicle. I don't know if I can swing a dead cat without hitting three F-150's that didn't have the grille busted out from what I would assume hitting a deer.

97 and 98 F-150's have slightly different grilles than 99-03 (and 04 Heritage) To my knowlage only XL trucks got the plastic argent grilles from the factory... but both readily interchange with any other trim level. And for that matter a 97-98 grille will go on a 99-03 truck but not vice versa without swapping a bunch of stuff that includes the bumper, but IMO the spacing is way wrong for a 97-98.

My '02 is an XLT with the honeycomb grille so the scale thing does me no good.