New Headlights for my 1997 F-350... Are gonna have to wait

The Ol’ Beast was in desperate need of new headlights. The lenses are super yellow, making it very hard to see at night. I could maybe see 20 feet in front of me with my low beams on. I could have my brights on and people couldn’t even tell. Lol. So I ordered up some new fancy smancy headlights to bright things up at night and add a little different look to the front of my truck. Give the Beast a little facelift. It’s getting new axles underneath so why not add a little somethin’ somethin’ on the top?

This little headlight swap project was suppose to be a quick slam dunk. You know, Take out the old headlights and put in the new ones... Done! Of course around here nothing seems to goe as planned.

First I had to take the grill off, which will hopefully give me better access and visibility to the bolts that hold the headlights in.

These stock headlights are a 2-piece design. The blinker and marker lights are separate from the actual headlight. So after locating and removing 2 nuts from the backside, the blinker and marker lights were removed.

Then the I fought like hell to get one of these retainer clips off that hold the headlight to the headlight/grill reinforcement panel. Upon looking at the other ones and realizing there is no way to access them to remove them, I decided to just remove the whole thing. Those little U-shaped clips don’t just simply slide off. They have to be pried off at just the right angle. Really?!?!? I mean why not just use a nut and bolt??

This is where this project came to a halt. Now I knew this reinforcement panel was a little busted up on the bottom but Daaaaannnng!! This thing is trashed!!!

No wonder my grill wasn’t quite fitting in there nice and tight. The whole bottom was busted to pieces! Not cool... not cool at all!!

Then upon further inspection I found a few more surprises. This whole big chunk of plastic was in horrible shape!! Both the left and right sides, next to the headlights were cracked severely bad. Making this headlight/grill reinforcement panel... not to good at reinforcing... Picking it up by the middle I could tell this thing was junk!!

I believe these cracks near the headlights were caused by laying on the front of the truck when working on it. I guess this plastic isn’t meant to support human weight... piss poor design... piss poor!

So after a quick search, I managed to find a replacement online for $100. Seems a little steep but when it costs $40 to ship it, the price of the part isn’t too bad. Well I guess these new headlights are going to have to wait for another day. Maybe my new cab lights will come in and I can get those installed??