Justin: The RedRock Baja Style Upper Grille Replacement that we have here would be a great
choice for all 2018 through 2020 F-150 owners who might be going for that Raptor styling but don't
want any massive logos or lettering, which does make for a very clean appearance. Now,
the grille will feature a durable automotive-grade ABS plastic build, along with a satin black
finish, and, of course, your LED accent lighting, all for right around 250 bucks. Now, the site is
gonna call this a very strong one out of three wrenches on the difficulty meter and at least a
couple of hours to complete from start to finish, but honestly, don't get a little discouraged if it
takes you longer than that, because removing the grille and the trim pieces can be a bit tricky
if you've never done it before. But regardless, guys, feel free to hang out with me for a bit.
We'll talk about the grille, and then we'll show you how it gets installed later in the video.
So, swapping grilles on your F-150 is a relatively easy and inexpensive way to
totally change up the look of not only the front end, but really, the entire truck.
Now, on that same topic, I would say one of the nice things in the grille category in particular
is just the sheer number of options owners have to choose from. You got things
ranging from mild to wild, and really everything in between.
Now, at first glance, I would say this grille is based off the OE Raptor grille. Does mimic
some of the key ingredients in that regard, such as your overall shape and honeycomb design here,
but more importantly, the signature LED running lights going across the top. That being said, I'm
also picking up a lot of STX vibes here as well, from the 2018 through 2020 model year trucks.
But maybe the biggest departure from those factory grilles, whether it be Raptor or
STX, is the lack of any lettering or logos across the middle, which, again,
I feel makes for a very clean look. Now, as an added bonus,
you're also opening up some additional airflow to the front end, and more specifically,
your radiator, which should help with cooling a little bit as well. Materials are gonna be
very similar to that of the factory grille as well, because you're looking at a very durable
and lightweight injection-molded ABS plastic which, has been designed using OEM Ford CAD data,
which basically allows the grille to fit like a factory part, without any gaps or imperfections.
Now, last but not least, guys, again, we did talk about the amber LED running lights here earlier,
but we also need to talk about the fact that they do kick in some additional wiring to get
everything up and running very easily. Now, these lights will tap into your factory headlights,
meaning they're gonna turn on any time you fire up the headlights or the parking lights
on your specific F-150. But now we wanna share just a little bit more light on that installation,
pun intended. And to do so, feel free to check out our detailed walkthrough
we promised you earlier, along with that quick tool breakdown right now.
Male: The tools used for this install are a ratchet,
clip removal tool, Phillips head screwdriver, 10, 8 and 7-millimeter sockets.
So, for this install, we are going to have to remove the grille from the vehicle because we
are replacing it. There's only a few simple hand tools that get this grille off and our
new one installed. I'm gonna walk you through every step of the process, so let's get started.
So, there's a series of clips located on the top of the rad cover that need to be removed so that
the rad cover can come out, which will free up all of our hardware for the rest of our grille.
I'm gonna use my clip removal tool and just work my way around the rad cover,
and pop all the clips out.
Now that all of our clips are removed, we can remove our rad cover.
There are two electrical connections that need to be removed. One is for the active shutter,
and the other is for the ambient air temperature sensor. Just unplug these and then we can move on
to the next bit of hardware. Next, using a 10-millimeter socket on my ratchet,
I'm going to remove the four 10-millimeter screws located on the top of the grille.
Next thing I need to do is remove my lower fascia from my grille, and there are two
screws located inside the wheel arch that need to be removed. One of ours is missing, but you'll
need a 7-millimeter socket to remove these two on this side, and do the same on the other.
Now we can go ahead and remove our lower fascia. This is going to expose some of the lower grille
hardware that we need to remove next. Next, using an 8-millimeter socket on my ratchet,
I need to remove the 8-millimeter screw here at the bottom corner of the grille. There's one
right here on the bottom of this side, and again, on the other side of the grille.
Now that all of our hardware for our grille is removed,
we can remove the grille from the vehicle.
The active shutter assembly needs to be removed from the factory grille and transferred over to
our new grille. There are five bits of hardware that hold the shutter assembly
to the factory grille, one 10-millimeter nut located on all four of the corners, as well as
a screw here in the middle. I'm gonna use my 10-millimeter socket to remove all this hardware.
There should be another 10-millimeter nut located right here at this corner of the grille,
but ours is missing. You'll just need your 10-millimeter socket to remove that.
Once again, at this last corner of the grille, there will be another 10-millimeter nut,
but ours is missing. You'll just need your 10-millimeter socket once again to remove that.
There are a series of clips located along the bottom side of the grille that need to be released
in order to remove the active shutter assembly. All you're gonna need to do is, I'm using my clip
tool here. I'm just gonna push in on the clips and lift up on the grille to separate them.
The last thing we need to remove before we can pull our active shutter assembly off
is these five clips here. They are located at the top side of the grille, along the
top edge. Just use my clip tool once again to pop these out and work my way down the line.
Now we can fully remove our active shutter assembly.
So, the studded clips that are located behind the active shutter need to be transferred from
the old grille to the new one. You're just gonna slide those out, and then slide them into the new
positions on the grille. And you'll just have to repeat that for the other side of the grille as
well. Slide your two studs out, and transfer them over. Because of the built-in lighting in this
grille, one of our headlights is gonna have to be removed from the vehicle in order to tap into
the proper circuit. We need to tap into a running light, and we need to wire the new LEDs into that
running light circuit. Starting at the top of my headlight, there is one clip and two 10-millimeter
screws that need to be removed. I'll use my clip tool and a 10-millimeter socket to pull those out.
Down here at the bottom of the headlight, there are three screws that need to be removed, this one
8-millimeter here, the 10-millimeter next to it, and this 10-millimeter here up in the corner. I'll
use my 8-millimeter socket and my 10-millimeter socket to remove those from the vehicle.
Once I have those removed, I can pull my headlight out.
With our headlight pulled out from the vehicle, we can see the wiring harnesses that are on the back.
The wire that we need to tap into for the LED lights on the front of the grille are
actually these ones here in our little corner marker light. There's a black,
and a green with an orange tracer. We'll need to tap into those for our power and ground sources.
With our grille sitting here on the cart, now we can start transferring over some of the
pieces that we removed earlier. These studded clips need to be installed into the new grille
before your active shutter can be put back on. I'll clip these into each corner,
and then repeat that on the other side. Next, we'll need to install the provided mounting
brackets onto each side of the grille. They just slide right into place, and then you can install
them with the Phillips head screws that are provided, and your Phillips head screwdriver.
Once you have your screws in place, then you can install the provided garnish clips
on the ends, and then repeat the same exact thing on the other side of the grille.
Next, using the provided wiring harness in the kit,
you can make all of your connections for your LED lights that are mounted in your grille.
As I'm doing this, I'm making sure to route my wires towards the driver's side of the vehicle,
where I'll be tapping into my harness for my lights, behind my driver's side headlight.
Now that our wire harness is connected, we can reinstall our active shutter onto our
grille assembly. Just line up your clips in the back, as well as your clip holes in the front,
and then you can reinstall your hardware. I have my wire harnesses routed in between my outer
grille and my inner grille active shutter along the top, around the side, and coming out the back.
Now you can reinstall your 10-millimeter hardware onto the back of your grille,
and tighten it down with your 10-millimeter socket. We'll do this at all four corners.
And now you can repeat that on the other side.
Once the nuts are secured that hold down the back of the grille,
you can reinstall the five clips along the top of the grille.
The wires that I need to tap into to power up my LEDs on my grille are these two wires here
that are located on this two-pin connector that plugs into the back of the headlight. This is
for my running light. I have my black wire with yellow tracer for my ground, and my green wire
with orange tracer for my power. The kit provides you with this type of vampire connection that
clips into the wire and pierces it, and runs the wire parallel to that, so that it gets the
power signal and ground signal that it needs. Now, this is nice, and it'll work for this install,
but I like to be able to unplug anything that I install, especially if it's electrical, so I've
opted to use this type of vampire connection, which installs exactly the same way, but it
also accepts a male spade connection, so that if I ever need to remove my grille or any other lights
that I install using this type of connector, I can unplug it and plug it back in as needed.
Just make sure that your wire falls in between the two metal prongs,
and close the connection, and those metal prongs will pierce through the insulation of the wire and
into the copper, which should give you your power and ground signals, and then I can put
two spade connectors on the ends of my wires for my grille, and I can tap right into these plugs.
Now I can plug into my Scotch connectors here. Like I said, I just had to install a couple of
spade connectors onto the ends of my power and ground wires coming off of my grille,
and I'll plug them right into this and then test everything out. Now that our wiring is complete,
we can go ahead and reinstall our headlight by making all of our connections and reinstalling
the hardware, and then we can move on to installing the grille to the vehicle.
Now that I have my headlight sitting back into place, I can reinstall the factory hardware
that I removed earlier. There's one clip and two screws at the top, and there are three
screws along the bottom and side. I'll need an 8 and 10-millimeter socket to reinstall those.
So, I have my grille just resting here on the edge of where it's supposed to be installed.
Now that I've got all of my electrical connections made, my headlights back in, I can go ahead
and reinstall my grille, and plug in my active shutter and my ambient air temperature sensor.
Now that I have my grille sitting back in place where it's supposed to be, I can reconnect
my ambient air temperature sensor and my active shutter grille. I have to make sure that I do
this, and don't forget, because this will cause a check engine light. Once I have those reconnected,
I can move on to reinstalling my 10-millimeter hardware across the top of the grille.
Now that I have my upper hardware reinstalled, I can move on to my lower hardware. I have two
8-millimeter screws, one on either corner of the bottom of the grille.
Just use my 8-millimeter socket on my ratchet and tighten those down.
Now we can go ahead and reinstall our lower grille trim piece.
It'll just snap into place, and secure with the two 7-millimeter screws at either corner.
Now, using my 7-millimeter socket on my ratchet, I can reinstall the two 7-millimeter screws on
the corner of the lower grille trim, and I'll do this on both sides of the vehicle.
And our last step will be reinstalling our
upper radiator cover and all of the clips that secure it to the vehicle.
And that's gonna wrap up this review and install for the SpeedForm Baja Upper Replacement Grille,
fitting your 2018 to 2020 F-150. Thanks for watching. And for all things F-150,
keep it right here at americantrucks.com.