[greenhorn male]

Hi Ben,

I, like you, have always liked to be different. It's a good thing I can't weld or I would be dangerous around my vehicles with it. I like your sense of imagination and that's coming from a 44 yr old.

This is what comes to my mind. Remember I am imagining this as I type and your going to have to investigate this yourself if it would work for you.

Ist, Remove your hood, hood latch, grill + hardware, and bumper and outer brackets and keep it in a safe place. Temporarily set aside fenders.

2nd, Buy a cheap hood, painted grill, and painted bumper at a wrecking yard.

3rd, Weld the hood, grill, and bumper together in the stock manner and reinforce the grill and hood so that they will be secure to the bumper without bending.

4th, Fabricate a hinge that will bolt the bumper to the frame at the stock bumper mount and use some kind of spring between the frames like on roll-up garage doors so they open with some tension and hold close under normal weight of the hood plus spring tension(your going to use your ingenuity for this).

5th, Lengthen headlight and signal light wiring and check for proper function and fit before installing original fenders.

6th, If everything works well for you, paint the hood, grill and bumper the same as the truck.

If this works, you have a custom front end when you want it and when you don't, just unbolt the hinge and install your original hood grill and bumper.

What do you think folks, will this work?

Luis :p