An Overview of What You Need to Know About F150 Grilles

An F150 grille is the front center section of your truck’s fascia that isn’t part of the body panels or hood. The grill allows outside ambient air to come through the F150’s radiator and provide cooling to the engine. The grille also carries the manufacturer’s logo, the infamous blue oval. 

For the 2015 F150, the grille has seen increased possible functionality with some grilles offering LED lighting, either for design or added visibility.

On some F150’s 2004 and up, there are two grilles on the front of the truck; an upper grille and a lower grille. The upper grille is the main grille and mixes style and performance (cooling), while the lower grille is a secondary grille, there for looks. If you decide to replace the grilles with aftermarket ones, you should also upgrade the other grille to a similar style grille to keep your look uniform and fresh.

• It is an easy way to improve your truck’s overall appearance
• Depending on the style, it could offer increased cooling/airflow or lighting
• It personalizes the look of your truck
• Can replace damaged or worn stock parts with OEM fit

While there is nothing wrong with the stock front fascia on the F150, adding a personalized touch to the look is never a bad thing, and there is no easier way to do that than by replacing the stock grille.

There are a wide variety of F150 grille styles including:

• Mesh
• Billet
• Raptor
• LED/Light Bars
• Bar

Mesh F150 grilles use a wire mesh design that can vary in thickness. From a tight/small mesh to a larger, just smaller than chicken wire, mesh grilles are on the more different options for your F150.  This style tends to allow cooler air to flow into your grille because the mesh design is usually more breathable/less obstructive.

Mesh grilles are usually framed in a thick outside trim that wraps around the perimeter of the grille. Some mesh grilles are broken up in the middle by a bar or a design, while others are not impeded and stretch from border to border with a solid mesh pattern. Some mesh grilles can feature an LED light bar, but this will drive the price up.

Billet F150 grilles come in either a polished/chrome finish or black finish, and use a stacked arrangement of bars that stretch horizontally from side to side. Billet grilles are what you would consider more of a classic design and are a more popular upgrade on older F150s.

Billet grilles typically never adorn a logo or badge, however,​ there are some that install over top of your factory grille and have a cut out for the blue oval badge to pop out in the center. Currently, there are no billet grilles that feature lighting support. Billet grilles have no impact on coiling or airflow into the engine.

F150 Raptor style grilles are popular on 2009 F150s and use a look reminiscent of the Ford Raptor’s grille. While there is no logo or badge on these grilles, you do find the perimeter of the grille lined with amber yellow LED lights. Some versions of the grille do feature round cutouts across the middle. 

The main design note of the Raptor style F150 grille is it uses a honey comb design that achieves slightly improved engine cooling. The F150 Raptor style grille is arguably one of the most aggressive and rugged looking grilles offered.

Multiple style F150 grilles can incorporate LEDs into their design, including but not limited to:

• Raptor style
• Mesh
• Raptor

About 95% of the aftermarket F150 grilles offered on the market today use an LED light bar as their main lighting source. Stretching across either the top or middle of the grille, light bars are the perfect extra of light you need on a dark and stormy night or on a low visibility trail. 

The other styles of LED light equipped grilles on the market are Raptor style grilles the use amber yellow LEDs around the outer perimeter of the grille, or lower grilles that use small LED cubes. Although light bar grilles may be designed for function, their form is sleek and aggressive.

Bar style F150 grilles are your most common types of grilles and use thick bars stretching horizontally across the length of the grille. Unlike Billet grilles that use 15 small few centimeter thick bars, bar grilles use thick and wide 2”-3.5” bars. Bar grilles are great because they can usually take a lot of abuse without showing it too much​ while looking very straight-laced. 

Replacing your stock F150 grille with an upgraded aftermarket one is fairly easy. Depending on your year and model as well as the style of  grille you are upgrading to, you may need to remove the front bumper to access the upper or lower grille. Thankfully, there is a lot of space to maneuver and reach your hands in, eliminating any worries on space constraints. 

To replace the grille you will need a screwdriver or two, and some socket wrenches. Outside of that, you can figure on an install time that can be anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours.