Well, by the lack of responses, I can only assume no one succeeded in a raptor style grill that fits the 98-11 body style.
After searching the internet I read several attempts in a couple of ranger forums and found a racing company that made a fiberglass grill with ford in bold letters, but it would need a lot of additional customization to look good and it's no longer available. You'd have to find a used one. Good luck!!
I also found a Canadian company that made a grill that was closer to the look but required a F and R fabricated, but it still had the bezel framing the grill which is the look I'm trying to get rid of. This grill is also unavailable. When you Google this grill it takes you to their store front but it switches to an f150 instead of a ranger. I could have been happy modifying the Canadian grill but because of the age of the body style and probably low demand it was discontinued too. Those were the only results I could find.
So I back burnered the idea for a while and looked at a lot of rangers from the front. In my body style I prefer the stx grill but it's not easy to find either. Most internet searches show the 6 panel or the 3 panel. Even ford only shows the 2 variations. So where would a collision or body shop get the correct one with just the bezel, honeycomb grill and little ford emblem? I could settle with an stx grill.
So I decided to revisit the idea and heres what i considered. I was thinking of mocking up a raptor grill on my own. I read a lot about the size differential but still need to measure one because no one posted the size, they just said its a lot bigger. I didn't want to get shot or stabbed measuring a strangers and didn't want to stroll the dealerships.
I looked to see if I could just buy one, but they are hard to find as well. I found one but it's aftermarket and not correct and $500. I could think of lots of other ways to personalize my truck with $500. That's the high end of the cost id be willing to spend on the entire project.
My thinking was, I might be able to trim the f150 raptor grill and fabricate the bracket. If I only knew it's dimensions!! My next thought along those lines was to get the same grill mesh off Alibaba and make my own raptor grill but I'd still need to scale the letters and make mounting brackets. I'm not a welder so I'd need a shop to put it together.
In conclusion, unless there is a good version or a fabrication shop that can make a raptor ranger grill for under $500, then I need to reconsider the stx grill and figure out how to get one. With the popularity of restoration, customizing ,and racing shows on tv, It doesn't seem far fetched that a raptor ranger grill could be made and look right.
If anyone knows a shop that could handle a job like this I'm all in, otherwise, anyone got a spare stx grill?