Replacement hood compatibility

Hey everyone, I'm new to the Ford family, and this forum. I just purchased a 2000 Ford ranger 2.5l 2WD regular cab with a step side bed. It was my grandfather's, it has super low miles and I just replaced everything I could find an issue with. The truck drives like new and I couldn't be happier. There's just one problem, the hood is peeling paint on the passenger side. I assume it's from the heat of the exhaust because the heat shield is missing from my hood letting that area get to hot.

Long story short, I'm looking for a new hood at junkyards and want to know what year makes and models will fit on my truck. Also,I was wondering if Ford explorer hoods work as well. I tend to find more of them at the junk yard then rangers. I want this truck to look as good as it drives. Thanks for any help you may have

I solved my own problem

Hey everyone, to anyone reading this looking for an answer, I found out most of the questions I asked on my own.

Only hoods from a ford ranger will work. Ford explorer hoods are the same size, but the hood latch is in the wrong spot, causing it to not fit properly. I'm not saying it would be impossible, but not worth my time.

This leaves you with 3 options:

1.) find one at the local junkyard that's the same color and in good shape

2.) Go online to partshotlines.com and search junkyards across the country for the right hood. This service was the cheapest online option, but most junkyards don't ship hoods, and I couldn't find any in my area. They seemed to have the most listings in Texas, so this may or may not work for you. If you do find one, your in luck. most of the ones I found costed less then 200 and of course they are already painted. As well as having all the parts already. Making this option plug and play. I would definitely make this your second option if you couldn't find one at the junk yard.

3.) your third and last option is to find a new hood online. I found 2 good websites: rockauto.com and getallparts.com Both of these websites sell new hoods for around 150.00 dollars. This route is obviously the easiest because you know the hood is gonna fit, and its new, avoiding any opportunity for dents or bad paint. The problems are shipping, and getting it painted. Also, the hood comes bare. You will have to transfer over all the parts from your old hood yourself. The shipping was 174.00 dollars as well, making this hood cost 350.00 dollars. A pretty penny if your truck is only worth 2000-5000 dollars. Your last issue comes with getting it painted. I'm not sure what the average cost of this is, but i'm getting a deal through a guy working on the side. Never the less, this route is the easiest, but also the most expensive by a large margin. In my case, I didn't wanna have to wait on a hood to show up at the junk yard, and I wanted one that I knew would look good because the truck only has 43,800 miles and doesn't put me underwater as far as value vs money put in.

Anyhow, I hope this thread helps someone someday. Another side note, The stock hood is aluminum. They sell steel hoods as well. This will add unneeded weight to the front. I recommend spending a little extra and getting the aluminium hood.

Thanks for the update.

looking for hoods that match the 1985 Ranger

I have an '85 and some say 93-88 are the same hood, and some say 85-91, and some say 85 is all by itself.

Any help as I need to get a fiberglass hood with scoop. Thanks.