The 03-05 hood strikers are taller. Not sure but I was thinking the Cav and Fire strikers were the same shape as well.

i tried a 96-99 latch off a cavi hood that i had and it was extremly too short. its still having the issue but the driver sides is sitting on the headlight and the pass side is cocked up and about 2-3 inches up in the air looks horrid


5 seconds to find another street...

I have spacers between my hood striker and hood. Another thing you can try is opening up the holes on your hood latch assembly so that you can slide it up higher on the radiator brace. You will still need to use an 03+ hood striker tho.

Shadowfire wrote:You will still need to use an 03+ hood striker tho.

Agreed. I tried my 00 striker on the 03 conversion, and the bolt locations are nowhere near similar. 95-02 is all the same striker, so I don't even know how you [Casper, that is] got it to bolt onto the 03 hood...

^^ I have used a 95-02 hood striker with an 03-05 hood before so I'm sure the bolt holes are the same.

Odd... I can't remember what problem I had with mine then... Maybe it was the gap between the striker and latch?? I don't remember because it was at least two years ago when I did the conversion...

Yeah the 03-05 strikers are just longer. The 95-02 strikers aren't long enough to reach the latch assemblies when used with the 03-05 front ends.

i have a 97 sunfire and was planning on doing a 00-02 sunfire gt front, rear, and side skirt swap, always hated the look of the 95-99 front bumper but i was wondering how much trouble is it to wire up the side marker lights on the 00-02 front bumper? the signal i know wont be trouble but could i just wire the side marker to the signal? and also will the bolt holes just line for for the new bumpers?

im lost on the 03-05 Fire stuff, with having my 03 cav i dont have to change any of the light sockets? wont i need the fire bumper support (didnt read all of the posts) ?


ShowOff Customz
03 Cavalier
73 Beetle
68 Fairlane 500

^^You'll have to change the headlight pigtails from 9007 to H9/H11, and you will need the Sunfire bumper support.

Jordan Hannam wrote:i have a 97 sunfire and was planning on doing a 00-02 sunfire gt front, rear, and side skirt swap, always hated the look of the 95-99 front bumper but i was wondering how much trouble is it to wire up the side marker lights on the 00-02 front bumper? the signal i know wont be trouble but could i just wire the side marker to the signal? and also will the bolt holes just line for for the new bumpers?

You won't have to change any of the wiring. Your bulbs will plug right into the new assemblies. Bolt holes will be the same on the bumpers, but you will probably need the bumper support from the newer model. You can shoot me a PM if you have any other questions.

ok cool, im trying to locate a 03-05 fire parts now, only things givin me trouble is the hood and bumper, no salvage yards have them. ill find something at somepoint


ShowOff Customz
03 Cavalier
73 Beetle
68 Fairlane 500

Need some help before i do this. finnaly got a steady job again. But my question is if u got a 02 cavalier hood can u use 95-99 headlights and 95-99 fenders and bumper? would mean alot if someone could help me out. thx guys

Yes you can use a 02 hood with the 99 headlights front bumper and fenders. the hoods are the exact same from 1995 to 2002

thx bud. hopefullly have some pics up wen i get it done. but thx again manta

anyone else besides me think of going 03+ to 95 - 99?

wondering on getting 2 sets of 9007's instead of converting it down to the
9005/9006 put 9007/9007 and wire them all in the same so when there on there all on..

Bryan Boulet wrote:wondering on getting 2 sets of 9007's instead of converting it down to the
9005/9006 put 9007/9007 and wire them all in the same so when there on there all on..

Well...first of all 9007 bulbs are for both highs and low beams. The reason the 95-99 use 9005 and 9006 is because the headlight housings are designed to use one bulb for high and one for low. If you have a 9007 bulb in both sections of the headlight, and both of them running at once you're going to be blinding other drivers.

Shadowfire wrote:

Bryan Boulet wrote:wondering on getting 2 sets of 9007's instead of converting it down to the
9005/9006 put 9007/9007 and wire them all in the same so when there on there all on..

Well...first of all 9007 bulbs are for both highs and low beams. The reason the 95-99 use 9005 and 9006 is because the headlight housings are designed to use one bulb for high and one for low. If you have a 9007 bulb in both sections of the headlight, and both of them running at once you're going to be blinding other drivers.

no.. like it would be 4 on lowbeam when low beams on.. and then 4 on high beam with high on..

I understand what you mean, but you still don't get what I am saying. Having a 9007 bulb burning inside the high beam section of the housings will still be just the same as having the high beams on even if you do have the low beams switched on. You'll be blinding everyone around you.

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but - Aren't the bases on 9005/9006/9007 bulbs all different? So its quite irrelevant that the "low" high-beams would blind people - b/c you'd have a hell of a time getting the bulb to stay in anyhow... Oh geez - I can see somebody busting out the duct tape now to hold the bulb in!

Consider it this way though, at least you have plenty of choices in aftermarket bulbs in those bulbs above. My POS Hyundai below uses H11B low-beams - they're still too new to have any aftermarket (NO they are not swappable with old H-11 bulbs).

If the 95-99 Cavalier housings are anything close to the 03-05 Sunfires then he won't have room for the 9007 bulbs.

good to know.. well i think im just gonna buy a set of THESE!!

but not from andys.. cheaper on ebay or somewhere else.

i didn't get a chance to read all of the posts due to there being 6 pages, and only having a limited amount of time, but theoretically if i get a complete 97 cav, and i have a 96 fire i should be able to swap with out having to buy anything??? Just wondering, sorry if this has been addressed earlier..

~Jeff

^ Yes.

would you have change the hood to put the 03-05 front end on a 96