Philip
March 21st, 2008, 11:02 AM
I'm not sure if this will belong in the appearance section or not as it pertains specifically to a 1998 Mark
On my 1998, the plastic fake chrome inserts in the bodyside mouldings began to remove themselves. In lieu of a bumper sticker that reads "honk if parts fall off," I went ahead and removed the rest of them. Interestingly enough, the backing of that piece is aluminum and it looked better after the disintegrated plastic chrome came off of it. But, that left a hollow which upon close inspection or if you're really familiar with these cars, just looked obvious that something wasn't right.
I found plain black bodyside molding strips in a roll at Pep Boys that is the exact width and depth as that channel in the bodyside moldings on the car. Has 3M adhesive foam backing just like the original stuff. I removed the remaining aluminum backing, old adhesive tape and cleaned out the channels really well, then applied the replacement molding in the channel, tucking it inside the ends just exactly the way the factory piece was.
The results are sweet, my car is black and that piece being monochrome like an LSC really looks much better and is in keeping with the bumpers on the second-generation cars as they did not have a chrome insert LSC or Base. This applies only to black cars unless you can find the same type replacement moulding in colors.
I'm sure that mine is not the only vehicle that had deteriorated plastic chrome, and probably not the first person to have the plastic chrome just give way and start peeling off the car. I'll get some pictures up on here today so you all can see what I'm talking about. A body shop wouldn't have come up with anything any better than this, I'm sure of it. Of course, $15 and a couple of hours of my labor is much preferable to the cost of new Ford moldings even if you could find them (they were pre-painted back in the day.)
On my 1998, the plastic fake chrome inserts in the bodyside mouldings began to remove themselves. In lieu of a bumper sticker that reads "honk if parts fall off," I went ahead and removed the rest of them. Interestingly enough, the backing of that piece is aluminum and it looked better after the disintegrated plastic chrome came off of it. But, that left a hollow which upon close inspection or if you're really familiar with these cars, just looked obvious that something wasn't right.
I found plain black bodyside molding strips in a roll at Pep Boys that is the exact width and depth as that channel in the bodyside moldings on the car. Has 3M adhesive foam backing just like the original stuff. I removed the remaining aluminum backing, old adhesive tape and cleaned out the channels really well, then applied the replacement molding in the channel, tucking it inside the ends just exactly the way the factory piece was.
The results are sweet, my car is black and that piece being monochrome like an LSC really looks much better and is in keeping with the bumpers on the second-generation cars as they did not have a chrome insert LSC or Base. This applies only to black cars unless you can find the same type replacement moulding in colors.
I'm sure that mine is not the only vehicle that had deteriorated plastic chrome, and probably not the first person to have the plastic chrome just give way and start peeling off the car. I'll get some pictures up on here today so you all can see what I'm talking about. A body shop wouldn't have come up with anything any better than this, I'm sure of it. Of course, $15 and a couple of hours of my labor is much preferable to the cost of new Ford moldings even if you could find them (they were pre-painted back in the day.)