Owners of 1998 to 2002 Town Cars may notice a lot of traditional Lincoln luxuries are absent from their ride, most notably the hood ornament. Shame on Lincoln for such cost cutting! Be it for style, tradition or as a parking aid, installing a hood ornament is both simple and worthwhile.

A variety of hood ornaments at your local junkyard for $5-10 will work fine. You can find what you want on eBay too. The most suitable ornament is the 1986-1997 Town Car ornament, also used on various Lincoln Continentals and Mark VII's. It has a similar look to the logos on this vintage Town Car. This is what I used (from a 1991 Mark VII Bill Blass) and the instructions will reflect this.

The 2003-up Town Car uses a smaller, lighter, plastic hood ornament that will work great also. But it's yet to be a cost-effective or plentiful part.



Parts You Will Need

• Hood ornament of your choice
• Masking tape and pencil
• Electric drill
• Rotary tool (Dremel) with attachments
• 10mm socket wrench
• Cotter pin and flat washer (thin)
• Weather-strip adhesive or equivalent
• Flat rubber stock and knife to cut it (optional)

Let's Get Started

There are many places to install the ornament, but to avoid clearance issues with the hood latch and give a factory look, install the ornament on the chrome "hat" above the grille. For this to work, you must separate the hood ornament from its spring-mounted base. Use a cut-off wheel or tin snips to break off the tension from the spring. Pull the ornament free of the assembly. To make the ornament fit in the "hat" easily, I recommend dremeling the underside of the ornament to the smallest area possible. Once done, trace the base of the ornament on a piece of paper to make its "footprint", you might need those dimensions later. Now you are ready to work on the hood.

Start off by masking off the chrome hat above the grille. I masked the raised center section of the hat and drew an "X" using each corner to find the mid-point. From there, drill in the center of the "X" you just made. Do NOT drill the metal hood underneath, it's not necessary!

Remove the hat from the hood: under the hood you will see four 10mm acorn nuts. When removed, do not lose the rubber seal that goes around the hat! With the hat on a clean workspace, test fit the ornament. You may need to drill or dremel the hat more to make the ornament fit. Next, use a thin washer and a cotter pin to lock the ornament to the chrome hat. Apply a VERY liberal amount of weather-stripping adhesive and let it get sticky. (1-2 minutes) Once sticky, you can test fit the hat on the hood. Start the acorn nuts and gently tighten the hat to the hood.


If you used the same ornament I did, you should have no clearance problems. But if you do, drill the hood where the offending area gets weather-stripping goo. Also drill a hole that goes through the hood to keep water from collecting there and causing rust.

Remember that "footprint" you made of the base? Since the chrome hat has a radical slope to it, the hood ornament may lean forward a little. Use a small piece of rubber cut to this template to wedge the front half of the ornament up. If the rubber is thin and pliable, it will tuck in nicely and the weather-strip adhesive will stick to it. The adhesive will still be gooey (you have plenty of time before it gets stiff) so go ahead and make sure the ornament is lined up correctly.



Wait at least half a day to make sure the weather-strip adhesive is dry. When you're ready, go for a nighttime drive and watch the streetlights make the hood ornament dance at speed. That's it! You are done!