Familiarity can often breed a "so what?" attitude about our daily driver Mustangs. As we walk past the car, we tend to not see the pitted pot metal, the hazy anodized aluminum, and the scratchy rear bumper. At first, this situation comes not so much from a lack of desire as it does from a lack of either time or finance. At some point, however, it just becomes an old hat: we see it but don't see it. In the case of Marie-Jose Monnin, her daily driver Grand has decent paint and chrome items that are less than nice. Top that off with a minor scrape with a shopping cart that took out the chrome strip and put a sizeable donk in the decklid and you have a car that's ripe for some changes. And since the paint is fresh, the chrome accents look old.
We contacted National Parts Depot to see what Marie could do about her now freshly painted Pony. It turns out that almost everything for the rear of her Grand is available, from the lenses to the bumper-all the parts to make the Grand's rear look good.
We started by letting Mike...
We started by letting Mike "The Paint Master" Paremsky of Michael's Auto Body in Winter Haven, Florida, pop the letters off the decklid. A screwdriver can be used to loosen them. Mike recommended that we use the decklid as a pry point. You can also use a paint stir stick if your car has no lower molding.
The original is on the bottom....
The original is on the bottom. It may be difficult to see, but there is pitting and some scratches on the old stuff. The repop is nice and crisp, and most importantly, shiny.
We used an Allen wrench to...
We used an Allen wrench to push the old barrel clips in. We followed that up with the new clips which came with the letters. These were pushed into position using the butt of our screwdriver. The screwdriver butt is less likely to mar the finish.
We first set the pin letters...
We first set the pin letters in their holes, then smacked them into position as shown. We do this because the bruise on your hand will be less painful than a new paint job on the decklid.
The anodized aluminum trim...
The anodized aluminum trim piece is held on by six chrome screws.
Remove these, then carefully...
Remove these, then carefully pull the trim piece off. The piece will be tight, so proceed with caution.
We were extremely impressed...
We were extremely impressed with National Parts Depot's aluminum trim parts. The trim was spot-on and the metal nice and thick. They even come with new attaching hardware! What more could you ask for? Bob "The Big Kahuna" Myhrer placed the trim piece on the lid and lined it up before slapping it into position. We recommend that you have a friend hold the molding while you position it.
Our molding and three of the...
Our molding and three of the original holes did not line up, so we redrilled the holes. After redrilling with our 1/8-inch drill, we placed the new screws in position.
In order to replace the extension...
In order to replace the extension molding aluminum and the bumper, the bumper had to be removed. There are two bolts just under the taillights on each side.
Incredibly, the Grand still...
Incredibly, the Grand still had its original bumper, complete with Ford tags and factory marks. Unfortunately, the bumper was scratched and thin on chrome.
Our new NPD bumper was bolted...
Our new NPD bumper was bolted up to the original bumper brackets with new bumper hardware. Though we reused our brackets, new ones are available from NPD. Be sure to replace the wave washers as shown (arrow).
Now we move onto the fender...
Now we move onto the fender extensions.
There are three nuts per side...
There are three nuts per side holding the extension to the body. These will need to be removed and reused.
With the extension removed,...
With the extension removed, you can now access the three nuts that hold the molding on. The new extension molding, like the decklid molding, comes with new, shiny mounting hardware-very cool.
If you are a one-man band...
If you are a one-man band as we suddenly became late in the day, you can still mount a bumper. Be sure to place it into its correct position first, then hook your kneecap under the center and press it forward while starting one bolt per side. Painful yes, but effective.
A new gas cap goes a long...
A new gas cap goes a long way toward a good-looking rear end. No, don't even go there.
The rear end looks great,...
The rear end looks great, and now all Marie has to do is spiff the interior and she'll have a truly awesome Grand daily driver.