removing vinyl trim on Grandé

[JagDaniels]

Hey guys, is it possible to get the vinylroof aluminium trims from the car without damage them? I want to replace it... somebody told me i have to put the headliner away to get to the right screws that are holding the clips.

You know its winter here, an the best time to get things ready for spring.

Hope you all havin a good year !

greetings dan

 

[OMS]

The first front clips MAY be bolts thought the roof. I think they were.

Ford had a habit of bolting down each end of trim strips and using clips in the center. I can't remember if they drilled a hole in the roof though.

Someone else should jump in and confirm this.

The left, right side and above the rear window are held on with plastic clips that lock onto the welded studs. These are VERY carefully pried off. The molding will pop out of the plastic clip. [ The clip will probably break ]

The rear end corner sections and several that start up the roof line have nuts accessible from inside of the trunk.

WARNING be careful, the plastic clips get brittle and break, the metal clips get rusty and break, all of these are hard to find replacements for. No one makes new trim be careful with it also.

Don

 

[judge]

The most rear turn of the trim on the exterior sale panels must be accessed from the inside. It's pot metal also.

 

[mach1000]

I used the grab, bend and pull method in the past.... it was on my Cougar but basically same trim.. to be young and foolish again. lollerz

 

[Pegleg]

Good timing Dan. I will be looking to replace my trim where it once was. All my holes have been filled and sprayed over so when i take the body to bare metal i got to start from scratch. Would appreciate some pictures when you remove with size and length of bolts where applicable.

Mike at Motorcity Mustang is Thankfully supplying my trim [/align]

 

[JagDaniels]

Thanks a lot, i will try to start the next weeks but at the moment we have -11 degree celcius . My garage is to little to work around there...

Friends that visited the US brought me this clips :

I hope they will fit...

At least i think if there is any reason for stay with my old vinyl top. Because it would be sad if i put it off and can't finish the job because of missing clips or bolts.

at least some new pictures

http://www.7173mustangs.com/thread-new-pictures-of-the-grande-white-vinyl-bright-blue

Greetings

Dan

 

[JagDaniels]

thats how the vinyl top looks on the edges :

 

[eanmartin68]

Good timing Dan. I will be looking to replace my trim where it once was. All my holes have been filled and sprayed over so when i take the body to bare metal i got to start from scratch. Would appreciate some pictures when you remove with size and length of bolts where applicable.

Mike at Motorcity Mustang is  Thankfully supplying my trim [/align]

How did you get the holes filled? Im needing to get them filled but am not sure the best route to to it. 

Thanks,

Ean

 

[Fabrice]

Back in the 80's, I recall removing mine was lots of work. I wanted get rid of it no matter what to get the roof nice and shiny.

As I wasn't planning put it back, I really did not care at the parts and focussed on not damaging the roof metal.

All the now hard to find parts, went straight to trash...

Once off, I discovered, ford did not protect the car as I would have expected, like placing the vinyl top as final touch.

Instead, metal was not painted or even primed, it was a thick layer of glue that was acting as primer/protected and of course keep the vinyl in place.

It took quite a few litres of chemicals and hours to remove that thick layer of glue completely.

Then while some of the many holes could have been closed with polyester, all were welded.

On mine, near and a bit above the script "Grandé" on both sides, there was a huge cavity,

like 10 x10 cm, 4 cm deep (4x4 inch 1.5 deep)

Not a dent/damage, just the way Ford assembled the car panels, not expecting anyone would ever want to remove the vinyl.

Never seen or heard anyone of a similar cavity since then. May be it was like this only for some 73 exports Grandé's.

Being +-19 at the time, budget for the mustang was lowish to say the least. So It took like 4 years before I finally got

to see the result when the car finally received a new paint job. Till this day, roof never needed

work or showed any paint cracks. So i'd say, weld and do not use polyester if you want remove it.