Another question I have...do you see the silver trim in the recess in the bumper:


I noticed long ago that this trim seems to exist until approximately 2005 or so. Does anyone know when the cutoff was and why that cutoff was made?

I am leaning towards removing this trim prior to installing on Ol' Blue. The later model CV variants didn't have it and for whatever reason I find that I prefer its absence. That's likely due to my own law-of-primacy bias, since The 5-O was the first CV I ever owned and it, of course, was sans bumper trim. If I had bought an earlier model with that trim, who knows, I might prefer it. But I didn't and so I don't.

I swear I woulda come down and helped with that. But there was this whisky, see, and it needed drinkin.

You saved yourself a boatload of misery by going this route.

Would love to know why that particular car ended up in the junkyard; it's spotless by Ohio standards.

Probably nothing wrong at all, just old. Donated.

I'm not sure when the trim stopped being standard on a CVLX. You are probably right and that it was around '06, mostly because that would seem to be a logical change year seeing as its when the Grand Marquis got its last refresh. Funny thing about the chrome trim on a CV, you know that '98+ CVs have no chrome on the door trim... Well, the last couple of years of the CVPI with Street Appearance Package, they used Grand Marquis door trim, chrome strip and all, while an actual CVLX had no chrome.

Personally, I don't mind one way or the other about the chrome beltline trim on most colors of car. I do think darker colors look a bit better without it. On my '98, that trim is in really awful condition due to the cars age and previous history living in sunny Arizona where the sun destroyed it. So one of the first things I did was cover it up. That then left the grille looking out of place being a huge slab-o-chrome, so it got partially blacked out. I actually like how that turned out even if I didn't intend on going the "black out" route on the car and if it were a lighter color I would have replaced the sun damaged chrome by now.

I need to start yard hunting again. I haven't done it in quite awhile. I would love to find seats. I would also definitely not turn down a good rust free set of fenders and factory-painted bumpers in the correct color for my GMQ. However, Dark Green Satin Metallic (paint code FU) was only used from '98-'99 on Panthers so its not likely I'll find them, at least not fenders that are not worse than mine since mine are NOT that bad and any donor car would be just as old. I've got one spot on the drivers side fender the size of a $1 coin, and the other side has a couple tiny bubbles under the paint that haven't come thru or gotten worse in the 3 years I've had the car. Both of my bumpers really do need repainted, the front has definitely been repainted once and it didn't stick too well, the rear just has damage from someone parking using the braille method. I might see what the one bodyshop near work would charge to re-shoot the bumpers, they do pretty good work.

BigMerc-

Do you have any pictures of what you have done to your GMQ? I'd be interested in seeing them.

Yeah, given that the driver's seat had shoe polish on it, the engine had leaked enough oil to fill my turbo diesel 3 times over and the rust I saw on the rotors and calipers, I'd say it developed issues with the engine, was parked, it sat for some period of time, then the owners gave up on it and sent it to the yard. 'Just glad that they did so with the body in such great shape. By the time I saw it someone had already taken the rear end...glad also for the fact that the rear end was all they were interested in.

Kinda funny, but this 04 LX had the same interior color as Adam's. If it had the moon roof, it would have been a copy. And you're correct Adam, I likely saved a ton of grief.

The irony of yesterday was that immediately adjacent to this 04 LX was a 1999 LTC. It had the sunroof, just like the one I made into a convertible some time ago. It also had the overhead control panel that was in good shape. Boy but I wanted to take that panel. If I had my druthers I'd return today to do some "cleanup" parts pulling, but the wife would likely string me up by my garters, so that won't be happening.

Had family stuff to do today, thus not much time was available for project work. However it began to rain a bit, so I told my wife that I had to get out to the workshop and get the new doors inside. It was gonna require some effort to do that, mostly because I would need to make room in an already over-crowded outbuilding. I'm tellin' ya, I will need to build some shelving if this spare parts supply continues to grow! Especially with body panels. If you do this, just know that it will require a fair amount of storage space, depending on how much you hoard. That seems a trivial point until you begin exhausting your available space, you stop and you ask yourself "...how did I end up here?" lol

I digress. So I had to put this:


Into there:


Along with all of the other stuff that previously occupied that area in the outbuilding.

Managed to accomplish that goal, somehow:


To include the spare trunk lid and one spare door for The 5-O. The remaining 3 doors are on the other side of the outbuilding BTW.

But wait, I have MORE spare CVPI springs that I didn't even remember/know that I had???


Wow.

I forgot to mention one additional "part" that I pulled off of that 04 LX yesterday: it had a spare tire cover that was in reasonably good shape. I already have two of those, so I wasn't gonna take it. However I used it, along with the trunk liners of other nearby vehicles, as padding to keep the doors from scratching each other while I carried them out. And so there it was when I unloaded tonight. Therefore I decided to donate it to The 5-O, just to spiff that member of the fleet up a bit:


So now The 5-O is stepping up in the world, gettin' all fancy dontchaknow.


Anyway thanks!

Hate to say I told ya so.
Rather deal with any other problem than rust. Including collision damage.

Forgot to mention last night that I was glad that I ended up bringing the bumper covers home; for there was a weather-proofed tag on the bottom that indicated that it is an original part. It also contained the VIN of the 04 LX from whence it came. Obviously that will no longer match, but who knows, if I am feeling spry and overly particular, I may attempt to delete that and replicate it with the VIN of Ol' Blue. Sounds like something I might attempt, doesn't it?


Anyway, you can see that tag and the minor scrape/scratch type of damage that these covers had. Other than that they are clean. And this type of stuff can be cleaned up easily. Therefore they were a good find:

So our driveway looked as though it was made of leaves. Same for the back patio. Thus I spent the evening after work dealing with mundane house chores. I did make it to the workshop once that was completed. The goal was to finish the pistons and de-glaze at least one bank of cylinders. Managed to clean-up the last of the pistons:


However in the middle of cleaning the grooves on #8 the wife-eee called and told me that she needed help with the lil' un. Apparently he was "feeling his oats" a bit and asserting himself just a bit much. So I closed up shop and sent in the cavalry, as per normal.

Sigh. My progress is S-L-O-W. I really need to kick this into high gear. Of course, every time I tell myself that, I also remind myself that an engine build is not the time to get into a rush. Which I tend to do. "Yeah ok" ...

At least the pistons are done, so that's something.

Anyway thanks!