I'm going to go ahead and replace my bumper cover since its sagging below the chrome stripe and I may as well add foglights. I noticed that the standard bumpercover goes TO the fender, while the TC one covers and bolts up to the lower portion of the fender, behind the moulding. Should I go ahead and drill out the holes required on the fender or mount it some other way (don't really want to hack the cover apart)? As far as I know, this will also require the moulding from a TC (without lamps). Also, is the bumper itself any different?
Any tips?
You can use what you already have on the car. The TC cover just gets bolted between the bump strip and the fender and you can keep the lights in the fenders. If you look at the gold TC in the header of the forum it has the corner lights.
Oh, that I meant that I don't have the lights. It seems there's more TC's with them than without, which would make those 2 pieces a little harder to find. Do you know if the standard, and unlit moulding has space behind it for the bolt? It not, I have to find some that does or grind (or rather melt) some material away.
I looked from the front and there doesn't appear to be any bolt holes from the factory so they'd have to be drilled.
Just trying to make sure I have everything I need before I start
When I did the conversion I just took off the bump strip put the bumper cover in place then put the bump strip back in place sliding the threads from the bump strip throught the oles in the metal bracket on the cover.
I wish I had pic to show you. On mine I just used what I had on the car already nothing special.
wait...does the moulding have a bolt built into the thing? I swear I didn't see anything inside the fender, which made me believe the moulding is held on by some adhesive. I didn't get a good look though as the fender's quite dark without a light pointing inward
edit:
and on the bumper itself, do you know if the two are completely similar?
Yes the molding has a bolt built into it. And yes the bumper is identical it has the fog light mointing holes and all or at least mine did.
okay, thanks
If I remember correctly from when I replaced my fender, I believe the molding piece on the front of the fender has plastic "studs" sticking off the back of it, with those sheetmetal "threadcutter" nuts holding it on.
You will need the TC fender moulding, as they are different than the LX ones. :D BTDT
Different as in how? How it meets up with the moulding on the rest of the cover? I just don't want to be drilling holes since having them too far forward will make the cover not completely flush and too far back will require redrilling. Its hard to get good measurements with something as flexible as the bumper cover(s)
I'll grab some pics later for you. :D
here's a couple pics for ya. The TC one is on top, and left. As you can see they are a slightly different shape to match up with the bumper cover. Hope this helps. :D
ah, thanks
No problem, I learned this the hard way...lol. ;)
Going ahead with prepping this weekend and paint the next. Surprisingly, I found a bumpercover/nose being sold locally last night on craigslist, just days before I was going to have to repaint my old cover and replace it/paint another down the road. Fiberglass is in one piece, just needs new paint and bumper has no damaged tabs.
Whats odd is that it looks different than the one I took off a car in a yard a couple months back. Maybe its just been too long and I can't remember, but the metal strips that go over the fender seem to stick out further than they should. Is this where the TC-specific moulding comes into play?
and once again, are there supposed to be holes already drilled out of my fender? The moulding will come off within the next 2 days, but sitting here at work with nothing to do, I want reassurance. As far as I remember, the bolt goes through the fender but there doesn't appear to be any bolt holes on mine by looking through the inside front
Either way, $75 for the cover/nose/lights in good condition (and delivered!) just days before a repaint isn't too bad in my opinion
hard to say about the holes, the 88 Sport didn't, but the 88 Cougar did??!! :dunno:
both with/without cornering lights?
Cougar has cornering lights, the Sport does not. :D
that right there may make the difference in mounting holes
okay, got them on. Wish I had put the header panel on before the bumpercover. Anyways, my fender also had the holes predrilled. Now to get painting ;)