Curious to see if anyone here has tried to remove the broken studs from the inside of the fender by pulling them through. I am lucky that the kick panel speaker pods can be removed to see the inside of the fender. The issue is new emblems need to go on and the fender was probably bondo filled and then painted. I don’t think it would be wise to push out the stud from the inside as the fender paint would peel off badly. 3 of the studs have 1/4 of an inch showing so maybe vice grips can grab and pull stud through hole?
I would start by twisting the stud to break the paint. The studs are tapered so you are going to have fun pulling them.
If it’s not a nos emblem, I’d shave the studs and glue it on. 3m weatherstrip adhesive is USA made and worked on my xr7 emblem.
The GT letters are NOS and are the correct version for the 1968 Mercury Cougar. Comparing them to the reproduction emblems they are different in few ways but probably will look close enough when installed.
The broken studs are in the passenger fender and the drivers side has no broken studs and is clear to drill. Not sure why they broke the passenger side emblem and left them in the holes for paint.
If I don’t have any luck pulling through the studs that may still have part of the tube nuts in place, I will certainly try your idea. I have reproduction GT letters in hand. I was just trying to use the NOS versions until I found the these broken studs still in the holes.
Sounds like if you can expose the holes to use the nos emblems, that would be ideal.
Ok, a few barrel nuts were painted on my car and I’m going to show you what happened when I removed them.
When zooming in you can see the paint damage. Not bad imo, just wanted you to see. At the time I removed them and I’m not sure why it didn’t click with me then, I wasn’t sure what they were. Luckily they stayed where I left them and I discovered them recently.
You have probably thought of double sided tape as another option. I’ve used it an it’s incredibly strong. Good luck
I decided to use the double sided 3M tape for the passenger side GT letters. Even though I can access the broken studs from the inside, there is not much room to work with as the speaker pod holes are only big enough for one hand. The broken studs were not moving using the vice grips. It was really not enough material to get a good hold. The exterior paint did not buckle our split so far so another reason to use the tape now.
The driver side is fine so I will install this GT emblem with the tube nuts as did the factory.