mine have managed to survive damage and one repaint so i’d like to save them… but whats the best way to remove them without kinking them or distorting them? Secondly, when I want to put them back on after paint, whats the best way - i dont want to just shove them on and gouge new paint, etc… were these installed and squeezed on back in the day or any adhesive inside like the plastic ones of today?
Back in the day when my dad worked at the dealership, they used to say all those were good for was scraping the paint off your doors. If you aren’t doing a concours restoration I would leave them off.
I have a '69 that came with them (documented in the Marti report) I took them off for painting but I plan to put them back on. I think if the paint has cured sufficiently they should go on with minimal damage. Not something you see much-keep them!
yeah mine is on the Marti report also… so i’d like to keep em… (Marti also said my car wasnt a power steering car but it has power steering, so who knows how reliable that report is anyway)
A Marti report is generally pretty reliable, but like anything mistakes are sometimes made. Unfortunately with no other information available you sort of have to accept it as being correct.
Power steering could have easily been added by the dealer or at any point in the last 50 years. If they used factory components, which there would be no reason not to, you wouldn’t know if it was factory or not. The report only shows what the car left the factory with, not what it left the dealership with. The Marti report is generally regarded as the authority on FoMoCo vehicles of this era so I’d tend to trust what it says; people dropping $200K on specialty Cougars verified by a Marti report certainly seem to.
My White 70 XR-7 has a rear defogger in it. It’s not listed on the Marti report and did not leave the factory with it. But the original owner has optioned it and before delivery the dealer installed one. I verified this when I discussed the car with the him in 2008 after I bought it. It was also to have had a rear mounted power antenna. But one on the front fender had been installed before the car found its way to the selling dealer. The order was placed, a nearly identical Cougar was located about 15 miles south and a dealer swap was made.