Hello, all. Over the past couple of months, I decided to garage the Marauder to do some little repairs and refresh some worn out parts. Mostly hoses, seals, fluids and the like, but a few small body parts as well.
When taking out the headlights for proper restoration, I decided I would take off the grille to make getting them out easier. I've taken out the headlights before without removing anything else, but I decided I would take the grille off too since it would be parked for a while. What an awful mistake. Upon removing the upper nuts that hold it to the header panel, I noticed that one of the upper tabs was already broken, and the second one was halfway snapped off. I then carefully but unsuccessfully tried to remove the bottom tabs, which resulted in every single brittle tab breaking off. I had heard the grilles on these cars were brittle and hard to remove, but WOW.I'm assuming by looking at it that I have a worthless hunk of plastic on my hands now. Anyone have experience with an aftermarket painted grille as a replacement option? Anyone have a spare OEM grille they're willing to sell?
Well, after that disaster, I decided I would tear apart the whole front end fascia so I could replace any worn out skid plates and/or air dams and have the front bumper cover painted. When removing the fascia and skid plates, I noticed a few things and wanted to confirm with other Marauder owners for reference.
First of all, I noticed that my radiator support looks like it may have ever-so-slightly buckled in the middle. This could have happened if the car bottomed out somewhere during its life. First picture shows a side view with the bottom of the support circled in red. Can someone confirm OEM shape of the bottom support? Only thing fooling me is how uniform and centered the peak is in the middle. No scrapes, dings, etc.
Second, I noticed this irregularity a while ago but I'm just getting around to asking about it. On the front right wheel well, there's a debris shield in front of the tire. On the front left wheel well, there is no shield on my car. Anyone have a part number for the missing part? Odd thing is that it doesn't look like anything is missing, aside from the big gap between the tire and the inside of the fender. Second and third pictures show the left versus right wheel wells.
Third, when taking apart the skid plates and air deflectors that attach to the bumper cover, I noticed that it looks like the very ends of my front fenders have been deformed!Maybe this could've happened if the car bottomed out over a steep curb or hump in the road? I took pictures and then highlighted them to bring attention to the parts in questions. Red line shows how it is currently shaped and yellow line shows what I think it's supposed look like, though I need confirmation to be sure. Fourth and fifth pictures show the parts.
Lastly, what is this rubber piece and where do I get a replacement like it? Mine are worn out and nasty looking, but they don't have a part number on them. When I look up the part number for the air deflector they're attached to (6W7Z8327C), the results never include that piece. Sixth picture shows the part.
Thanks in advance for anyone who can confirm with pictures of their own or by eyeballing their cars and reporting back. Unfortunately, reference pictures, diagrams, and parts are getting harder and harder to find for these cars!
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