1987-1988 Thunderbird/Cougar Moulding issues

January 20, 2014, 04:21:01 PM

I came across an '88 Thunderbird at my local Pull-a-Part and grabbed the moulding pieces just behind the front bumper. My '88 has the turn signal light option, but the mouldings I grabbed were optioned without the lights. I figured I could just do a temporary delete until I found the turn signal mouldings.

However, the turn signal mouldings and the regular mouldings are mounted differently:

The turn signal mouldings are mounted with two brackets (on the outside) with threads attached to go through the body and light, and two nuts to meet the thread on the other side (inside).

The NON turn signal mouldings have two plastic threads attached to the moulding to go through the body and two plastic nuts to meet on the other side.

I figured I would just unplug the light and mount the pieces just like a non optioned car. I couldnt seem to unplug the light, just because I didnt see a way that I possibly could. So I just took the housing and light bulb off for the time being. Then I realized that the plastic thread and plastic nuts were not going on correctly because they were stripped. I tried using some metal nuts on the plastic thread, and that didnt seem to want to work.

Pretty much, I feel like I'm out of options on putting these pieces on my bird. Are there any other ways I can finally mount these mouldings? Any ideas?