2004 CVLX: the new winter beater

[a_d_a_m]

One steering shaft DONE.



Believe it or not, this isn’t even the worst one I’ve ever seen...but it’s way worse than the one that failed on my old 2004 MGM.

[GM_Guy]

Yeah, it’s a Chinese grille with a too-small badge.

Is the chinese badge pad the correct size for a proper Ford badge? Mine (SAP grille) is peeling chrome and I was eyeing the rockauto offerings.

Alex.

[BigMerc96]

The badge is larger on a honeycomb grille than on the chrome or other slatted grilles, so what Adam has going on there is a honeycomb grille with the smaller badge likely off of the original chrome grille.

[GM_Guy]

Thnaks.

Alex.

[BigMerc96]

If I remember correctly, the badge used on the honeycomb grille is the same size as the one on the rear of a Windstar or older F150. There are several options if you need one since it seems that Ford only used a few sizes of Ford emblem for a long time.

[a_d_a_m]

Welp, after a year of service, the car finally needed an entire exhaust system minus the cats.

Started with manifolds that looked like this when removed:


Then turned into a failed flange at the Y on the single exhaust. My buddy had a junk P71 dual setup laying around (with the fire suppression insulators on the tailpipes!) so I had him hack off the old one and weld new junk onto this car. BEWARE: OHIO RUST INCOMING.
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He had some damn near empty spray paint around so I did a bumper tuck and tried to make the rust look pretty. There wasn't enough paint to do a good job.


If I can get one more winter out of it, I will be happy.