Hi, can anyone explain to me how to install the clips that hold down the molding that sits between the convert top and trunklid. The body shop that painted the car used some sort of butyl tape, when I installed the boot the moulding came off. Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

 

There is a small screw for each clip that holds the clip in place. If you feel the inside edge around the perimeter of where the molding goes (without the molding in place and the top half way down), you should be able to determine where the screw holes are located. There are supposed to be 11 of those clips, according to a passage I read in the '68 Body Service Manual (don't remember where in the manual where I read it), but mine only had 5 of those clips and that's all I used when putting it back together again. I've run into other people with '68 A body convertibles and only 5 clips so it might have been an assembly line shortcut.

If the hole where the small screw threads into is stripped, you might have to go to a slightly larger screw to hold the clip in place. Once the clips are in place, the Body Service Manual says you are supposed to put down some sort of weatherproof tape (again, I don't recall where it is in the manual but, at one time, I did find and read it) but I didn't do that because I didn't see anything like that when I took mine apart.

Once the clips are secured in place, the pinch-weld molding should just snap onto the clips. Make sure you have everything where you want it before you make that final push down to snap the molding in place.

I know of one other person with a '68 Cutlass convertible who added extra clips because his came with only 5 and he was having the same trouble you mentioned. I haven't had that problem and my boot is tight - if anything were loose with the molding, the boot would pull it off but that hasn't happened at all with my car.

Randy C.

 

Check the most recent OPGI.com Cutlass summer catalog that came out a month or so ago. I think they had a "How-to" on installing this molding. It is probably online if you want to take a peek.

 

I couldn't find an online copy of the catalog, I again tried to make it work but it almost seems that if I smash the trim piece onto the clips it would sit high. There are a bunch of holes in the under side of the trim it seems that if I use the screws it would sit right?

 

Sorry about that. The link to the summer sale catalog is http://www.opgi.com/restoration-part...ummer-sale.asp

Select the F85/Cutlass/442 catalog, then look at page 20.

This is for a sale that ends Aug 31, so the link may disappear after then. I am not able to cut and paste the article, otherwise I'd do so. Maybe someone more technologically savvy could assist in that.

Hope that helps.

 

Thanks, now I have a clue. Gives me something to do this weekend.