Shaving Moldings?

I was wondering if on a foxbody if anyone has ever seen someone shave the moldings all around? I was wondering also if that seems too far fetched of a job if you've seen someone shave the front and rear bumper moldings. Have you seen anybody that has filled the rectangle strips in the moldings to make them smooth and flush? I would like to see some finished pics of this or attempts maybe. I would like to also make the front bumper and lower fender molding all one piece for a better fit.
 
i have actually done this in the past, blending the front bumper into the front 1/4 and lower molding with body filler, after a minor fender bender, and i think it looked pretty slick for a while. sorry no pic's though. everything seemed to flow better and i think it looked really good. but it wasn't a good idea. the parts flex differently, and if you ever hit a curb or parking barrier, it cracks at the seams and looks like chit afterwards... just my 2c, from experience... i had to go back and fix it after about 3 months...
 
I thought about it, but I wouldnt do it, I imagined it would crack and look bad after a while like bloopbloop said.

I dont get why they made the front and rear bumpers in three peices instead of one. They made the Cobra rear bumper in one peice, why not the other bumpers?:shrug:

I guess its one of those fox mustang mysterys like 4 lug wheels and the lack of outboard turn signals.
 
I wouldn't. That black t-top coupe just featured in the mags a few months back had that. I did not like it. It looked really bad IMO, and like said above....you hit a curb, twist something etc...the filler will crack. It might crack under normall driving as well. The bumper is made to flex. Metal and body filler is not.
 
Now are we talking filling between the bumper and fender (where they meet) or filling the area on the side molding that is indented? I assumed you guys were talking the molding being smooth from top to bottom, not the bumpers being smoothed with the fenders. My friend did that and it has been cracking for a while now.
 
I have to :stirpot: a little bit.

I really wish Ford would not have made the fenders on 85/86-93's with the two front moldings. The lower one could have been eliminated by making the front bumper different like the 79-84 I believe.

They could have also made the area around the outer park lamp part of the fender, and not the bumper......

:shrug: Just my .02 it would make lining things up much better and easier this way. Sometimes getting those edges perfect is a challenge.
 
I agree I wish the fender was part of that upper parking lamp piece and the bumper wrapped all the way around. I just wonder what the side moldings on the would look like with the strip indention filled I bet it would look good and it would probably hold. I've seen the front bumper on cars with the moldings shaved I looked pretty slick but, then again it didn't match the side moldings and if you filled that little lip it might match up.
 
I've seen a drawing of a fox hatchback on hotrod magazine in the project garage section. Its a fox hatchback with the moldings filled or deleted.I believe they did it based on the bullit how it would look if it was a fox. I'll look for it then I will post a picture.I have my car almost ready for painting and i've done a lot of mods to body.So if someone wants to photoshop this mods and if it looks good I'm willing to try it out on my car so you stangers can see how it would look.And about the fenders being molded to the fenders I don't think thats possible with the plastic and metal.I have a fiberglass front bumper so might work if you start out with fiberglassing the bumper and fenders since fiberglass sticks to metal.
 
My '84 has no body mouldings on it. Some doofus must've pulled 'em all off and tossed 'em before they gave it a Maaco paintjob. :nonono:

The pinstriping they put on along the centerline does sorta camouflage it a bit, but it's still pretty obvious between the front/rear bumpers and the fenders where it drops down in surface height. I hate it, but I don't have a buttload of funds to go buying a whole new set of moulding pieces (if they're even available for an '84, anymore) from 50resto or wherever. I'm just gonna hafta live with it. :(
 
99% of the road racing Mustangs out there don't have side moldings from the rear of the front fender to the front of the rear fender because they rub and get torn off anyways. On those cars, when they have nice paint, they look awesome. I think it gives them a more clean musclecar look since most cars back then were all metal on the sides. For the '79-82 cars you can really pull it off easy since the shape of the metal under the molding matches the molding on the bumpers anyways.
 
It looks fantastic with no moldings and molding details on the blue notch. The sides of the car between the wheel well moldings is filled in and smoothed nicely. The bumpers don't match up perfectly and look a little bulky since it appears the molding wasn't removed just covered over.
I have a prototype and tooling guy I hope to be working with the beginning of '09 doing some killer new hot rod fox body Mustang parts including flex resin fiberglass parts. Smooth bumpers are at the top of my list and plan to offer these as high quality and very affordable pricing. I will be tweaking the styling just a touch so I'm not just molding a stock bumper with no molding. I also have a great connection for carbon fiber parts that I will be producing. That's all for right now. Want to hear feedback on smooth bumpers....