Austin's 98 Mark VIII Build thread

[Austin]

It may be a DD, but I'm always gonna have the urge to mod her. Let's start with me correcting paint and fixing other little odds and ends.

The day she came home:

Today, I cleared the passenger's side headlight lens.

As you can see, the results are day and night (Ha! Headlight pun!!)... I left the driver's side alone til I figure out what I want to do about the water intrusion.

 

[fatherdoug]

Is the water intrusion just from a bad o-ring on the bulb itself, or is it deeper than that? What kind of kit did you use for the lenses? Big difference!

 

[Austin]

Is the water intrusion just from a bad o-ring on the bulb itself, or is it deeper than that?

I think it's somewhere in the rear seal... I haven't dug deep into it yet, but these housings aren't cheap.

 

[fatherdoug]

O-U-C-H!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[LEB Ben]

That does look worlds better. And I must say, I'm super happy reading that this was only a headlight cleaning, instead of a mod-fest.

 

[Austin]

That does look worlds better. And I must say, I'm super happy reading that this was only a headlight cleaning, instead of a mod-fest.

I'm really having a hard time containing myself! No big mods, at least until I finish my college run... en theory.

 

[Austin]

Here's a good daytime light output comparison:

As you can see, the driver's side fogginess is holding in a fair amount of light, whereas the passenger's side emits the light outwards.

 

[73F100Shortbed]

I put flowmaster mufflers on one of those cars for a friend. Sounded great. Would be a good mod.

 

[nobodyspecial]

Straight piped after the cats is what I did to mine, and with the factory tips welded back in place it looked stock.

Are all of your headlights working? High and low beams? If not, get ready to shell out some stupid amounts of money, as they don't produce one of the bulbs anymore. Used factory bulbs have gone for roughly $150. I cant remember if its the high or low beam though, one of them is out of production. There are retrofit kits, but they are spendy as wll, although they allow you to use common bulbs.

The forum you need is lincoln vs cadillac .com. Check out the Mark section, and ask about tuning there. The guy I got my tune from is a genius, and knows more about these cars than you or I probably know about everything else combined.

 

[Truckin4life]

Take the light off the car, dry the inside and put a small bit of silicone around all the seals. Its a temp fix until you find something better, the silicone will keep the water out for quite along time. But if you decide to change seals or what ever it comes off easily enough.

Just my 2 cents.
Use clear silicone so it doesn't stand out....

 

[5.0Flareside]

Take the light off the car, dry the inside and put a small bit of silicone around all the seals. Its a temp fix until you find something better, the silicone will keep the water out for quite along time. But if you decide to change seals or what ever it comes off easily enough.

Just my 2 cents.
Use clear silicone so it doesn't stand out....

x2 thats what i was gonna suggest....

 

[polarbear]

I think it's somewhere in the rear seal... I haven't dug deep into it yet, but these housings aren't cheap.

Smallest drill bit, two small holes, one on each side of the housing at the bottom (as a drain). Problem solved. Did that on the Marquis a few years ago- solved the problem, never came back.

 

[Austin]

Straight piped after the cats is what I did to mine, and with the factory tips welded back in place it looked stock.

Are all of your headlights working? High and low beams? If not, get ready to shell out some stupid amounts of money, as they don't produce one of the bulbs anymore. Used factory bulbs have gone for roughly $150. I cant remember if its the high or low beam though, one of them is out of production. There are retrofit kits, but they are spendy as wll, although they allow you to use common bulbs.

The forum you need is lincoln vs cadillac .com. Check out the Mark section, and ask about tuning there. The guy I got my tune from is a genius, and knows more about these cars than you or I probably know about everything else combined.

No mufflers is a no go, but the 3rd cat is gonna hit the dust. (emissions regulations - visuals)...

Headlights all work, thankfully! I've been reading up on how dang 'spensive they are; I don't wanna have to go down that road.

AND - I've already found LVC; they're a pretty knowledgeable crowd! What's this fellas username??

____________________

Enrie - I was thinking the same, but that depends on what the seals look like. I think I'll save this for a last resort.

 

[70blue]

Smallest drill bit, two small holes, one on each side of the housing at the bottom (as a drain). Problem solved. Did that on the Marquis a few years ago- solved the problem, never came back.

Worked well when I did that to my stepdads ram as well.

 

[kiwi f150]

Smallest drill bit, two small holes, one on each side of the housing at the bottom (as a drain). Problem solved. Did that on the Marquis a few years ago- solved the problem, never came back.

Are you sure you're not a kiwi Ernie - sounds like something we would do lol .... and it works very well too

 

[taxreliever]

What kit did you use? We bought one at walmart for my wife's mustang and it didn't do as good as what yours looks like. Huge difference.

 

[O'Rattlecan]

I used a headlight clearing kit on Erica's Mustang (Meguir's maybe???) and it didn't work well at ALL!

Ryan

 

[Austin]

I used the 3M kit. It's all about the speed of the drill, though.

 

[5.0Flareside]

yep... speed of the drill is the name of the game... they are almost all the same kits... just different packaging...

 

[Austin]

Little nominal update... finished the other headlight polishing and put a small pin hole in the side to let the moisture out. Also cleaned up my rims, but I'm going to polish them tomorrow to finish everything up.

Before:

After: