SilvaStang08

hey everyone, i just registered on this forum and have a few questions for you all id like to open up and ask for advice about. i just recently bought a metalic silver 2003 mustang GT premium with a 5 speed manual trans with 67k miles and she looks great!

heres what im curious for:

the panel above my drivers side door has a crack in it. i have another panel that i would like to replace it with and im curious of the best most delicate way to remove this piece from my car, and then re-install the new piece back on nice and solid. the picture below doesnt have the crack visible, however i just wanted to make sure the piece im talking about was well understood by you all.



also, it has stock exhaust pipes on it currently that are rather a mess right now. in the future id like to look into a borla exhaust kit but thats a bit out of my reach for the moment. so im wondering what methods you all use to keep your exhaust all clean and shiny so i can do what i can to make mine look good too. this is what ive got..



lastly, on my drivers side rear quarter-panel there is a long faint scratch mark just above/behind the wheel-well; as if it was keyed or something.. i dont have a picture of it sorry, but im curious as to how i should go about removing/buffing out this scratch alltogether.

all/any advice on the above would be greatly appreciated. thanks all for listening!!!

-Kevin

Z28KLR

For that panel, I'm pretty sure it just snaps on, so to remove ot just start at one end and gently pry upward. You can clean up those pipes with a steel wool (s.o.s.) pad. And for the scratch, you might not be able to get rid of it completely, but you can minimize it's appearance by colorsanding. Basically that involves the use of 2500 and/or 3000 grit wet sandpaper, followed by buffing w/ compound and then polish. Be very careful doing this, it's very easy to do irrepairable damage to your paint with the sandpaper by taking off too much (you don't want to go past the clearcoat which is very thin) and also with the buffer. A good rule to live by with a buffer, especially if you don't have much or any experience with one is to keep it on a low speed and let the buffer (not you) do the work. If at all possible, practice on someone else's car before doing your own, lol.