Mirada on Kijiji

I don't know about that. We get a lot of sun in Alberta, most years. Yet the fender caps on both my Mirada and Cordoba are not only intact, they are still flexible. Also, Alberta, and especially Calgary are very, very dry, so its not the humidity level.

I wonder if the Canadian and US J bodies were all built in Brampton, Ontario or not. If not, it could be a different supplier for the fender caps.
 
All of the J Bodies were built in Windsor Ontario. I have always wondered if the cracking might have anything to do, with the cars being repainted. Do you know if your cars have their original finish?
 
Both of my cars have factory paint (and so did my Nightwatch Blue Mirada base car). There may be something to the repaint thinking; back then, there were a lot of paint shops using regular enamels and lacquers still. The fumes from those paints may have something to do with the fender caps hardening up and then disintegrating.

A few years back, a friend of mine and I got a pair of rear fender caps from a Cordoba (may have been a Mirada) in a tannish/gold colour off a car in the local Pick'N'Pull for a board member. We had to work on it a bit, but the caps came off in one piece, and were still quite soft, as in they would flop around if held by the part that fits on the bumper. Still flexible as you could imagine. I'm pretty sure it was factory paint on that car.
 
The angle of the son is a real thing. The closer to the equator, the more intense and direct is the sunlight. My extensions are now giving up the ghost as well and they have the original paint. It's like they hit their expiration date and are quickly failing.
 
kkritsilas said:
Both of my cars have factory paint (and so did my Nightwatch Blue Mirada base car). There may be something to the repaint thinking; back then, there were a lot of paint shops using regular enamels and lacquers still. The fumes from those paints may have something to do with the fender caps hardening up and then disintegrating.

A few years back, a friend of mine and I got a pair of rear fender caps from a Cordoba (may have been a Mirada) in a tannish/gold colour off a car in the local Pick'N'Pull for a board member. We had to work on it a bit, but the caps came off in one piece, and were still quite soft, as in they would flop around if held by the part that fits on the bumper. Still flexible as you could imagine. I'm pretty sure it was factory paint on that car.
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Yeah you got those for me, and I'll be using them next year.
 
Repainting is a big problem. If the paint was too rigid and did not flex (allowing the plastic to expand and contract in hot/cold/sun), the parts would get brittle and break.
 
kkritsilas said:
Anybody ever wonder why the fender caps on on Canadian J bodies don't disintegrate like the ones in the US do?
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The caps on my car are in decent shape and it spent its life in WI until June of this year. It still has it's original paint. The caps are still flexible but they're starting to disintegrate where they meet the center piece under the rear license plate. There is a short piece of adhesive to keep the filler pieces stuck together and it looks to be made of some kind of petroleum product (tar) and that's what is causing the problem with mine. I also noticed the caps get a haze on them in the summer, probably from the plastics off-gassing, so I'm wondering how long before they start to crumble. Too bad there's not a good reproduction of these as I think every one of these cars will need them sooner or later.

Drivers side. Not too bad but it's starting to discolor right under the tail light.

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Pass side. This side didn't do this until I was washing the car and touched the filler panel.

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