57' rear panel paint seperator trim

[Dakota]

The rear panel paint separator trim is not reproduced and if you can find one they want a fortune for them. I have seen an article somewhere, perhaps
in the Skyliner magazine of a piece of trim from another year of car would work in place of it. I wondered if some one has seen that article or knows of a trim piece that will work. I need to replace the missing one for my 57' currently in restoration. I have seen some cars with the top accent color painted all the way to the bottom of the panel between the tail lights, but this looks rather odd.

[Ron B.]

As near as I remember the piece was from a 57 Mercury seat. That piece shorter some people got two and spliced them others just used them shorter. Some of the very early cars were painted with the color running down under the taillights. Ron B

[Dakota]

Hello Ron, I do have a very early pre-production car (March 57' serial) without the Skyliner name badges built before the name was decided on. With that I would probably be correct in leaving the trim off as I also understand some of the production plants took liberties in building some cars as to paint especially color not matching the door tags to fill early orders with limited vehicles available in the build stage. Thanks for the reply.

[Ron B.]

I had an early car. It had a Red body with a White top. Most of the early cars I have seen had a solid color body with a White top. Ron B

[Brushwolf]

I had a missing one of those also. Found that there is similar width straight trim that can be made to fit from a 69 Lincoln Mark III and also from a 65 Cutlass F85 upper quarter trim. Piece from either car have to be shortened, but they are straight stainless trim with adequate width. Probably not the route you want to go if you have a judged car, but it probably takes a judge to tell it isn't the factory part. The Cutlass trim is over 7 feet long so even a damaged piece can be made to work if damage is toward one of the ends. Mine came from a convertible but probably a 2 door hardtop would be the same.