PLEASE HELP!!! I need to purchase a replacement latch for the console of a 1996 Lincoln Mark VIII - problem is, there are none to be found anywhere!!! The dealership says no dice and I haven’t been able to find it online anywhere - does anyone have any idea at all how I could find this part? I also need a front license plate holder for this car. I can’t find this part anywhere either - PLEASE HELP ME CARTALK GUYS!!! Signed - forever grateful. (ps - the original latch broke off and fell into the hole that it latched into - is there anyway to fish it out? there are some hexagon looking screws in the bottem of this piece of the console…if I did fish it out - would it hold up if it was superglued on?) THANK YOU!!!
Have you tried a “salvage yard”, aka junkyard or auto dismantler? Might take more time looking but would be cheaper if you found the parts you need, especially since you need more than one item. Some businesses charge a small fee to enter and you pull the parts yourself - bring appropriate tools & wear sturdy shoes. Knowing your way around a “you pull it” type junkyard will be a useful resource with an older vehicle. Check your phone book under “auto parts used” or “auto dismantling”.
The hex screws you mention come out with “allen wrenches”, which you can buy cheaply in a set at most hardware stores, auto parts stores, maybe even a dollar store. They are like a letter “L” in various sizes to fit into various sized screw heads. These are handy to have around, so not a bad idea to own a set. The only problem is that there are metric sizes and SAE sizes…hard to guess which you would need. Someone else here might know for sure, but they are cheap enough that buying both won’t use up all of a $10 bill. If you can get one screw out, you can buy just the one allen wrench you need, but buying a set is a better idea. You could buy one set, walk outside to the car and see if you got the right version, if not, walk back inside and exchange for the other set.
Hard to answer your question about repairing this with glue, it depends on how much physical surface area you have for contact between the two pieces. That is, if it’s just a thin material that broke, and you only have a thin surface where the glue would go, it might not work. I generally prefer two part epoxy glue for such repairs, have no experience with superglue. Contact cement is also a possibility, but if you try that, be sure to use it as directed…ie, let it dry fully, 5 or ten minutes, before attaching the two pieces. But it all depends on the shape of the broken parts, and how much surface at the point of attachment. My default is epoxy, fwiw. If the contact area is very thin, don’t spend your time on it.
You might check the markviii.org website. It’s devoted exclusively the the Mark cars and there’s a for sale section on there.
I still have my wrecked 94 Mark VIII but can’t remember if the console door and latch is still in there or not. I will check this evening on that particular part but I know for a fact that I don’t have the front license plate holder. Will post back in an hour or so to let you know.