I suppose that's a possibility. You know "Job 1" and all. Lol.
Does it have the early or late TBird emblems on the c-pillars and grille?
That’s a question I don’t know the answer to. Those are long gone, I de-badged the car when I repainted in 95. It must have been the cool thing to do at the time.
I have to ask. So I’m pretty sure there was a dash change in 85. Did you switch out the dash to an 83/84 style at some point and I just missed that?
I wondered if anyone was ever going to notice this car has the wrong dash. I did put a different dash in, but it’s the same style as the one I took out. It’s possible a previous owner changed it, but I have owned the car since 94/95. My best guess is that it’s a really early 85 and ford did what they did best back then, threw whatever parts the still had laying around at it. The 10th vin digit is “F”.
Some interior progress, it’s been slow going but starting to take shape.
I decided to paint the cluster mounting panel flat black.
The factory shifter boot doesn’t fit over the MGW shifter, hopefully I can find one that does, or have one made. I’m also in need of the lower panel that has the cigarette lighter in it.
Spent today cleaning and painting interior trim. Using SEM Color Coat aerosol Presidio grey. The original interior was red, but have most of the pieces in grey, just a little faded and discolored. The dash and console were a shade darker. Somehow I’m missing one A pillar trim, other than that everything is done. It all went well until I got to the dash. Used the same cleaning process but it fisheyed really bad. So I used some 3M adhesive remover and started wiping the fresh paint off, and in the process the dark grey started to come off also. Once everything was down to the tan color it sprayed on fine.
Over the Christmas holiday was able to get the doors and fenders prepped, painted, and sanded//buffed. The bulk carpet arrived and wrapped the subframe connectors and also recovered the package tray with the same material. The rear window is installed, still no windshield in my possession. Going to keep working on the interior before installing the doors and fenders. I have a not so perfect set of grey seats I think I’m going to install while the original seats get reupholstered.
Carpet showed up today. Got a good start on it. I think I’m going to try and find some close matching carpet to wrap the sub frame connectors with.
In the last week or so painted most of the window trim, installed what I could. Put the deck lid on and fit, got the wipers working, installed the front turn lamps and a horn, moved the cruise control cancel relay from under the dash to the under hood relay box. The relay clicking was a little loud for inside the cabin. I have the rear glass scheduled to get installed, and I think I found a new windshield, but it’s not in my possession yet.
Next on the list is to redo the headliner and install some interior trim.
I'm so glad it's getting somewhere. I don't come on the board that much anymore, but when I do I always check to see if you've updated anything.
Looks awesome man!
Thanks!
No real progress since the last update. I am no longer in the auto collision business. I grew very tired of dealing with insurance companies on a daily basis and 4 years ago the opportunity to rent my dads and an uncles farm came up. It’s that time of year to get my 20 to 40 year old equipment ready to go so the bird will have to wait some more. Hopefully I can keep at it here and there and get it on the road this summer sometime.
Just a progress photo, quarters, rockers, and jambs painted and buffed. Working on some window trim and interior stuff. Things have slowed a little but still digging.
It cooled right down below 0 a couple days after I sprayed and stayed there, just today getting back to normal with some above normal temps again next week.
My friend that did the instrument cluster milled those coil covers and powder coated everything for me. First time I saw them I told him I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to make the rest of the car worthy of them.
