Fox T-Bird/Cougar Forums

At the many requests of Eric, Brent, Pete, and others, here is my small collection of Ford printed materials for our beloved fox's.

The first pic is just kinda everything laid out.

Pic #2 is the sales chart from the Ford 35th Anniversary Book. It's called "Soaring Spirit: Thirty-Five Years of the Ford Thunderbird" and is a blue hardcover. The cover has no writing on it except on the spine. It's by John F. Katz of Automobile Quarterly and according to the book, was printed for Ford for the 35th Anny Super Coupe's in 1990. The production #'s on the page are as follows: 1983 - 121,999; 1984 - 170,533; 1985 - 151,852; 1986 - 163,965; 1987 - 128,135; 1988 - 147,243. Breakdowns are not given, and the numbers stop at 88.

Pic #3 is of the back cover of the book "Thunderbird Milestones" by Mike Mueller. Apparently this book has been printed a few times over the MN12's life. My version is from 1999 and is called the "Final Edition - For Now". According to the caption, the 2 cars on the back cover are 1955 TBird #005 (earliest known one) and the last 97 made (Ford Museum, there is an excellent picture in the book of that car's radiator tag showing "Lorain Assy Last T Bird"). The section on 83-88's is small, but includes pics of a White Heritage in front of a USAF Thunderbird F100, a partial cutaway 83 TC 2.3 motor, a vent-window 84 FILA, and an 87 LX in front of the same F100.

More coming, it takes awhile to write all of this...

Random fact I've found/observed so far.... all Fila's I've seen so far are vent windows

Pic #1 is what I bought off of eBay, and was described as a "Partial Press Packet" for 1987. Not shown is the table-top card with the TC and CotY on one side, with the 87 GT Mustang on the reverse. What is shown is a Road&Track Performance Cars 1987 Guide (which touts the TC), the complete Motor Trend 1987 Issue with the Car of the Year article, the Ford reprinted CotY article/issue (contains just the CotY article and a section on Ford Chair Donald Peterson being Man of the Year). And of course, a set of Motor Trend 1987 CotY decals for the windows of a TBird (I have 2 sets).

Pic #2 is the cover of the most interesting thing I have. It's a Ford "Turbo Coupe Instruction Manual". It's from 1983 and is 102 pages. Pic #3 shows the Table of Contents. There are a few pages that fold-out, and minute detail is given on every little thing. Graphs are included on the TC and it's competitors, their market segment, and demographics. (Some of the interesting shots include a rear axle with the 9" vented drums and no sway bar, a "TA" EEC, and an EXTERNAL fuel pump mounted in the rear with a heat shield) Each section ends with a quiz. Yes, a quiz. There's also a final test at the back of the book.

Pic #1 is the "Final Quiz" in the above book. My book has no markings in it and is complete.

Pic #2 shows my 2 83 Thunderbird brochures. The blue one on the left was sold to me as "out of the Press Kit", and the one on the right is commonly found and noted as the regular brochure. The "regular" brochure is 19 pages and was printed 12/82. The "blue" brochure is 19 pages and printed 04/83. Both are full color and the "blue" one is larger with about 1/3 more information (in writing and pic count) per page.

The 3rd pic shows the "regular" brochures small "Data Center" with all the options and features.

I've got one of the '83 "Instruction Manuals" as well.(With no markings and is complete as well....not that it matters)..and both '83 brochures. :p 

(BTW, the external fuel pump is only "interesting" if you've spent your time under 87-88 TC's... ;)  )

This first pic shows the MUCH larger and more in-depth features and options pages from the "blue" one. The paint section goes into such detail that it tells of the pinstripe colors available on each color combo.

If you go back up to the 1st pic of the "overall" you can see that I have every "regular" brochure (except 1984) and 2 of these "color" ones. The orange one (shown in pic #2 here) is the 1984 version of this blue one and is even longer and more detailed. It actually has paint swatches for each color (printed, but hey it was 1984). Both of these were presented as being from a "Press Kit" or "Dealer Kit" by the sellers (2 different sellers).

Pic #3 is the prize of my "non-Ford" material. They are three copies of the famous series "Auto Racing USA, The Year in Review". These are GIANT coffee-table type books that cover EVERY form of American racing from the year, from Baja to Indy. I have 85, 86, and 87. (Series started in 84). They cover all of the Winston Cup, ARCA, NHRA, IHRA, and other various exploits of the aerobird's and cat's. There is a 87 Sport in the 87 Pike's Peak hillclimb section...

Here's the last 3.

Pic #1 is the 1984 TC specific brochure. I thought I had an 83 one too, but I either can't find it or I mistook my spare 84 TC one. I also have the same thing for an 84 SVO.

Pic #2 is my complete set of 1987 owner's manuals as given to me by the original owner.

Pic #3 shows the VIN plate and the plastic (uncut even) credit card key for emergencies.

So, that's all my factory  (except the boring old greasy 80's Motorcraft books of part #'s). So have it Brent and Eric, what's here and is it any good?

Random fact I've found/observed so far: All Fila's I've seen so far are post ws :evilgrin:

Sorry. Still sick. Still grumpy. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

I dispute your fact sir. We had a second FILA on the board for about 20 minutes before Mikey scared him off. I think he made it to 3 posts :hick:

Sorry Carm, but I deleted it. It was susposed to say:

But then I found a pic on my computer of one that didn't
 
And Mike.... how did I scare him off? I found ANOTHER Fila guy I'm trying to get to join the boards. His car is in amazing condition and according to him, bone stock with only factory replacement parts on it

You got too "excited" and asked him eleventy-billion questions. He hasn't posted since.

Nice collection, Michael. I especially like the piece that showcases the rear defrost and trunk release. Dig the '80s-style design on that thing!

Do you have any literature on the '84-'86 XR-7s?


Agreed. 90% of the posts contain no useful or relevant information whatsoever; they just clog up the threads.

I have the '84 XR-7-specific small brochure at least and I'm sure I have a general '84 Cougar one as well.

I bet no one else here has an '80 Tbird or '80 XR-7 brochure.. :hick:

And Michael knows "excited".....;)

I have NOTHING on Cougars. Every  trade show, swap meet, and eBay auction is sold long before I get there. Either Eric has a brother out here that pre-umpts me or it's just harder to find. I got the majority of my stock brochures from a very large brochure dealer, and he was completely out of every single 83-88 Cougar brochure of any type.

I used to have a FILA only brochure, but I sold it to Mikey.

And since I KNOW he's going to ask, here's the FILA stuff from my :

In the Orange 84 book, it says that FILA seats could be had in "Oxford White leather with special FILA grain" or "Charcoal suede-style fabric".

The 85 book shows a color swatch and says FILA's are available in: "Pastel Charcoal over Dark Charcoal, or in solid Black, Bright Red, or Medium Charcoal Clearcoat Metallic". All four colors are shown with the red/blue pinstripes. The interior shot also shows the Charcoal Suede seats.

BTW, the Orange 84 book shows EVERY interior with a body-colored thick console lid and the 85 brochure shows all Charcoal thick lids.

If there's ONE thing I know, it's "excitement!!!!" :hick:

:dunno: Did I miss something simple here?

Posted too quick Mikey, go back and read.

Interesting stuff, Mike. I've got some old stuff - a 1987 T-Bird brochure (all T-Birds including Turbo Coupe), some owner's manuals (85 T-Bird, 87 T-Bird, 88 Cougar, 88 T-Bird), and a bunch of car magazines from 1982-88 with articles and advertisp00gets about 'Birds, Mark VII's and Cougs (including a Road Test of a 1984 XR-7 and an article about the "Bondurant Birds"). I've also got two '87 EVTM's and an '88 EVTM and a book (filled with inaccuracies) about T-Birds from 55-02.

I will bet money that mikey(84fila)feels like charlie brown alot around here:D

Carm,
I had a complete 87 Cougar Owner's Manual setup and window sticker. Sold it with my 87 Cougar LS 5.0. I still see it every once in awhile so it's still running at least. I have a *huge* bin of 82-mid-90's car magazine's with Bird/Cat articles. I've mentioned Hot Rod's Sport vs TC 87 article a few times. I have got to dig that out of the attic and post it up.

Nice collection Mike.

The items pictured here are actually sales tools that were sent to the dealers. It's fairly common for Ford to re-print the C&D, MT, R&T, Autoweek, etc. articles about a "halo" car such as the TC and  these "packets" were sent to the dealers to help build the hype about them in the showroom.
The packet you have for the '87 is pretty cool with the Car of the Year stand-ups and such. In fact the dealer that the COTY packet was was sent to didn't fulfill his obligation with Ford. They were supposed to have put those decals on a TurboCoupe they had on the lot. ;)

The Turbo Coupe Instruction Manual was originally given out to salesman at what is generally referred to as a "ride & drive". Ford will ask the dealership to send a sales representative or two to a location where they will be schooled on a new vehicle that is coming out or a vehicle that has had a significant upgrade. These books were part of the “curriculum”. After that Ford must have sent many of these to the dealerships anyway because I have seen too many of them that are clean with no markings in them and appear to have not been used. Still it is a cool thing to have and is one of the highlights of my collection as well.

BTW, there is also an SVO Mustang Instruction Manual out there that is very much the same as the Turbo Coupe one. My boss at the dealership I worked at got one when he went to training for the SVO. I have been on the lookout for one of those for 18 years.

Regarding the orange 1984 Thunderbird item, it appears to be the same as the 1984 brochure which is actually red. Can you tell me how many pages there are and what the item number and date is on the back cover? It would be right below the “Get it together – Buck up” slogan.

I don’t see anything that would be considered a true “press kit”, everything appears to be dealership brochures & training materials. Don’t feel like you got cheated by the seller though, what you have is more valuable than most press kits. I’ll post pictures of a few of my press kits. They are actually quite dull and boring to look at which is why they generally aren’t worth much in the open market.

Brent
:cougarsmily:

Well cool then :D

The "orange" one is more of a red I guess. It's 8/83. What's the deal with the 2 completely different 83 brochures then?

I'm in the attic trying to find that  stand-up and my "spare" CotY decals. The spare set has been opened but not installed.

The introduction of the 1983 Thunderbird was a HUGE thing back in the day and when there is a completely new model introduction it's not too uncommon for a "leader" brochure to be sent out early and then later another brochure covering the same year.
The different "styles" of the brochures reflect the rest of the Ford brochures for the corresponding year they were produced. I will have to verify when I get home, but the early one most likely matches the "look" of the 1982 Ford brochure line.

Brent
:cougarsmily:

Ahhh. I was confused about it because the "early" 83 one looks like the 85/86/87/88 ones. The 2 "color" ones are just kind of their own deal. My "early" 83 brochure is dated 12/82, and the blue "late" one is 4/83.

BTW, I found the stand up, the spare decals, and my bin of articles ;) Pics coming soon...

I have an 88 Thunderbird brochure. If anyone wants I can try scaning the pages and posting them up.

Oh I just remembered I have a Motor Trend from 1992 with an article that pits the Mark VII against the *new* Eldorado if anyone wants to see that.

Actually, I would like to see that

Some sweet material

Here are some press kits I have from 1986, 1987 & 1988. Each kit covers the full FLM line-up. As you can see, they aren’t very impressive to look at except for the maybe the B&W photos. Lots of information to read through with many references about features each model received for the new year and all of the specs that your typical C&D magazine journalist would need in order to write their articles.

I'll post the pictures in chronological order starting with 1986.

Brent
:cougarsmily:

1987...

More from the 1987 kit...

and finally 1988...

More from 1988...

Most of those pics are in the books/magazines. I like the Merkur race car shot though.

Does that say curb weight 3,037 Lbs in the 88 Cougar list?

Uhh....hence the term "Press Kit" ??    :slap:



Sorry, I had my setting too high on the camera so I had to shrink them down more than I wanted to post them. It says 3,237; I blew it up for ya.

Brent
:cougarsmily:

what the heck is this car i circled?

That is a 1988 Merkur XR4Ti.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merkur

Brent
:cougarsmily:

3,200 is still light! Any other interesting doo-dads to show us?

OK, I'll play. ;)

Here are some uncommon items. In particular, the upper right brochure, a study in Ford design around 1986-ish. Some really wicked stuff in there that I've never before seen in public. Also note the 1983 Cougar Announcement and Merchandising Materials...inside the lit that is pictured was nothing like the real stuff. Obviously this was made in 1982 sometime and those designs were "carried over" for their proposed 1983 lit. Pretty sad, actually. On the bottom right is the 1983 L-M press releases, with a special fold-up cutout Cougar folio cover.

(http://www.coolcats.net/ximages/p_misc1.jpg)
(http://www.coolcats.net/ximages/p_misc2.jpg)

These are Cougar convertible brochures (front and back):

(http://www.coolcats.net/ximages/p_convs1.jpg)
(http://www.coolcats.net/ximages/p_convs2.jpg)

We want 20th anniversary stuff? We got 20th anniversary stuff...

(http://www.coolcats.net/ximages/p_20ths.jpg)

Oh wait, you want uncommon 20th stuff. OK...this should work for ya. ;)

(http://www.coolcats.net/ximages/p_20thconv.jpg)

Possibly the pride and joy of my collection: the 100th Anniversary issue of National Geographic.

(http://www.coolcats.net/ximages/p_natgeo1.jpg)

Because this is on the back:

(http://www.coolcats.net/ximages/p_natgeo2.jpg)

It took MONTHS of negotiation to wrestle this magazine from my aunt and uncle.

Postcards:

(http://www.coolcats.net/ximages/p_postcards.jpg)

Cougar XR7 standalone brochures:

(http://www.coolcats.net/ximages/p_xr7s.jpg)

Brochures:

(http://www.coolcats.net/ximages/p_brochures.jpg)

The bibles:

(http://www.coolcats.net/ximages/p_books.jpg)

Finally...the oddities:

On top is a rare 1986 FORD Cougar brochure from Mexico (remember, no Mercury division south of the U.S. border). Please note the unique rims on this car. I've never, ever seen those before.

On the bottom is a Cougar "Value Leader" brochure that inexplicably wanted the customer to think this was more of a commuter car than a luxury/sport coupe.

(http://www.coolcats.net/ximages/p_misc3.jpg)
(http://www.coolcats.net/ximages/p_misc4.jpg)

There's lots more...I didn't have time to photograph like, everything but this is a good start.

I've got even more stuff for the MN12's. ;)

That Chilton looks a bit used;)
 
I used mine till it litteraly fell apart

Very nice stuff Eric !

When you have a moment, could you post a picture of the other side of the 1985 XR-7 standalone?

Thanks,
Brent
:cougarsmily:

Ha! You've got the py White Chilton! :hick:

I actually have a 83-88 only Chilton I found in a surplus store two years ago, it's sitting on my desk. I, of course, have the py half-MN12 one too (about 3) in varying degrees of grease.

And that black 'Vert is sweeeeeet!

Sure thing, I've got more stuff to photograph anyhow, that will work.

Did you notice how I kept the same "woodgrain" theme in my photos too? ;)

Cool, looking forward to seeing more neat stuff.



Such the professional. My shots were more "candid".  ;)
They do look better on the Pergo, I will have to try that next time.

What are you using to store your literature in?

Brent
:cougarsmily:

All the literature is in its own plastic bag/board, in a humidity-controlled closet. I'm working on a separate filing cabinet for everything. Some of the MN12 literature is a very odd size so that's throwing a curveball into my plans right now.

The books are just on a shelf. From the wear and tear they're obviously used quite a bit. :)

I have other things inside wood and cardboard dividers. That's some of the stuff I'm digging out tonight. Also, I've got dealership posters...some are hanging on my garage wall, some are in tubes. Those might be tough to photograph.

I have a three drawer lateral filing cabinet that I started with for the same reason; some of the brochures are just too large to fit in a normal filing cabinet.
With the lateral cabinet, I was able to lay the larger ones down flat, but it makes it difficult and the item I want to get to seems to always be at the bottom of the pile.
A couple of years ago I got very lucky. got a frantic call from my wife, she was at the local K-Mart and said I needed to come down right away because they were getting rid of everything including some big file cabinets. (This was when they were closing many of the stores)
I was able to get two vertical 3-drawer cabinets that are large enough to file the largest brochure I have. The only problem is that I can’t find any hanging folders that are large enough so I will probably end up making my own.
I have a room/office that I framed up in the basp00get to store everything in and most of my stuff is in there but it’s packed full of lots of other  right now with the basp00get re-model going on.
I have too many posters to ever be able to display them all, but I can always rotate them every once in a while for a change of scenery.

Brent
:cougarsmily:

Ahhhh I remember those days....  :)

Here's a hard piece to store. It's an original showroom poster that's about 4ft x 4 ft. When I bought my car I ask the dealership to hang on to the poster for me and when I went back they didn't know what happened to it..didn't care. They made the sale and that's all that mattered to them. It was the last sale they made to me.

Luckily I checked with another dealership and they still had one.

One of these days I'll get it custom framed.