OK as the title states be nice! This is my poor 1980 t-bird when I got 'er out of storage (buddies yard) This spring. It has since recieved a pair of doors which dont 'flap' in the wind like wings, new fuel line, regular hood and aircleaner assembly for winter, a few patches in the rear wheel wells, and some spray paint to make it all match. Future plans call for the 351W from a wrecked 79 econoline, Disc 8.8 rear, and new paint. Will try to get some better pics with the car all in one colour.
Scott, looking good! I like the fact you are restoring one of the forgotten Birds. What are your parts interchange options? Fairmonts, Granandas, etc?
Chris
Those are fox cars too so they should have similar suspension and chassis components. I know the dashboard is identical to ones they used to use in the old midsize LTD's.
Interchange is pretty well the same as the 83-86 thunderbirds, and the dash board is the same one used in 83-84 tbirds/cougars and some ltd's and grand marquis. The fox body fairmont, granada, zephyr are all similar just a little shorter wheelbase. Despite having so many similar platforms Parts are still a PITA to find. Spend alot of time in farmers fields with a hammer and crescent wrench! The auto wreckers think t-bird parts are gold plated :rolleyes: so I usually try to find a cougar which is almost half the price or a fairmont which is almost free to get parts off!
My camera is a POS but you get the idea :cool:
that body style is a class all in its own, i love it
As I remember, the dashboard in my '84 LTD (Same as your '80 T-bird) and in the '84 Cougar were a bit different. However they shared the same flat "T" design. I'm sure they're interchangable with each other, but I think they have some differences, at least in the dashpad and trim panels, if not throughout.
Silly northerners and your naked trees. :P
Personally, I find nothing wrong with that body style T-bird. I wouldn't give up my aero-Bird for it, but in the absence of that, I wouldn't kick that Bird outta bed for eating crackers. :P
It kinda grows on ya after a while, and at the time a $100 original owner car was sweet as hell to a 16 year old kid! If it werent for the t-bird who knows I migh still be driving the hyundai or godforbid the cavalier!!!!
Ifixyawata
I thought the only differences were the dash trim and guages? I know the cougars (atleast the 80-82's) had silver guages and of course the trim said cougar instead of thunderbird but thats all I've noticed
Hey one of those "naked trees" blew over the other night and almost hit the house :eek: That woulda been cool :cool:
And if you look over the roof of the tbird in the second shot you can see the top of an 83-86 cougar ;) They're beginning to gather and soon they will TAKE OVER!!! :D
Maybe I'm confused. All I know for sure is that the dash between my '84 Cougar and my '84 LTD were different. I was pretty sure that the '83-'86 Midsize LTD and Marquis shared a dashboard with the '80-'82 Thunderbirds and Cougars.
'83-'86 LTD Dash: (This is the same style as yours right?)
(http://memimage.cardomain.net/member_images/8/web/632000-632999/632037_11_full.jpg)
'83-'84 T-bird Dash:
(http://memimage.cardomain.net/member_images/12/web/216000-216999/216572_13_full.jpg)
The above are the only differences between the two dashes I was trying to point out. For all I know they could be the same underneath, but you can see the differences in the knee bolster panels, dash cap, and other items.
nm I'm just confused! read below for an explaination.
My first "daily driver" was a '78 Pinto in -brown. As terrible as that car was, (it ate 4 starters while I owned it, and the engine literally exploded a week after I sold it) it grew on me.. so yeah, I know where you're coming from.
I should take a picture of the area around my house, including some of the dead trees from earlier forest fires.. and then let you figure out how we dealt with the fact that we were in the field of maximum winds from Hurricane Charley. (and then some of Frances, and some of Jeanne) They said on that Hurricane Summer program (on the National Geographic channel) that Charley's max winds extended about 5 miles out from the center. Well, that's how far we were from the eyewall, so.. (I had initially estimated our top winds here to be around 120.. now I find out we probably got the full bag, 145+.. wow)
No wonder I couldn't figure out why water spots have been blasted into the grille of my T-bird..
I had a bronze 1980 tbird with a 255 v8. I wish I knew then what I know now about fox fords, It would have made a fun project being carb'd and all. Yours ought to run like a bat out of hell with a 351.
No 351W yet :macgun: winter came up to fast, So I'm hoping the 255 will last the winter :rolleyes: 200 000km driven by an old man means old man oil and changes are few and far between :barf: but atleast everything is well greased!
And today cleaning the snow off, my sleve caught the hood ornament and snapped it off :mad: so anybody know where there is a 77-82 t-bird sitting? you know autowrecker, backyard, parking lot?
Well, I know this thread has been sitting for a couple months, but I have a couple things to add since I have an 80 XR-7 and 2 83-84 Tbirds/Cougars.
-The dashes are not the same as the 83-84s. They are similar, but not enough alike to swap parts. I can dig up a couple pics later if you don't believe me :D
-They are a Fox chassis, but with a 108" w/b. The driveshaft is longer (obviously) and the control arms are different. I know for certain the uppers are longer than the 83-88 Tbirds and the lowers may be as well (haven't measured those).
The front suspension is the same as any of the other early Foxes.
Mine has the 302..but is not being driven...has trans issues (ie. it leaves like a sieve)..but will move around under it's own power. It's in hibernation for the time being though, stored in a friend's garage w/ my 84 XR-7.
It has the Sport interior option with the Recaro seats...they're orange ..yup I said orange. They need refurbished like the rest of the car....but they will be orange again.
Anyway, good to see another Boxy-Foxy here.
Chuck you have to check out this site (http://www.redpulsar.us/~coldfusion/Tbird.html) he has a ton of useful info on 'our' cars although he hasn't done much to it in a while he assures me it is still alive and well :D
Youre gonna have to post some pics of those recaros, I've only ever seen them in the brochure photos, I didnt think anyone ever ordered them! If your car has the sport interior option it should also have the sport suspension package aswell if I'm not mistaken.
Yeah Chuck, we need pics of that Recaro'd Bird. I've only seen pics of the 25th optioned with them:
(http://blizzard.he.net/~foxbody/pics/80fordtbird25thint.jpg)
That site tbirdscott linked to made me curious:
I take it he's less than thrilled with my site? http://blizzard.he.net/~foxbody/squarebirdcats.html
:(:(:(
That Fox site is yours? Joo need a better host, mang. :D
I was reading that Fox site a couple months back and about every 3-4 links, it would out on me.
Yes its mine. My site is a joke, I need to actually finish it one of these years. :(
You have gotten bad links or the server actually took a dump? I don't have all links and pictures up. I originally had it on geocities and that was okay until people started visiting it often and I'd run out of bandwidth everyday!
I got bandwidth exceeded messages or something like that, if I recall. I had to go back to it 2-3 times over the span of a week to read all of it.
Is the Geoslothies site still up? If so, maybe that's the copy I found. It would explain the problem.
You want pics? I got a couple. It's a Recaros Cougar though. I have seen other TBirds with them though The car is in sorry shape really...but I got it for $100 and I now have covered storage for it until I get around to it..so things are good.
Pro-5-oh....it was THAT pic of the 25th Tbird interior that hooked me on those cars....
Here are some shots of when I picked it up.
Oh wow, that totally makes the Cougar! Kick ass!!! The seat fabrics remind me of 1970s high end european spec Porsche 928s or Mercedes...the ones with radical color cloth deemed too insane to be imported to America.
Chuck, I remember we talked for a bit when I first set up the Geocities version of my site...I ordered some Kenny Brown super subs and a strut brace for my Cougar (Kenny Brown told me I should talk to you after I told him about my car at a Mustang show) a few years back. You weren't in the office at the time so I just got the parts without talking to you. Nice to see you are still keeping the Fox faith. Bravo to you, sir. :)
Bird351, I officially closed up the geocities site a few months ago, made all links point to my paid server. If the new site gives you any trouble, please give me a holler. Thanks! :)
I would LOVE to have an 80-82 T-bird or Cougar 2-door. Here's why: My first car was an '84 LTD and those T-birds were the closest thing to a two-door LTD you could find. (Same dash and everything.) Plus a more common 5.0 option.
(http://memimage.cardomain.net/member_images/6/web/222000-222999/222182_2_full.jpg)
My old LTD.
I saw an 80-somethin' Cougar XR-7 in the junkyard that was black, vynil 3/4 roof, had orange/red vynil seats, electronic 8-track, and full electronic (except odometer) cluster. If I'm not mistaken, it might've had a sunroof too.
Thought i'd update this with some pics of what made me decide to junk the car, the damage looks fairly light (helluva lot better than the sunbird that hit me) but it was enough to put a kink in the quarter panel... Oh well, whatcha gonna do
(http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y79/tbirdscott/80crunch1.jpg)
(http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y79/tbirdscott/80crunch2.jpg)
(http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y79/tbirdscott/80crunch3.jpg)
(http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y79/tbirdscott/80crunch4.jpg)
And one pic of the engine, pretty clean after blowing a couple tranny lines and hosing it all down with superclean to clean it up afterwards.
(http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y79/tbirdscott/80engine.jpg)
The interior is going in to my 82 along with a few other things, mostly trim, emblems, a fender, and maybe a door. Also want to try grafting a mustang t-roof in to it just to see if it could work, then off to the crusher. *tear*
-nice find scott, it's hip to be square....
Thanks but that ones is just a parts car now, my 82 is alot more solid so its getting all the attention, you can see my 82 here:
http://www.foxtbirdcougarforums.com/showthread.php?t=4536
So....if you trash that bumper cover...I could make use of that pseudo grille piece below the bumper ;)
Do you just need the chrome trim or a piece of the actuall bumper? the cover got ripped on one side (guy offered to trailer it for free :rolleyes: ) so its getting junked, I know where to get another one. I have buckets of trim, does yours have the plastic or rubber trim?
I need that grill-looking insert that goes below the bumper line that is on the 80's but not the 81-82's
the grill part is actually molded in to the bumper cover with chrome trim attached to it
Hrmmm...mine has fallen off competely.....so are you sure about that?
You can barely see in this pic
(http://ustio.com/file_dump/chuck/Misc/Cougars_s.jpg)
....but the chrome piece is in place and the grill insert is missing.
First of all dammit, I wanted to be the first with snowflakes on my foxbox!
And of the three 80 bumpers i've dealt with they have all had the grill molded in to it, maybe the cougars had more differences than the signal holes?? all mine were off thunderbirds.
Hrmmm...well fine, be that way :p
Actually the snowflakes are just holding the car up for now. I got tired of looking at the py 14" steel wheels that were on it. It will get 5-lugged with SN-95 stuff when the time comes...4-lug are teh suck....
Mr tbirdscott, do you still have the two Thunderbirds?
If you do, do you have pics of them somewhere?
I luv oddball cars (and oddball is a compliment).
Nothing like checking dates on the posts before you post.....
Wow,this is an old thread.LOL.LOL.
A little shy of 4 yrs......... not bad.
where is Scott anyways??
i like it when old threads come back alive :D it like seeing my Ex-wife getting married. just give me that happy face!
The guy did ask if he still had the car, so I assume he knows it's an old thread. Nothing wrong with posting in old threads. Some people are never happy: Somebody starts a new thread on a topic that's already been done and people jump on them to use "search", then when somebody actually does and finds an old thread people jump on 'em for doing so...
i agree! some people just are not fun people:flame:
I just would have sent a PM instead. Would have made more sense. That's my opinion on it and I voiced it.
Be thankful this isn't another board I post on. posting in a thread that's inactive longer than 3 months is a HUGE no-no.
Old thread bullshiznit aside, anybody communicated with Scott lately?
THAT'S the important thing...
Last Activity: 10-24-2009 11:04 AM
But...has anyone talked to him online or otherwise?