Came across an 87-88 Cougar with manual crank windows and cruise delete. Ponder that for a moment. I take a pic tomorrow, as I'll be taking the crank windows for myself!
I'd love to find an 87-88 without power windows. And maybe one with only one rear veiw.
Holy back from the edge of the universe, Batman!
Where u been hidin?
Med school and car hobbies don't go well together, so I don't hang around the forums much while my T-bird sits in storage (been sitting for about 4 years now). I've been lurking on NATO the past couple months now, posted a couple times. I bought a tastic 87 TC a couple months ago and have been slowly getting it back to working condition. It's rusty in the rears, but I only plan to drive the car, not restore it. Eventually I plan to take the drivetrain and put it into a factory5 cobra, once the body completely rots away and after I'm done with school and residency (about 4 years from now).
My last post here I talked about the 1994 SHO MTX I purchased. I've since sold that car. It was a fun and sharp looking car, but I was given an offer for it that I simply could not refuse. I also sold my 87 Mustang SSP to a close friend, as it had also been sitting for 4 years, and now nobody makes/sells foxbody mustang body panels anymore (hard to believe, I know). Then I bought a Chevy :punchballs: It's a 2003 Monte Carlo SS (the fake SS, with the NA V6). It's a very reliable car which should require very little maintenance, which is why I bought it, but I missed shifting my own gears, so when a clapped out Turbocoupe popped up near me, I decided I'd give it a whirl and have two cars: one reliable/boring car, and one extremely unreliable/maintenance w/POS/mothers grab their children as I drive by/money pit/rusting as I type/even the homeless don't bother to ask me for money/fun to drive Thunderbird Turbocoupe. Nostalgia baby. :hick:
I actually looked at an hunk of junk 88 xr7 with manual windows in Dallas. Couldn't believe they weren't power.
I'd consider that to be very rare. This cougar is a base model. I can't imagine an XR7 with manual windows. Odd indeed.
I'm interested in seeing what the cruise delete steering wheel looks like. I've never seen an 87-88 Cougar without cruise control.
I've seen a 88 Sport with manual windows and mirrors... No controls on the console panel at all... To top it off, it was black with sand beige interior(seen one TC with that color combo)...
My son's old '87 Sport had manual windows, and one outside mirror. Had a blank console plate.:hick:
I've seen a cougar, i believe it was an 86 in the boneyard with manual windows. It may have been an 85, im not sure because I can only identify 87/88. All I know is it has a whitebackround instrument cluster, which I would have loved to install in my bird, but the long rectangular shape of it was obviously not the same as the 88 bird.
Are the manual window setups something you guys want? I'm sure next time I'm up there i could take them apart for ya'll. I love junkyards anyway, if you paid for shipping and what is costs me, It'd be happy to.
I've been looking for manual windows for my 87 Tbird for a while now, and so far have had no luck. But I'm not sure if the 86 and older will fit.
If the cruise delete wheel is the same as on an 86 then it looks like this.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v648/Loaded87IROC/wheel.jpg)
Whoa, I'm pretty sure I have never seen that before. I bet that's pretty rare.
The crank windows:
(http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l51/ddker/joes%20stuff/IMAGE_00069.jpg)
The cruise Delete:
(http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l51/ddker/joes%20stuff/cruisedelete.jpg)
Forgot to mention: power locks delete!
(http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l51/ddker/joes%20stuff/lockdelete.jpg)
i'Ve seen the same options. on one car. didnt even have a tape deck just am/fm radio. had to take the radio just because. and it was tan interior. sand color car. weird indeed isnt it .
Wow look at that. Another non-cruise steering wheel on a T-bird/Cougar. I find it interesting that the T-Birds and Cougars didn't use the 3 spoke from the Mustang/Capri. Instead they went to the trouble to make 3 different non-cruise wheels. :hick:
Here's the Capri wheel that I bought from someone on Foureyedpride.
(http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a38/cb400f75/Mark%20vii/10-31-08/DSCI0581.jpg)
(http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a38/cb400f75/Mark%20vii/10-31-08/DSCI0585.jpg)
(http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a38/cb400f75/Mark%20vii/10-31-08/DSCI0577.jpg)
no doubt,, welcome back!!!
I can only imagine cutting my knuckles on the sharp edge pointed out below ,, watch that!!
I have one of the TC/XR7 two-spoke wheels with cruise delete. I found it in an '86 XR-7 with hardly any options except for automatic transmission.
I found an '86 Thunderbird with manual locks at the yard several years ago, but I think the delete plates were different from the car you found, Joe. I'll have to dig them out of my parts boxes and take a closer look.
That looks like the same wheel used in SVOs.
That was the beauty of cars back then - people could order them the way they wanted. None of that "Oh, if you want power windows you've gotta take power locks" or "If you want a sunroof you've got to take leather" bullshiznit manufacturers pull today. Everything's about packages now, just to save the manufacturer costs while at the same time pusing higher content (meaning higher profit) vehicles.
My dearly departed 88 Cougar had power windows and mirrors but no power locks or power trunk/fuel door release. My first Fox (85 V6 T-Bird) had no options whatsoever except metallic paint and a full size spare (and the spare was probably dealer installed). No cruise, no PW, not even a right side mirror. It even had an buttstuffogue clock, which I thought funny given its digital speedometer.
My current car has power windows, locks, trunk, fuel door, mirrors, etc, but no power seats. It's a base V8 model but had the 10" drums and rear sway bar... attached to a 2.73 open 7.5" axle! That's what I like about these cars. They're all a little different. Each one would have its own story, its own reason for existence. Everything from "Grandpa bought it new and thought power windows were evil" to "Well, the manufacturer built it, and somebody's gotta sell it"...
By the way, there was yet another cruise-less style wheel used in these cars. My 85's wheel was like this:
(http://www.coolcats.net/fox/images/85bluemax3.jpg)
...Except it had a T-Bird emblem, and of course, no cruise buttons
Yeah but when you get old and have a arthritic back, you'll say screw the manual windows and locks...
Who said you have to get old to do that? :hick:
Interesting non-digi clock in the pic.....never seen one in person in these cars.
Christ, I have a whole box full of them...do you want one? :hick:
For most 1983-86 models (at least with Cougars) the buttstuffog clock was standard. The full digital dash package usually required the digital clock. The 1987-88 model years were where it got interesting...the base cluster could be had with either clock. The digital dash required the digital clock. The full buttstuffog dash...got the digital clock. :rolleyes:
What Carm said about mixing and matching was true. It was as easy as ordering a Whopper: you could get it your way, whichever options you preferred, or none at all. This was in the spirit of the original Mustang (and Cougar). These were some of the first cars in the 1980's to truly cater to everyone, and Ford was extremely savvy at recognizing that.
However, look at the legacy that left behind: the mess of wires behind the dash and under the carpeting for all the different combinations; not knowing what was standard from any given model/year to another; not knowing what was correct for the car/model year...hell, we can't even
verify some relatively simple things now. There was no rhyme or reason back then. We can't even swap one cluster to another without rewiring half the frickin' dash, for the love of God!
Obviously there's a smart way to do everything, and it could have been that manufacturing techniques weren't as sophisticated back then, or perhaps the cost was too inhibitive. And to Ford's credit, things did get a lot better with one model (1987-88 Turbo Coupe), as far as standard equipment and slimming down options. But the end result for the rest of us is the clusterf@*# of components that we deal with regularly. There is a LOT to be said about newer cars in that respect. At least you don't have to go through the hell that we do...you know what is standard (usually nearly fully loaded), and options run few for simplicity's sake. And you can actually (gasp!) go onto that thar Intarwebs and FIND INFORMATION EASILY about your later model vehicle...whereas you'll have up to a dozen of us frickin' nerds piling through our shop manuals and EVTM's to find an answer to the simplest question for our cars.
Yeah...newer car features FTW.
That being said...the non-cruise, non-leather steering wheels are WAY cool and I have a few of them...photos later...
My car originaly had that buttstuffog clock too. I bought a digital one off the Cool Cats garage sale section almost 10 years ago! 5 bucks shipped, thanks Eric!
Even still I've yet to see one installed in a car in person....even in a salvage yard. It's either digital or gone altogether...Weird, huh?
I'll pass :hick:
OK, just thought I'd offer. :)
It seems as if the 1988 models all had digital clocks, at least according to my information. That sounds about right, as every '88 I've ever owned has had a digital clock. I did pull an buttstuffog clock from an '87 in the boneyard a long time ago.
The 1983-84 cars seem to have the largest percentage of buttstuffog clocks standard. It's uncommon to find a digital clock in those, unless it had the digital dash. And for those two years the digital clock lit up the bluish-green color; the 1985-88 digital clocks were spinach green.
So when I bought my latest '84, it had THE noisiest buttstuffog clock. I remember my first '84 clock being rather noisy also, but this one...wow. It was almost deafening. My thoughts drifted toward swapping in a digital clock, but my wishes are to keep things as stock as possible on this car, so I found a NOS 1983-84 clock on eBay for a whopping $15 shipped. Tore apart the dash (the older dashes required quite a bit of removal to get to the clock) and got the new clock in...hooked the battery back up and what do you know.
Same deafening whirring of the gears. :hick:
So maybe that's why you see buttstuffog clocks missing in boneyard cars. Hoping they're less noisy than the one they already have, people are simply trying to keep their sanity! ;)
I wish my 88 didn't have cruise buttons on my steering wheel it doesnt work and all those buttons are annoying!
Funny you should tell that story. My 85's digital clock was noisy as hell too, and not only that, but it kept terrible time. A friend of mine then bought an '85 almost just like mine (same rare light sage green colour, too, but his interior was the light beige, or "biscuit", or whatever, while mine was charcoal). It was funny, his car was almost as basic as mine, too. His had cruise and a digital clock.
He hated the digital clock, though. He prefered the old-school buttstuffogue clock, so he offered to trade me. He knew mine was noisy and inaccurate, but he didn't care. Needless to say, I traded him :hick:
I'd much rather have power windows and mirrors on a car I'm driving on the street. The Zephyr I had a year ago had manual windows and mirrors and it was just tedious.
I made sure I kept both those options on the Tbird.
pw&pl ftmfw
i could live without the pwr seats and mirrors as well as cruise.
My '87 Bird is rather optionless. buttstuffog clock(unusually quiet), no cruise, no rear defrost, no map lights, no autolamp, manual mirrors, but it has pl, pw, and power driver seat. I got three options yay!lol
I wish M7s would have come with less mandatory options. I know it goes against what a Lincoln is about, but still. Mine only has one real option that's the Alarm, but it still has a ton of options.
I could definitely do without the mandatory power seats, climate control, Teves ABS, premium sound, cruise control, auto dim headlights, automatic headlights, and the alarm. The other stuff I like though. :hick:
K, I found a photo of a 1985 Thunderbird with a standard A-frame wheel, no leather wrap, no cruise control:
(http://www.coolcats.net/ximages/85tbirddash.jpg)
Thanks to Brent (BCA) for the scan. ;)
Wow that's a really interesting dash color combo, between the lower and upper portions and the bare metal finish on the faceplating. I like that, seems kinda old-school, ya know, when dashes were really pretty wild.
I do hear a lot of this talk at old car shows, especially from the muscle car crowd about options this and that and you could get this motor exactly how you wanted it in this car even though it makes no sense etc etc. Neat to see that as late as 20 years ago you could still get that.
83-84 bird at a yard by me. Crank Vent windows. power mirrors was it. Manual seats and everything.
No one wants crank vents do they?
If that was charcoal it'd look almost like my old '85 - except that one has air, mine didn't.
Vent windows required dual power mirrors so that makes sense. Personally I LOVE the vent windows but they do visually clutter up the greenhouse area. Would love to see someone figure out a way to put vent windows in the 1987-88 doors...
I assume that was a prototype interior for sales literature.
I love how they used a light gray on the gauge surround plastic. It enhances the layout of the "idiot lights" and gives it that KITT effect.
Yeah that kinda stood out to me too...definitely shoulda done that!
I hate power windows. Every car i've had them on I had to fix when I got them. I would much rather just be able to have them work.
4 out of 5 of my cars have had an anolog clock.
Hell my 88 T-bird LX has every option but a sunroof. Would I trade it for a no option car..................... NO :D
Yeah I will admit I'm rather spoiled at this point. Especially the heated seats, that's SICK! The moonroof stopped working this summer (good thing it stopped when it was CLOSED! :hick: :bowdown: ) but honestly I almost NEVER used it. Im happy enough really just being able to slide the inner one open and have the sun pour in and see blue sky above.
Honestly, many things like the seats and mirrors that I have set once basically and have not moved from those spots.....ever....don't really need to be powered. But it is nice to have if I DO move them :D
I think I just like knowing that the guy that originally bought this thing went all out and figured if Im getting the special edition I'll deck it out. But he didnt get the engine block heater!!!! So its JUST short of being fully-loaded. Dammit :hick:
The engine block heater was dealer installed. If you can find a NOS kit and install it (removal of a freeze plug on the engine block is required) then technically you'd have the option. Nobody would ever know that it was just installed. Every once in a while I'll see the kit on eBay. You would have a 110V plug hanging out behing the grille...but you'd have the option. ;)
:rollin:
:rollin:
:rollin:
LMAO
Thats so funny! You guys are talking about how "rare" the manual options are and this is the car I drive everyday.
I always thought HAVING cruise was rare...and I've always wished I HAD all the power options..
lol, I cant even find a replacement door panel cause none of them have the hole for the crank
My sig says "base" for a reason!
(forgive me, I haven't cleaned it in 2 mos)
I'm still on the hunt for manual cranks myself. I just plan on cutting a hole in the door panel and stitch around it to keep it from coming apart.
I'd like manual windows myself. I know where an '87 is that donated it's engine for a truck...wonder if they're ready to sell me the shell? :D
Might be the day's project, lol