Fox T-Bird/Cougar Forums

So here it is.

The original ad:
5.0 decked and bored .030 over
10:1 TFS Forged Pistons
TFS track heat upper and lower manifolds
TFS twisted wedge aluminum heads
TFS cam .499/510
1.6 roller rockers
24# injectors, calibrated mass air sensor
70mm Edelbrock Throttle Body
MAC headers, H pipe and Borla lers (has a real nice rumble)
Tremec 3550, Powergrip clutch, custom driveshaft
Eaton Posi with Moser axles and Motive 3.73 gears
Maximum Motorsports caster and camber plates, poly bushings etc etc.
All the XR7 accesories work including the power lumbar, mirrors, locks,  etc. AC has been converted to R134a and does work but is a little low on  freon.


All of that is definitely true. Apart from a couple not huge splits in the upper part of the dash, the interior is mint. Original floormats, just about perfect. Somehow, the doors close with no rattle/bouncing/anything. SOMEHOW, the car drives like my friend's mom's brand new Fusion. Same as the doors, over the bumps there's nothing. Nothing. The exhaust is held down tight too. I was shocked on the test drive. That Tremec is mint, clutch slips in the powerband at WOT, can't really see how fast it is yet, but in due time. :D The bellhousing is wet and he claimed the rear main was bad. Whatever it is, it'll be taken care of and the clutch cleaned up if its still good, which it sure seems that way. If not, replaced. Whole motor will come out, for that aaaaaaand.....

......that's because it's got front frame rail rot right at the towers. :toilet: BUT WAIT!!!! It's not as bad as the red car. Unlike it, the rails down bulge on the bottom, and just generally look so much better except on the inside. The one picture shows it, though not that well. Once the time comes, I'll see if I can get away with just hacking it open and fishplating that side. Not concerned with perfect factory looks here like the red car.

The guy definitely didn't know, it's hard to see in this particular engine bay, but of course I found it and almost didn't buy it. But I couldn't let it go, the tightness of the car so far beyond what I thought these were even capable of astonished me, as with just the whole package. $3150 was the deal. 6 Rockford speakers, he  took his subwoofer tube but left the amp and 6 CD changer. No wiring cob jobs anywhere.

Even the inner console and opera lights work! :eek:  So yeah, definitely worth fixing the rot because that's all there is. He bought it from his friend who bought it from "the kid that built it". The last two combined but 5000ish miles on it. And used it as a show car basically. Has 103k. So whoever owned it originally was really nice to it apparently. And that kid obviously had done or did quality work to it. That surprises me the most. Sad as it is to say that a lot of people just wham-bam a "hot rod" together.

It's at my friend's house for now, stopped up to take the pics.

The rest.

Looks good!!!

at 3150, you just bought all the go-fast goodies at a discounted price and got a near mint car free :p lol again, not a cat fan anymore, but i would have jumped on it as quickly as you did and kept it intact, because of the excessive cleanliness of the body.. nice score indeed

That's a nice looking Cat with power to back up the good looks.  Nice score man.

, thats a stunner.

Yep, great looking car. Congrats on the purchase. Ugly shifter, but I love the rest of it a LOT. Very nice .

Thanks everyone. I agree vin, the shifter  is random looking and the boot is very off-the-beaten-path. Just cause you're unique does not mean you're useful LOL. But it is in good shape, from his pictures I thought it was a stock boot all chewed up and faded. The shifter itself definitely belongs in a car where the seats are above the trans tunnel. Which is sad, it doesn't look right but because of its length and angle you don't have to reach at all to change gears, really convenient. Guess I'll see what I value more-- form, or function. If I can get some of both, that would be best.

Nice car Pauly...... looks very familiar though..... ;)
You only live once

Very nice!!

Looks like a very nice score!  Nice pick up to say the least.

Wow! Very nice indeed.  I love black Cougars.

Very nice, that was well worth it.

It reminds me of Nick's old '87. Nice purchase.

Nice score :). It looks easy enough to fix the little strut tower issue.

When do you find time to drive all these Cougars? I barely have time to drive the T-bird. I think I've put 700 miles on it since April.

Such a nice kitty,enjoy, looks good.

Thanks for all the compliments...I wanted a black 88 XR7 since I first saw a picture of one...I will probably get a set of turbines, paint 'em to match, and get white letter tires to finish off the look. Such badass cars. The silver one WAS black...why the guy chose to do what he did is unimaginable. Would have had to do the jambs and everything to change it. Then the quarter got messed up. I'm thinking eff this, not happening anymore. Not for a long time. So this makes it a little easier to achieve LOL.

Like the Indiana Jones quote, overuse that myself and  proud of it haha. And Lou, this probably won't even get registered until next spring. The silver one is the only one on the road at this point. But once they ALL are...I'll find time. Somehow.

why paint a black car silver? i'll tell you why lol.. i'm tired of owning black cars/trucks so i'm painting everything i own blue or silver (or a 2 tone of both) next summer lol i've owned entirely too many black vehicles over the past 10 years, you just get tired of the same old  after a while

Nice car. Well worth the investment.

wow thats a steal.. looks like a $6000-$6500 car to the right person.

I kind of have time to drive the T-bird it's just that it only comes out when there is no chance of rain. It's a royal PITA to clean the thing after a rain storm. It got rained on once this year in early April when I took it to get the subframes welded in. I then spent 4 hours cleaning the underside to get rid of the water spots. I have problems.

I'd love to pick up another 5.0 T-bird to drive around in the summer, rain or shine. I wouldn't subject it to winter driving since I'd want it to last. That's what the Focus is for. The problem is finding one that's not rusted to hell locally, which you seem to be able to do.

Congratulation...  !!!cougar shadow!!!

Lou you guys must have it worse than we do with the salt. And I think we have it bad here. The crown vic and the silver one were good finds indeed. And they were local (I think). The silver one, the guy bought it from some old lady that I'm assuming never drove it in the winter. Crown Vic I know for sure was the same way. I'm ALWAYS on craigslist seeing what's for sale, I don't miss a whole lot. I'm seeing more and more instances of ads saying "texas truck" "VA originally up here for 3 years" surely because of the internet, people are bringing them here. You have things like Carchex so you can (supposedly) make sure it's at least not a total trashwagon, and then you take your chances with Brand X shipping company and it gets a couple dents or scratches or you're friends with a trucker that does the route often, etc. But there's definitely more out of state vehicles than I would expect to see. Don't have to go far from here either. That probably helps too. Driving down to NC this summer to bring my brother to a 7 week music camp/festival (yes we were able to stop at anthony, Kingcars' place and I met the whole family and rode in the white thunderturd and dads chevelle LOL) by the time you get to southern PA, you start seeing mid 90s and earlier vehicles that look great, get into VA and there's '96 and older body style Ford pickups looking mint all over the place. They love em down there apparently LOL.

is the rot really that bad? its kinda odd for such a clean car. and as for the rot belt, i picked up a southern belle 90 f150 from tennesee, and they were running around like they were new, i couldnt believe it. compared to buffalo.

Tennesseans love their trucks!.... LOL My '79 F-150 has been a TN truck it's whole life and it's rust free aside from a little surface rust. There are TONS of late 80's - early 90's Ford trucks that look like they're only a few years old. Now the Chevy's...they seem to get rustier a little quicker.

And Zonda, I am truly jealous of you now....not only do you have a sweet 20th, you also have the black '88 XR-7 I've always wanted with plenty of goodies to boot. Nice score dude, beleive it or not, most of the Cats and Birds here in northern middle TN are beat up pieces of  or the owners want 4-5 grand for decent ones. Wish I could find a score like yours, throw up some more pics if/when you get a chance!

LOL I'm so sorry man. Makes me feel terrible to have the very thing a friend dreams of. Guess we got the same taste in fox cougars!! And yea I'll get some even better pictures of this thing when I get a chance. The sun was at a low angle which didn't help at all!

The picture of the rail of course was py. The other side one came out even worse. But they do look scary in person. A 1" or so long oval hole in the driver's side, you dig into it and see pretty thiiiick rust, lots of layers of flakiness. It bows out into the engine bay. The passenger side, looks like it rotted in the inner layer and that is bowing out the outer layer into the engine bay. But I think somehow that vertical side of the rail rotted on both sides of the engine bay. I mean if I gotta give it the same treatment as the red car...I'll take the K member out and everything. It is what it is. But I think I might get away with not having to. Just engine and tranny out, cut out that side, weld a plate in, if it's not butt-welded for a flush surface and made to look like nothing was ever done....noooo big deal. Just want the rot gone and it structurally sound. This will be next year's project once the red car is finally finished.

now you got me thankin' that i have a rot hole under the booster of my tbird i forgot about. ;) its funny how they rotted. but  you have gotten a steal of a deal

See strut tower rot is why I'm leery of picking up another T-bird. It's nice to have a car that spent most of its life in California.....

Yeah for real. Gaze in approval all you want at these, but none of them are like that thing in your signature. Your engine bay, floors everything are all completely left alone by mother nature to begin with. Once there's even a start of rust on the seams, that's it. It's no longer like it was when it came off the line, never to be exactly like that again. Keep to your routine, don't take that sucker out unless the chance of rain is less than 20% from the talking heads and the sky looks heavenly. shiznit, what's the fun in driving it on a gloomy day anyhow. Someday youll have that on a show field with mirrors under it and people will shake their heads in shock and awe. :D

rocker and body mount rot.. the #2 reason i HATE fullsize chevys lol

God you guys just give me more and more reasons not to EVER move north. Its so funny you guys talk about older cars driving around like its odd but down here there's more old cars than newer ones. Just never any foxes for some reason....

That XR7 is freakin sweet. I understand the shifter thing. the boot is ugly as hell, at least in the pics, but the shifter's kinda cool. Bet it's really convenient. Personally, I think I would leave those wheels alone. They give it sort of a wide looking stance and it looks really good in my opinion. Anyway sure looks like you picked up a sweet deal.

Yeah for the love of god DONT come up here if you can avoid it. I tell ya, Upstate NY is a beautiful area, I think in some ways it is unmatched....I know a few Hollywood celebrities have summer homes somewhere near Albany, maybe more north still like Lake George or thereabouts. I've heard it said anyway. But I'm not sure it's worth it to a car guy. Not one that isn't used to the conditions here. If you're a car guy and not from the rust belt don't go anywhere near it. It'll break your heart and piss you off.

 
It's not quite clean enough for mirrors. It does have 132K on the clock. I'd need to do a lot more cleaning to make it mirror ready. Since I do drive it there is gunk and stuff on the underside.



That  road salt is killer. I know any car I drive in it will die from it someday. If I didn't have to worry about road salt I would have another 25 year old Fox as a daily driver. I bought the Focus because, while it's a nice car, I won't feel so bad when the salt kills it.

Dayyyyum she's up there! :D I knew it was over 100k when you spoke of mileage a couple years ago or something, so really no surprises...but at the same time it's still an instinct to associate good condition with non-usage so it makes you do a double-take. If you ever need a new idea for a cleaner for that purpose...http://www.korkay.com use their distributor locator see if there's any near you. Really good multi-purpose non-destroy-everything-it-touches cleaner. I don't know what it's made of...I don't think I would use it to routinely spot clean the exterior of my car or leave it on perfect paint for hours but I know my friend's uncle uses it profusely at his bodyshop, good for wheels, doesn't eat them away within minutes. But it's very very effective. Really fun to use.

Good looking cat, Paul! Odd shifter or not, its a stick!  You can always change around the throw to find what fits you.  My 88 XR-7 is oxford white and is from and in the rustbelt.  I hate salt, it has been out a handful of times in the winter first couple years I have owned it but it has its share of rust.  It still gets looks but those spots glare at me everytime I look at it in the garage.  I have had mine since 2001 and never regret the day I bought it!  Can't wait till its 25 years old, antique plates will save me some loot every year.  I have an awesome set of turbines and 90%-80% treadlife Fuzion 225-60-15 tires in my basp00get, if interested, hit me up!

 
Most people think the car has about 50-60K miles on it when they see it. They can't believe that it has over 130K. The reason it looks good is because it never fell into disrepair and became a beater. When something has broken it's always been fixed. The key is that it has been maintained. Even at 132k the thing rides and handles like a new car, probably because everything but the springs in the front end is new. With old cars it's not always the mileage that's important but how the car was maintained. The Cougar you bought was a good buy even with over 100K. It's obvious someone maintained the car and took car of it. Those are the cars you want when you're shopping for an old car. I looked at a 78,000 mile 87 XR7 last year. You would think it would be in good shape but it was worn out. The suspension bushings needed to be changed (something that should be done on any 20+ year old car) and it had evidence of rust repair on the lower door frames and a bent rocker. It probably didn't help that a "hillbilly" (or as close as one can get to it in a northern Chicago suburb) bought it from an old man who had cared for it and then "hot rodded" it with a side exhaust and black painted 10 holes. Just because a car has high mileage doesn't mean it's beat up and worn out and just because a car is low mileage doesn't mean it's in good shape. It all has to do with the overall condition of the car and whether or not it's a candidate to be a keeper.

And the sad part is, as much as you discuss your buttstuff-retentive habits with loads of self-deprecating humor (and trust me I'm at least as bad as you are, let's have a contest im IN IT TO WIN IT lol), that's the kind of person needed to keep a car in perfect shape over many years and thousands of miles. People can't even  begin to wrap their head around this mindset, good thing we take pride in the misunderstanding and it just drives us to do better. A vehicle is a tool to most, in reality there's so much more to them. Someone needs to keep them around!!!! Your average person ooohs and ahhhs at an antique car show...what do you think made them able to shine so brightly 50 years later?

Kinda more on-topic...do you get any rattles or squeaks at all? The red car is good, but there are a few little things over just the right bump that remind you that it's not new and not a Lexus. The black one I just can't believe. It is the opposite of that sentence. I didn't think these were well-built enough TO ride like that. Does yours? All it takes is changing all of the bushings? He did say it "has poly bushings". All around or just in a random spot or two I don't know. If that's what it takes then I'll sure as hell be ripping EVERY thing apart on the red car before it goes back to roadworthiness.

@beast50 -- Will let you know if I wanna make a deal on those when I have the space and it comes time! Thanks! :)

I've got no squeaks or rattles, even with 55 series tires. I changed everything in the front suspension, I mean everything. I changed the control arm bushings, ball joints, struts, strut mounts, sway bar bushings and end links, steering rack, and tie rods. The only original part in the front is the springs. It's well worth it. Before I did this I would get the occasional pop or squeak when going over a big bump or the  pop when braking. Now nothing. It's like driving a new car. None of the stuff I used except the sway bar bushings and end links is poly though. I did use '03='04 Cobra bushings in the control arms, which are firmer rubber. So if you can replace all the rubber parts in the front end. It makes a huge difference.