Fox T-Bird/Cougar Forums

My first car was a 1985 Turbo Coupe, second 1986 lx Stang, Third 1987 Turbo Coupe, Fourth 1985 GT Stang.  I still want my 85 back.  I got it from my Uncle when I was 15, it needed a ton of work.  He drove it hard for 200,000 miles and then replaced it with a SuperCoupe.  Lucky for me it was a five speed, and he always changed the oil regularly.  It needed a steering rack, master cylinder, rear wheel cylinders, timing belt, v-belts, tune up.  He parked it and let it sit three years while waiting for me to get old enough for it.  He always loved it and couldn't part ways with it so he saved it for me.  My pops towed it home, bought all the parts and a manual and let me at it.  I learned a LOT about cars that summer.  I still to this day miss my 85, the stangs and 87 might have been faster, but there is something magical about your first car, like your first love.  Im writing this cause I read about the senior in high school on here that his first car is a Bird.  Made me remember my high school days :p
Even yesterday, my oldest friend came over, we went for a ride in my 2000 GT.  He loved it, I told him it was fun but Id trade it in a instant for my ol' 85 Turbo Coupe.  So does anybody else still have those memories???

Y first car was an 86 cougar gs stripper model. had a digital dash, 5.0, and nothing else. not even a passenger mirror. it was a $110 police impound. I drove it like I stole it. I put near 100k miles on it (rolled it over 199k miles twice), and it looked every part of the $110 dollars if you assumed I overpaid.

I got it stuck high centered in a parking lot, smashed a fire hydrant in the drivers door, lost a tire going over 100mph, and never once really gave me any problems.
 (http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d82/bosenKevin_02/1343845790090.jpg) (http://s33.photobucket.com/user/bosenKevin_02/media/1343845790090.jpg.html)

I've pretty much only driven $500 cougarbirds since. now I'm getting sick of fixing the same things over and over. gonna actually fix one instead of leaving them dead on the side of the road or dragging them into a junkyard when the trans quits.

78 Merc Monarch….

85 Thunderbird in my avatar. 5.0, CFI, AOD. Blew one 7.5 rear end and one 5.0 thanks to a bad oil pump. Gave the car all the hell a 16 year old could and it came back for more. My parents made me sell it after I bought a 93 Mustang LX 2.3 auto for a daily driver / college car.

My first car was an 84 XR-7 (first car on the left in my sig picture). I have probably told it's story a hundred times, but what the heck, here it is again:

It was my dads car, and he actually didn't like it. He got something else for himself, and parked that cougar in the driveway for me to have when I got my permit/license (I was 15 at the time). It looked like , and ran just like it looked. It was so rusty you could pick the bottoms of the doors up and look inside. My dad joked "at least if you get in a wreck, I'll know you weren't going very fast".

Basically, I knew nothing about cars. I bought the haynes and chiltons manuals for the car and studied them. This was before the internet, back when you actually had to figure stuff out on your own. Long story short, I put a new (junkyard) turbo on it, new injectors and a fuel pressure regulator and it ran great. My dad and I fixed the rust and painted it. I bought some new American Racing chrome rims, and put in a nice stereo. I loved that car, it looked great, and got a lot of attention. But at the time, all my friends had V8's, and I wanted to join that club. So I found an 87 XR-7 5.0 (the red one in my sig pic). I traded the 84 for the 87 at a car lot. I kept my rims, lol.

Now here's the sad part. I missed my 84 something fierce. I kept driving past that car lot, and eventually I saw that it was moved to the back lot. I stopped in to be nosy and ask why. Apparently the owner of the lot took it out and beat on it and did some damage to the engine. He said I could buy it back for $300. Well, I was still living at home, and my dad didn't want another car in the driveway... So I just kept lustfully driving past it, and one day it was gone. Then I spotted it up the street at a mechanic shop (the door was up, and I could see it on the lift inside). I thought "oh well, at least somebody is fixing it"...

The next day I drove by, the garage was burned down and my old car was still on the lift, a rusty, burned-out shell.

Goodbye old friend. I learned a lot from you. I learned body work, engine repair, and so much more. I also learned pride in a job well done. But most of all I learned how a car can really "fit" a person. No other car fits me like a fox Cougar. Most fox-bodies feel similar (and I have had dang near every kind), but a fox cougar always has a special place in my heart. I now have an 85 XR-7, which I feel is the best blend to me. It has the body, drivetrain and looks of my beloved 84 (with the bonus of the fog-light bumper), and the dash of my second-fave, my 87 XR-7.

I am sure others will chime in, I know many of us had these cars as our first. There's just something about them. I just can't seem to be without one. In my whole driving life, there's only been one stretch of a few months where I tried to go foxless. I couldn't do it, lol. I'm an addict. I even tried to ween myself off cougars by stepping to other foxes, thinking I could graduate to another vehicle. I just can't do it. I need therapy. No matter how py some of these Cougars treat me, I just keep coming back for more. At least when they do give you trouble, they aren't too expensive.

Indeed mine was........ 1983 Thunderbird Heritage, the one in my sig..............i was the 2nd owner, 17K on the odometer.  123K today, all original stock car.  Under a tarp in the driveway since Hurricane Sandy.

1957 Ford Country Sedan station wagon, good for carrying surfboards, mattresses, assorted honeys, etc... 


My First Fox T-Bird was probably around #130 or so....

This is my first car.  1988 Thunderbird LX 5.0.  I'm a senior in High school and I've been driving it for 2 years now in May.  104,000 miles and climbing :(

The car in my sig was/is my first car. I got it when I was 16 and actually took care of it. I've had the Thunderbird for 12 years now. It probably helped that it wasn't a piece of junk when I got it. That and I had an 87 Plymouth Voyager that my parents gave me as a "first car" as well. I drove the Voyager when the weather was bad/in the winter in high school. I bought the Thunderbird because a van was not cool to have in high school. The Voyager was, however, good for other high school activities ;).

Yes, It Was An 87 TC.

(http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l280/dragon574444/1984%20Ford%20Thunderbird/100_1162.jpg) (http://s98.photobucket.com/user/dragon574444/media/1984%20Ford%20Thunderbird/100_1162.jpg.html)

My first car was my '84 Elan, 5.0. Paid 300 bucks for it back in 2009, it had sat in a field for around 7 years before I bought it. My dad was able to get it to fire up without any issues, we got it home and I daily drove it for about 3 years. I remember him saying how surprised he was when he opened the hood and saw a 302 staring back at him. He was expecting a V6, and who wouldn't? I fixed what needed to be fixed, replaced the AOD with a T5. Learned everything I know about cars wrenching on it. Love it to death. It's back home, just sitting for now. I'm gonna drive it here next time I take leave after I do a little work on it. I want to redo the exhaust and replace the reverse gear in the transmission.

When my siblings and I turned 16, we had to prove ourselves for a year driving the family spare car.  It was a 1981 Olds 98 Regency 4 door...had a 403 motor and I would smoke the white wall tires for blocks on end while riding in the comfort of plush La-Z-Boy style seats.  After the year with the 98 was up Dad passed down to me my 1st car, the '88 'bird in my sig.  My Aunt bought the bird new in Lake Charles, LA so it avoided salt for the 1st 5-6 years of its life.  Dad then bought it from her and drove it from around '93 until '98-'99.  I've had it for 15 years now and drove it through all the fun involved with HS and college.  I've been doing changes/mods to it since about 2004 and have learned a lot by working on it and the '72 Chevelle.

I love the car and plan to keep it forever!  I have had people make fun of it (Thunderturd, heard a girl say "I'd be embarrassed to drive that", etc) or ask why I keep working on it instead of the Chevelle or my Mustang.  My answer is that there's just something about your 1st car.  I have so many fun and good memories that its almost like that car is part of who I am!  Plus its different from what you see at most car shows and I find it easy to work on and for the most part, cheap to get parts for, etc.

I have noticed in the last few years that I get a lot of people excited to check out the car.  I think these old Foxes are starting to get old enough that folks are getting a little nostalgic about them.

True about the nostalgia. Many people have had these cars in the past, and they always say they wished they hadn't gotten rid of them. Yet none of those people are buying up the ones that do come up for sale.

My car was part of my life from around the age of 6-7 (first grade). Long history. Lots of memories of long car rides, both as a kid and an adult, in the thing with my sister, who is now deceased. I didn't drive it much until college, but it has all been great from that point on. It was maintained reasonably well mechanically (things fixed when broken), so other than emissions related repairs, the car ran well. I suffered in traffic as a kid with A/C not working, so that was one of the things I fixed. The power gain from cold/freezing weather was huge according to my butt-dyno back then - a bit was to be gained by getting out the 10.8:1 or whatever AFR the thing seemed to normally be running at in open loop when I was still stock with some worn out sensors. Lots of good times through the years, and a lot of custom fabrication has made mine one of a kind. It won't be leaving my life anytime soon. It lost daily driver status after 10 years as I grew overly paranoid that someone was going to damage the car/run into me. It has partially become a memorial piece, which has its good moments and its bad moments. The memories make me feel guilty about making modifications to parts of the vehicle (body/interior), but it's something that is badly needed in areas. The interior especially needs fixing/upgrading.

I think the body is up around 250k miles now. Original motor came out at 220k or so and had over an inch of carbon buildup in the lifter valley. Burned about two quarts of oil every 3k miles. It did obviously have some mechanical maintenance neglect, but with all the receipts I had, very little other than typical wear items were replaced. Emissions related things were the biggest expenses until I got hold of the car.

Cat


The only picture of it I have on this computer is this however the wheels were "photo-shopped" using MS paint or the software that came with our scanner we bought in the late 90s (it's been so long I forget what I used).  It's one of those ideas in my head from last century that I hope to execute on my other LS I currently own.  Whether or not that actually happens... who knows.

Edit ** I found some other pictures that aren't "photo-shopped." **

1978 Trans Am. Then a '66 Galaxie 500. Then a 1980 Formula Firebird. Then came the first Fox, a light sage green, zero option 1985 V6 T-Bird.

First car, 1984 4 Door Tempo, was the family car till my Mom got a new 1991 Cougar LS in Aug if 91.  Tempo didn't last long as it started using oil pretty bad.  They found metal in the bottom of the pan and my Dad sold it to the shop doing the work.  We went looking for a car for me, this was Feb of 1992, found a silver 86 Cougar with 46k miles on it at the Ford dealership in El Dorado.  Drove that car for the next 13 years before I gave it to Goodwill (that's another story).  Had over 205k on it.  Got me through all of High School and commuting to Wichita State for 4.5yrs of school.  Drove it to work on bad weather days after I bought my 2000 Mustang GT.

Nope, mine was a 51'Ford F-100. Bought it for $450. Loved it! :-) flat-head V-8 4spd. My dad and I replaced a couple of burnt valves. Man that thing would haul.:evilgrin: Ended up selling it before moving from Tn to Wa state. :mad:

You mean F1, I only know since my first vehicle was a 52 F1 flathead. :hick:

The F100 designation didn't start until 1953.

My first car was a '85 plain jane 3.8 rust bucket I picked up for $150. Drove it a bit over 6 months til the alternator went out which with luck I had picked up an '83 TC that I was just getting ready to drive at the time. Drove that till right before I graduated high school when I bought a '88 Sport. The Sport cause me to loose my license for a bit. Got them back and did a complete HO swap out of a MN12 bird and about a year later discovered the sitting while I didnt have me license had cause cancer to get started. Picked up another 88, but a plain 3.8 car with the intent of swapping all the Sport parts in. Never happened lost interest and got rid of both cars. Fast forward and I end up going back to my Birds!!! Had the red 88TC for about 2 years, found the too good to pass up deal on my rust free blue Tbird decided to sell the red one.

Yes Im a Tbird addict!!! LOL Of all of the previous ones I think I miss the '83 the most, especially after I discovered they have the least amount of cars produced that year. Not to mention thats the car I learned to drive a manual trans in!!!

I took my 'bird to Hot Rod Power Tour a few years ago.  We had to drive in rain all day and at the end of the day we were at a car wash cleaning it up.  I had a crowd gathering around it checking it out while I was drying it off.  One guy had a Terminator Cobra that was a  nice car but all he wanted to do was talk about my 'bird.  Made me feel super good about keeping the car all these years and putting the money into it.

You are correct. Miss that thing.

My first car was a 66 Mustang coupe with a 200 I6. When the 87 T-Birds came out I just fell in love with them. Modern style, with a grill that resembled the late 70's T-Birds.

Did your parents' hair turn grey early?

Check out this sharp 51. 

http://www.truckinweb.com/features/1202tr_1951_ford_f1_forgotten_one/

First 1981 Cougar XR7
Second 1985 Cougar
Current 1988 Cougar

Always been a Cat guy.

ill just say this, my kids first car isn't gonna be a v-8 unless they build/buy it themselves.

It wasn't my first car but my first new car was a black 88 Cougar XR7. It was always my favorite car but I sold it in 97. When I came across the one I have now I had to have it.

There is a guy with either a 87 or 88, his son has a fox notch.  Im wondering if he'd part with the bird?  Its not a 85, but there like hens teeth around here.

I have to say I've never heard that phrase used.

Really?  You do get the reference thou right?

Yes, clever way of putting it. Kind of reminds me of one of my high school teachers phrase when he was asked a yes or no question he'd often say does a chicken have lips?.

Reminds me of the ol' answer in the affirmative - "Does a bear shiznit in the woods?"

Example- "Hey, you want a beer?" - "Does a bear shiznit in the woods?"

I just picked up a 1988 T-Bird 5.0 this weekend.  It will be my project for the foreseeable future, so this is my introductory post to the board.

The first car that I drove was a 1984 T-Bird with a 3.8.  It was originally brown, but I repainted it pearl white before turning 16.  Later, I got an '88 with the same 3.8.  A few years after that, as a Sr in College, I got an '87 mustang LX convertible with a 5.0.

My first was a Taurus.  Good ol 3.8L.  I learned how to change many head gaskets and transaxles with that car.

Probably never heard "finer than frog hair" either...

Indeed, my first car was an '87 Cougar with the 5.0 V8.  I still miss that car.

Not my first car, but was my first T-Bird.
My '83 Heritage.
Bought it in May 1992 with a wounded (but running) 302.

Still have it.

(http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s3/83-88T-BirdGuy/Heritage1992withTCwheels1.jpg) (http://"http://s148.photobucket.com/user/83-88T-BirdGuy/media/Heritage1992withTCwheels1.jpg.html")

(http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s3/83-88T-BirdGuy/83Heritage199202.jpg) (http://"http://s148.photobucket.com/user/83-88T-BirdGuy/media/83Heritage199202.jpg.html")

Not the first time posting this pic, but seems appropriate to this thread:


Me in 87 with the 83 Heritage.......only 17K miles 

(http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg169/my70gt/img003-1.jpg)

My first vehicle was a '74 Jeep J-10. A tank..Then I drove a Jeep CJ7 for awhile.
The first car was an '87 Escort GT which I still have. Then a few assorted Dodge K cars (we've all done some total dumbass things..those Dodges were mine) then an '86 Mustang LX. Then a Burgundy '88 Tbird. '92 F series. Another '88 Tbird, the white one, then another '88, this one a TC. In 2009 I got my '88 Sport. Bought a '97 Mountaineer in 2012. In the last 3 years I've also acquired an '84, '87, '89, and '90 Mustangs, as well as a Kia. The '89 Mustang was a convertible that needed a top and had some pretty good strut tower rust, but oddly enough, none anywhere else. It went to the Sovngarde of cars last week. It's parts will live on with a few upgrades in the '87. The '90 is currently full of the leftover parts as storage until I get a building put up that doesn't leak and isn't falling in.

I dislike hatchbacks and convertibles, but oddly enough, I'd like to have a roadster or droptop '88 Thunderbird. Maybe I'll cut the roof off of my Sport someday, since I hate a moonroof more than I hate a convertible. Hmmm.

First new car-86 XR7